
Ask HN: How to find problems to build a business around? - jiavascriptr
Whats the best, exact eay, to identify a problem that one can build a solution for which people would pay for?
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mvpu
Well, there's a couple of ways. First, and easiest: copy someone's proven
idea. Something you can do, you'd love to to, is proven to make money, and the
margins work for you. Bonus: if you can do it better, cheaper, faster. This is
the safest route.

Second, pick a problem you, your close family members, or your close friends
have. A problem that's painful enough that they'd pay for, interesting (for
you) enough that you can spend a few years solving, and practical enough that
you can do it with the means you have today (i.e no investment). If it's a
"new" idea, it's a lot of risk.

For most people, a small, niche, proven idea that makes money is good enough.
It'll take a few years to try a bunch of experiments and see money, though.
Grind it out...

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kamphey
A fun way to poke around is to search twitter for the phrase "I wish there was
a"

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mlboss
Some more variations

"I wish there was a " app. "I wish there was a " webapp. "I need a app". "I
want a app".

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vforvicente
Got some great ideas already.

[http://imgur.com/dTx9o7q](http://imgur.com/dTx9o7q)

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arkitaip
Get a job, preferably not in tech (but still doing tech), and spend
months/years figuring out what works or doesn't work.

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alinalex
Could you elaborate on this one?

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wingerlang
Seems quite straight forward, to find a problem worth solving - you need
domain knowledge.

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arkitaip
Yup. Business problems only rear their ugly heads after you've immersed
yourself in the daily work AND if you reflect critically on what you're doing.
This usually takes time because when you first start working you usually don't
even know what you know or don't know.

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winkv
subscribe to oppsdaily( [http://oppsdaily.com/](http://oppsdaily.com/) ) and
nugget one ( [https://nugget.one](https://nugget.one) ) also pay them
something so that the good service continues..

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k__
I did that a few weeks ago, but I think the "one email a day" format is really
bad for such a thing, it's just too slow to find something that suites you.

It's probably a bit like dating.

I'm using dating websites since 2002 now, leaving one, joining another, using
about 3-5 simultaneously.

I find like... 4 interesting women a year and only 1 in 2 years finds me
interesting.

And most women I had relations with, I met outside of these portals.

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jv22222
Sign up to nugget paid and you get access to 350+ ideas for $20

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Pica_soO
Take current trends, extrapolate and determinate:

-which business will vanish and how will today's customer migrate

-What are the currently growing company's hiring, and what is amiss to replace this jobs, yet again?

-What is missing in modern life, and how could a app re-engineer social-life and society to provide it? The last one is the most noble, but also the most tricky.

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nefitty
I've been messing with Mechanical Turk a bit, getting a feel for the platform,
as I have some ideas I could use it for. When I was in worker mode yesterday I
saw a task that asked the question that oppsdaily seems to be sending out to
people: "What problem do you face at work that software might be able to fix?"

Pay people for their ideas!

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Mz
There is no one way to do this. Everyone does it differently.

Keep in mind that finding a thing you can monetize does not mean it is a thing
_you_ would be good at or that _you_ would want to work on for years. Yet,
those two pieces are critical to the equation.

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zepolen
Identify your own problems. The reason is you have a much better understanding
of what _you_ and therefore your target user would want. Fixing someone elses
problem requires working very closely with that person.

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mindcrime
I don't think you're going to find an exact, repeatable, cookie-cutter
approach to this, because if there was one, somebody would already be using it
(and they probably wouldn't share). But while there isn't necessarily _an_
answer, there are plenty of answers to be had, some of them trivially obvious.

So break it down... who do you think has problems? Well, businesses for one.
So think about businesses. What do businesses need? Well, they usually need
more customers. Or maybe they need to reduce costs. Or both. So think about
how the technology you're familiar with could be used to help a business find
more customers, or operate more efficiently.

Of course doing this in detail is going to be easier if it's a domain where
you have personal experience, but if you don't, just come up with an idea, and
then go talk to people about it. If you feel really strongly about it, maybe
build a prototype to show off. But be careful of spending tons of time
building something before you know if anybody wants it (note: I haven't always
followed my own advice here. Also, never take advice from me.)

Another element is: read books. Lots of books. Preferably books about business
(sales, marketing, promotion, operations, organization design, strategy, etc.)
This will help give you the understanding needed to link technology with
business problems like "find more customers" or "reduce costs". What you read
in books will always be somewhat non-specific though, so you have to - again -
loop back to "talk to people. Lots of people."

If a particular industry interests you, read up on it specifically. Subscribe
to the trade journals in that industry, and go to the conferences and trade
shows that people in that industry go to. Talk to people there.

Read _The Four Steps To The Epiphany_ by Steve Blank.

Use LinkedIn to find people to connect with and talk to. Favor having actual
conversations with people over doing surveys using SurveyMonkey or the like.

If you do enough of all this, at some point, you'll probably come up with a
pretty good list of possibilities.

Note that while this is pretty _simple_ , it's not _easy_. People won't return
your phone calls or emails, or will agree to meet you and then not show up.
You'll come up with what you think is a great idea, then start looking around
and find that 375235028372512.7 other companies are already doing something in
that space. Or you'll fall in love with one of your ideas too early, spend a
ton of time building it, and then find out that that A. nobody wants it AND B.
375235028372512.9 other companies already built something similar. Etc., etc.,
etc. Don't get discouraged, just keep plugging. Read this essay by pg:
www.paulgraham.com/die.html

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tylercubell
This may be shocking to HN readers but go offline. Crazy idea, right? Join a
business networking group, talk to people, and put yourself out there.

