12 Frameworks for Finding Startup Ideas — Advice for Future Founders

  1. Start with the right mindset

    1. Put more effort in the problem statement than you think

    2. "It's your job as an entrepreneur to convert what's hurting them into a product"

  2. Blue sky brainstorm

    1. 3 questions

      1. What are the big problem areas in the world?

      2. What personal skills, advantages or insights do you have to be able to help solve it?

      3. How can you turn this into a viable business idea?

    2. “A busy market isn’t a negative signal in and of itself. If you do some poking around, you may find that it’s actually quite empty, whether that’s because no one has a great product or there’s lots of players with little differentiation”

    3. Questions to hunt for signals of open space

      1. Size up the competition. Are the competitors any good? Is it a great team than can crank out fast follows? How strong is their brand?

      2. Look for structural disadvantages. Are there unfair distribution mechanisms or other barriers? “Some crowded markets are indeed crowded or not worth it. Selling niche software tools to big pharma is an example, because there is just a small number of customers. Edtech is another area where I think it’s tough to gain traction,” says Gil.

      3. Suss out if there’s room. Is it a winner-take-all or winner-take-most market? Or is it more of an oligopoly structure?

      4. Calculate potential customers. Are customers actually being served well? What's the total penetration versus what it should be? How many people are actually utilizing the product and what is the true potential?

    4. When determining how big a market can get

      1. Too small: small’ can easily turn into a mainstream product. Take Uber for example

      2. Too boring: There are some real opportunities in areas where investors or founders essentially don’t want to think about it or they just don’t understand it. PagerDuty is also one of my favorite examples. A signal for founders might be if you or your friends keep building the same internal tools over and over again.

      3. Too high-end: some ideas can’t scale but you have to zoom out to see the big picture

      4. Too personally unfamiliar: “As a founder, you should go with what you know, even though others may not get it — it'll be less crowded”

    5. Take 2 weeks to build a hands on MVP

      1. For enterprise products ask these 3 questions

        1. How do you currently manage this process?

        2. How big of a pain point is it for you, compared to other pain points you have?

        3. If you could wave a magic wand and have that problem go away, how would that affect your work or your customers?

    6. Be super specific

      1. Here's what we’re here to do, here’s why we'll be the best at doing this very specific thing, and here are the tailwinds that make now the right time to do it

    7. Pressure test start up ideas

      1. Functional needs: Does it address a clear functional need that users have? This is often why they’ll try it.

      2. Emotional needs: Does it address an emotional need that users have? This is often why they’ll tell others about it, unlocking that viral word-of-mouth growth loop that’s so critical.

      3. Billion-plus market: Is it in a large, underserved market? Or in a market that can become large? This impacts everything from your ability to fundraise to who may be interested in acquiring you.

      4. Breakthrough UX: Is there something novel or unique about the user experience? Does it feel a little like magic when you use it? This last one isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s very helpful, and a lot of successful products had it when they launched

    8. Start pitching to get feedback on an idea

      1. Begin with a general space of interest and look for any seed of an idea

      2. Network like crazy in the industry and take introductions extremely seriously

      3. Create a deck and start pitching anyone smart and relevant you can find on the specific idea – and be sure to take meticulous notes and follow up

      4. Tweak the deck between every meeting and hack together a demo and start pitching (pre-sell software that doesn’t exist yet but will)

      5. Find a trusted group of advisors to discuss key learnings from the field and get feedback

      6. Continue to iterate as hard and fast as possible on the feedback you’ve received

Source: https://review.firstround.com/12-frameworks-for-finding-startup-ideas-advice-for-future-founders

Rohan KatyalComment