

The Fatal Flaw in Most Startup Ideas - cardmagic
http://www.craftsmanfounder.com/the-1-fatal-flaw-in-most-startup-ideas/

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I disagree with the idea presented by this post. Simply looking for problems
that people know they need solutions for is a safe approach, but not necessary
a good one. For example, I know that people need to eat, and it's true that
restaurants are good business ideas--but it doesn't necessarily mean getting
into the restaurant business is a good move for a startup.

There are plenty of scenarios where successful products come out of solving
problems people didn't think they have, until the product was marketed to
them. The iPhone and iPods are very obvious examples. Snapchat, Gmail,
Whatsapp, Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, and the list goes on and on. In hindsight
these products all address problems we now know we have, but before the
products became popular, most people did not actively see these as significant
problems (e.g. I didn't know I had much need for an app that gives me
transportation, before I started using Uber for the first time).

Yes, if you look for problems that have very high demands, that is a safe
approach that would lead to a solid business, but that it could also be the
case that the safe approach would lead to more competition. Most problems that
people need solutions for have already been considered--the more demand there
is, the more attempts there have been to find solutions for these problems.

