how to generate business ideas

How to Generate Business IdeasMike Fishbein, https://stpcollege.com/

About Me

Founder of Startup CollegeAuthor of Customer Development for EntrepreneursFeatured in Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, and more Previously venture studio and corporate innovation

Job of an Entrepreneur

Serve customers by solving a problem or delivering value

In a free market, entrepreneurs who don’t serve customers fail

To execute, an entrepreneur must identify customer demands and how to meet them

Problems and Inefficient Processes

“The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for

problems…” - Paul Graham

How to Identify Demand

1. Scratch Your Own Itch

2. Interview Customers

3. Meet Known Needs

4. Do What’s Working

1. Scratch Your Own Itch

“Why is it so important to work on a problem you have? Among other things, it ensures the problem really exists. It sounds obvious to say you should only work on problems that exist. And yet by far the most common mistake startups make is to

solve problems no one has.” – Paul Graham, Y-Combinator

How to Scratch Your Own Itch

What unmet needs do you have?

What challenges do you face throughout the day?

What product do you wish you had?

Make sure you’re not the only one...

2. Customer Development Interviews

a. Pick a customer segmentBased on your relationships, access, propensity to buy, passion

b. Ask them what their problems are What’s the hardest part of your day?What unmet needs do you have?

3. Meet Known Needs

“Great companies do 1+ of 3 things:Get you laid, get you paid, get you made” -

Dave McClure, 500 Startups

Examples

Paid = Salesforce, banks, AirbnbMade = Twitter, collegeLaid = Cars, Clothes, TinderTransportation = UberSurviving = Food Save Time = BufferEntertainment = Movies

4. Do What’s Working

“At a time when so many internet entrepreneurs are running around Silicon Valley trying to do

something no one else has ever done, [Evan] Williams believes that the real trick is to find

something that's tried and true” - Twitter co-founder via Wired

4 Second Mover Advantages

Validated customer demand

Customer acquisition strategy

Increased awareness

Observe product management and marketing

Examples of Second Movers

Facebook

Simple

5 Hour Energy

Ecommerce

Social media consultants

How to Test Business Ideas“I have an idea...now what?”

3 Key Questions

Is there demand for this?

Would supplying this lead to $$?

Am I suited to supply this?

Does anyone want this?

Customer development interviews to test hypotheses

Pre-sales to validate demand

Minimum viable product to get fast feedback

How can I make money?

Is this a big enough problem that people will pay you?

Is the market big enough to meet your goals?

How strong is the competition?

Am I qualified?

Do you have a competitive advantage?Do you have the skillsets required? (marketing, sales, management, etc.) Do you have the relationships (customers, partners, etc.)Do you have the capital or access to capital? Are you passionate enough to run this business for years?

Key Takeaways

Solve problems, deliver value

Gain customer insights to identify demands

Practice customer development to minimize the risk of spending a bunch of time and money on something no one wants

To learn more...

https://stpcollege.com/

...check out Startup College