Next Startup Ideas
Cassaundra Marley
To make matters worse: targeting a small market is the only problem that is not fixable for a company. You can replace a CEO, you can alter a product roadmap, you can tweak a marketing message. But it is impossible to fix market size, so do the back-of-the-envelope math upfront and aim big.
One of two things needs to be true about your product: your user either needs to be able to pick it up and start using it immediately with no training, or you ask your user to change their workflow but the benefit is visible in the first sixty seconds.
Hi Waseem, Nice article. Regarding your advice on focusing on hair-on-fire problems- I find this a bit confusing. If you look at most of the recent successes, they don't seem to be solving hair-on-fire problems at least at the beginning. Isn't it true about Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Stripe, Robinhood, etc? These companies provided better alternatives that customers were not even asking for. In other words, their success came from anticipating future problems and addressing them better. Do you agree?
Before we founded Pilot, my cofounders and I thought long and hard about what we wanted to do next. I even created a happiness framework to help me decide where I wanted to spend my time. I also tried to distill down lessons learned from our previous ventures\u2014some the easy way, and some the hard way\u2014and came up with the following advice.
The bigger your market is, the more breathing room you will have. No product in the world captures 100% of the market. Depending on the industry, you might even be ecstatic to have 1% market share. As an example: Salesforce only has 20% market share\u2014and they're an international behemoth that has been at it for 22 years.
Why this matters: if the market size for your business is in the many billions of dollars per year, capturing a few percent of it still yields a very big business. But if your market size is much smaller than that, you\u2019re in trouble.
Fortunately, there\u2019s a cheat code: if you solve one of your own hair-on-fire problems and there are lots of people like you in the world, you\u2019ll be in good shape. (This is actually how the idea for Pilot came about: we wanted to solve a problem we struggled with at our previous companies.)
An example of the first option: You get behind the wheel of an electric car and start driving. It works just like the car you\u2019re already used to\u2014and it\u2019s quieter and you can charge it at home.
An example of the second option: It\u2019s 2010 and you\u2019re upgrading from your BlackBerry to an iPhone (yes, this is a vintage example). You\u2019re losing the keyboard you know and love, but you\u2019re sold on the better web browser and all the apps, so you\u2019re willing to endure the learning curve.
What you cannot do is ask people to change their workflow and not immediately present the payoff. There can be no delayed gratification. People are busy. They don\u2019t want to spend time learning your product or doing things differently unless you show them clearly and quickly why their life will be better if they do.
If you\u2019re solving an important problem for people, they should be willing to pay you for it. The price of your product is also a proxy for how valuable it is. Broadly, if your product is expensive it means that you\u2019re solving a real problem for your users.
Separately, price matters much more than you might think. It affects everything about your business: how you position it, how you can market it, how you can sell it, how you can support it, etc. For example, if your product costs $5/month, you can\u2019t afford to hire someone to pick up the phone and sell it\u2014you have to sell it online in a self-service way, because the economics don\u2019t support any other approach. But if your product is more expensive, you can still sell it online in a self-service way, but you can also employ a sales team, etc.
Your life will be easiest if your product is a better version of something people are already paying for. If you\u2019re entering an existing market, people already know how to think about your product, and there\u2019s already a line-item in their budget for solving the problem. You don\u2019t have to convince people that your problem is worth solving\u2014you simply have to convince them that your solution is better than whatever they\u2019re using today.
If you\u2019re creating a brand new category, you have three challenges: (1) you have to make your customer aware of the problem you\u2019re solving, (2) you need to convince them to spend money to solve it, and (3) they need to convince their boss to give them money to solve it.
In fairness: if you can successfully create a brand new category, you can fully own it\u2014that\u2019s awesome and very value-creating. But it\u2019s also super-hard; it\u2019s much easier if there\u2019s room in the budget for the thing you sell.
Searching for your next idea is a painful and challenging process\u2014and truthfully, it\u2019s one of the parts I\u2019ve least enjoyed about starting a company. There are two things that make it especially painful: (1) it\u2019s exhausting to just think of ideas for 8 hours a day, and (2) for every idea you come up with, it\u2019s easy to come up with tons of reasons why it won\u2019t work. (This is unfortunately true for both your good ideas and bad ideas.)
The best antidote I\u2019ve found is: once you have a promising idea, get out there and pressure-test it with potential customers. The mere act of talking to other people about your idea will feel good, and you\u2019ll learn a lot.
Here\u2019s the thing: No matter how much work you do, your idea will never feel quite perfect\u2014and that\u2019s okay. At some point, you\u2019ll just need to make the call and start building your company. If you\u2019ve followed the advice above, you\u2019ve got a good head start.
A special skill and the desire to teach it to other people is all you need for an online courses startup. Are you fluent in a foreign language? Do you have a background in social media marketing? Are you a talented photographer? If you have a depth of knowledge in a specific field or an impressive skill set, starting an online course is a great way to put your talents to work. Make it your own by developing a curriculum that is unique to you with assignments and objectives that will keep your students engaged.
Are you super enthusiastic about a niche topic that you love talking about to anyone who will listen? Then podcasting might be a good business idea for you! Podcasting is the ideal venture for people who are passionate about a specific topic and want to spend their time sharing information about it. With more and more podcasters popping up every day, the time to plant your flag as an expert in your field of interest is now.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly become intertwined with our reality; starting an AI company can put you at the forefront of this growing industry. With many startups creating AI technology to meet this increasing demand, your idea needs to be unique and effective. To come up with a marketable AI product, consider problems that companies and individuals need solutions for, and you can create the AI company to solve them.
One thing many pet parents share is a love for spoiling their furry friends. Whether your pet product is practical, such as foldable cat carriers, or for pleasure, such as high-end dog treats, there is most likely a market of pet owners looking to buy new and innovative products like yours.
Social media influencing is another business idea with low startup costs. Being a social media influencer means that you are your brand, and why not? You are great! To be a social media influencer, you need to be outgoing, likable, and committed to creating content that is aesthetically pleasing and engaging. Most importantly, you need a niche that will draw in followers, preferably one that is authentic to you and your interests. Since this industry is saturated with aspiring influencers, you will also need to develop strong marketing skills to engage followers and set your brand apart.
With more schools adjusting to online teaching, an edtech startup could give students an easier route to education. Whether it is for K-12 education or college-level students, the time to develop technology to enhance online learning is now.
Make this startup unique and socially responsible by doing your research on the problems schools face today with their eLearning software or equipment, and work to develop a product that smoothes the creases in online teaching.
Become the platform for like-minded people to gather or source information by developing a niche website that is laser-focused to appeal to a targeted audience. To start, research potential niche topics that will generate high site traffic, and find related keywords to drive SEO. Then, develop a unique, well-designed website loaded with focused content to appeal to your target audience.
Every small business should have a website; however, many entrepreneurs are too busy to dedicate themselves to developing an effective website for their business. A web developer can either directly assist customers in developing their website or give them easy access to the tools they need to set up their website in a snap. To make your startup stand out, get creative by designing unique templates, features, and easy-to-use editing tools.
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