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How to Decide What to Build

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Re: How to Decide What to Build

#111

Post by pryelluw »

enz wrote: post #97
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

In this case, who is the middleman selling shovels for food? Uber Eats/Deliveroo/Foodora? I think they are middlemen between a restaurant which makes food, someone who wants to make some cash from his bike, and the client.

No, they sell shovels. Being a food delivery driver makes for some good quick cash in the form of tips (I used to deliver pizzas when I was young).

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#112

Post by animal531 »

vinceguidry wrote: post #102
cornholio wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm exceptionally lazy and always feel the need more machines. I need a machine that washes and flosses my teeth fast and thoroughly, I waste 15-20 minutes each day doing that. I need a robotic dishwasher/cupboard cabinet that I simply open the lid, trow the dirty plates then simply pick them up clean from the adjacent cupboard. Ditto for dry, ironed laundry. I need a food printer with attached smart refrigerator tha…

Between a WaterPik flosser and a Sonicare electric toothbrush, I've knocked my daily dental hygiene time down to like 4 minutes. It would be really hard to improve on that combo.

What about something you just bite onto (a bit like a boxer's mouthguard) that cleans your teeth while you're doing something else?

Then it's down to effectively 15 seconds.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#113

Post by pryelluw »

jessesoo wrote: post #92
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

Depending on how you look at it, I don't think Uber (as of now) is selling shovels, I look at Uber as the middleman between the riders and the drivers, their job primarily in optimally satisfying the ride-hailing market demand.

They sell making money to drivers and saving money to riders. Yes, they get a cut, but their model would collapse the moment that working for them becomes unprofitable (when the rideshare bubble bursts during the next recession that is about to hit).

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#114

Post by pryelluw »

ak39 wrote: post #81
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

This is well articulated. I once had an unnecessarily heated argument with a BIL who didn't see the difference between what I called an "entrepreneur" (what you call a shovel maker) and a "trader" (the middle man). My problem was my nomenclature - they are both entrepreneurs (one builds, they other connects built stuff). You've done what I wanted to do so elegantly! Thank you.

You are welcome and thank you.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#115

Post by pryelluw »

acconrad wrote: post #44
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

Thank you for this thorough and thoughtful response! Lots to soak in here. I agree, I am certainly not Elon Musk, there is no ego here. I'm just saying that the problem spaces I want to help with (environment, health/fitness/healthcare) don't seem like the problems I can effectively tackle because, as I mentioned before, I can't seem to find a way to divide-and-conquer into a smaller idea I can execute on. Do you hav…

Map, filter, and reduce your ideas. Health, fitness, and healthcare all fall into the same bucket. However, the money is in helping companies operate more efficiently. Lots of great opportunities in the area of automation. I would start talking to people who work in healthcare companies about how they process their data. They still rely heavily on copying and pasting from excel spreadsheets. To give you an idea, I just built a system to do such thing at work. Took me a 2 days. It could easily be replicated and sold as a sass or onetime purchase. Plus it is selking shovels because no one likes to process data manually.

Environment wise, I'd say that there is opportunity in the data collection side (this would make you a middleman). Lots of orgs need a way to CRUD localized enviromental data. Look into it.

About dividing and conquering.

Again: map, filter, and reduce. Map your ideas to business models (money making functions). Filter them to remove the ones who don't have a clear path to revenue. Reduce down to the one you can execute. Take your time.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#116

Post by pryelluw »

openfuture wrote: post #104
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

I often use the exact same example you gave to explain this to people (especially the one about the shovels) so I have a third thing you are missing: Fashion Although they can be called scammers and fraudsters when they are tech companies that can't deliver there are other sectors where utility isn't as apparent (literal fashion, art) and then sometimes well established players that are a little bit of each (middleme…

Could you expand some more?

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#117

Post by pryelluw »

jen729w wrote: post #47
acconrad wrote: post #28

One of the points the author makes is that you should track the problems you have, and the ones that reoccur will be good signals to solve them. Does anyone else feel pretty content with what they have? Because this strategy I think Paul Graham has talked about in one of his essays for ideas. And to be honest, I do genuinely feel like I don't have much if anything to complain about, and so I can't really think of sta…

I feel like people - us, here, on this forum - sometimes think too big. Like, we have to invent the new Facebook or it’s not worth it. I think that can cripple our thinking. (Obviously I’m massively generalising. I’m not having a dig at anyone here.) I’ve realised recently that there’s good money to be made solving little problems. Not Zuckerberg money, but who wants that lifestyle. Ramen money. Example: my partner i…

Yes, that is a good approach. Remember that making money is about buying your freedom to survive. You can do so without being a millionaire.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#118

Post by avip »

pryelluw wrote: post #109
growt wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me try: How about a variant of your "selling food to neighbors idea"? Build a platform where people can organize local "cooking clubs" (like meetup.com for cooking). You can find other people in your area who like to cook (sometimes) and everyone in the group makes a meal for the rest of the group, taking turns. That way, if and what is cooked is not your business (no regulation), you're just facilitating the mee…

Your heart is in the right place, but that idea will fall flat when compared to existing social networks.

Vizeat runs on 1.5M ARR. funded in the 5M. Bought EatWith. Good thing they didn’t ask for forum advice just built and iterated.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#119

Post by wolfgke »

To quote from the text:

"Focus on the repeat offenders. The ideas that you keep coming back to. When I think of a new idea, I get deeply infected with it. It takes over my mind. It’s all I can think about. Over time, most of the ideas fade. But a choice few keep on coming back. Pay attention to those. You know you’ve got something good when you’re thinking about it in the shower.

Tell your friends what you’re doing. This accomplishes two goals. First, you’ll refine your idea. Conversation is a very powerful way of sharpening your own thoughts. Second, you’ll find yourself more motivated to finish your project. Another common refrain I hear is “I’m not good at self-motivating myself”. All this means is that you just don’t see the benefit of doing a certain thing. You can hack that feedback loop by committing to others (especially people you respect), who you won’t want to let down.

Make sure you enjoy thinking about it. Your primary edge as a founder will be the number of hours you spent thinking about the specific problem. Over time, you should accumulate more hours than almost anyone on earth. This will only work if it doesn’t feel like a chore. If you genuinely are fascinated by the problem."

The problem is: I love to think (and sometimes solve) deep mathematical questions. I also love to talk about them all the time. The problem is: hardly anybody except me seems to care about them. So it does not seem like a good startup idea, even though it satisfies the critera.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#120

Post by enraged_camel »

mft_ wrote: post #64
TeMPOraL wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm founding Uber for Biotech. No biosafety regulation is going to stop us from CRISPRing our way into better future! Seriously though, I get that archaic rules need to be fought in order to be changed. But there are proper ways to do that, and Uber did it in about the most antisocial way possible aside from murdering people. Please, don't be like Uber. Innovations need a stable society to flourish.

Eh. No defence of the way Kalanick or some of his minions acted in certain situations, but... Uber was entering an incredibly difficult space, given the power and entrenchment of the existing taxi business/lobby, and the generally anti-innovation and protectionist approach of many local politicians. Without their 'hustle' and willingness to take steps which were risky, relatively antisocial, and often illegal (e.g. e…

>>Without their 'hustle' and willingness to take steps which were risky, relatively antisocial, and often illegal (e.g. entering cities illegally first and asking for permission later, organising pretty challenging pressure campaigns against local politicians, authorities, etc.) they'd not have made it past a year, let alone revolutionised an industry.

Are you kidding? If SpaceX was able to break ULA’s monopoly on launching god damn rockets to space and do it in a way that doesn’t break laws and regulations, Uber certainly could have done the same in the taxi industry.

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