Worthersee wrote:

Jello wrote:

Which is more likely to lead to a successful startup business?

* I have a brilliant idea for an awesome new technology It rocks!.
* I work in the … industry and our biggest challenge is … And I have a simple solution to solve it.

When we ‘relaunched’ Racemi in 2002, we had a terrific technology roadmap and were going to bring Utility Computing to the world. Nobody wanted it. It did not solve any specific need. Only when Racemi re-engineered and then targeted the software at solving specific data center problems did their business take off.

Are you waiting to be an entrepreneur because you don’t have any brilliant ideas? Great ideas can sometimes be a bad thing. They prevent you from focusing on what your customers want. Customers don’t care how wonderful your technology is. They just want to solve a problem.

Find a significant un-met need in a growing, referencable market. And solve that need in a way that is easy for your customers to buy and deploy.

Over the last couple years I average at least 1 idea for a startup per week. I wish it were easier to just sell ideas, because good ideas are not the hard part. I agree that niche ideas can turn into a hit more easily than grandiose ideas. Often the most successful ideas are evolutions of previous ideas as seems to be the case with Racemi. If focus on making something people want you will be successful.

Its definitely all about execution, but a lot of people who are good at building good things build products for an idea that doesn't solve a fundamental pain some customer has.

RE: Big Thinkr » Blog Archive » Focus on a market need