You’re back to work or, for the lucky ones, you have free time. It’s time for the good idea. It’s time to stop working for someone else and become your own boss! “You have the eye of the startupper” ! We all dream of it, but few people really make it happen. The risk of getting started and the lack of time often come back as the main fears of neo-startuppers. The Startuppers Club offers a workshop to create your startup in 3 months… in one hour per day ! And it starts now !
Daily goal: find a maximum of good ideas! “Then, we will sort them,” as Osama Ammar often says. But at first, it is important to let go of his creativity. At the end of this session, you must have not one, but several startup ideas to go with! Take the time to think about it, but set a time deadline, not to lose too much time.
Hereunder are some ways to find good idea, and maybe THE idea then.
Identify a need and respond to it, the best way
Every startupper dreams about it. This is the best way to find customers quickly after launch! You can’t find an existing solution to a problem? Create the solution yourself! The more complex the problem is, the more value it will bring to your customers, and the more your startup will be valued. Many storytelling begin like this: “I had a problem and could not find no solution, so I had the idea to create my startup.” And no need to have the idea of the century, not everyone will create Google or Amazon!
Take the case of Charlotte Cadé, the founder of Selency: “I was looking for a vintage table not too expensive, but I could not find it in the flea markets I went to…”. So, she thought it was probably the case for other young design lover. Following this reflection, she created Selency, a beautiful seller of second hand furnitures online. The website gathers all thedesign items available in France and starts to expand in Northern Europe. And the startup quickly found its audience and raise funds! We could also have mentioned SpaceX for its recyclable rocket service, or Facebook and the creation of social networks, but you probably already know these examples 🙂
Improve a service or product, the Uber case
Since everyone did not necessarily find a good idea with step 1, we propose a second kind of concept : improve an existing product. If you do not have ideas for creating a product or service, you can improve one. And again, the examples of companies that have applied this kind of strategy are numerous! Improving a product means being sure that there is a market and wanting to take a big share of it. A small market study will certainly be of use ! This could give the opportunity to verify some points:
- Does someone share your thoughts on improvements?
- How much would these people be willing to pay for this service improvement?
- ect …
Take the well-known example of Uber. Uber did not invent anything, Travis Kalanick just improved a taxi service that tired everyone. The taxi is not new, taxi dispatch applications are not new either. BUT, stopping to pay tens of euros with incomprehensible surplus and have the opportunity payyour race even without cash, that’s new! And it makes life easier for millions of users today. And do not think that the presence of a giant of the American tech could be a problem. Local competitors have managed to come up against Uber here and there. In China, for example, Didi Chuxing managed to lock the market and defeat Uber China.
Importing an idea and putting it to local taste may be a good idea
Import an idea. This could actually be a good solution too! You can read articles on Startuppers Club , and you’ll be inspired by startup news from around the world. In particular, we regularly publish the list of startups to follow in Israel, Latin America or Africa… This can give good ideas! You can also travel and discover interesting concepts to import.
Everyone knows the story of RedBull. Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur, joined forces with Chaleo Yoovidhya, a Thai entrepreneur and imported the famous drink. Put in the taste of the Westerners with design cans and 2 bulls, the energy drink cardboard. Marketing has helped a lot this imported product to break through. 50% of revenues are dedicated to advertising, RedBull is a real case study. You can know find this magic potion in the parties as in extreme sports events. The taste – a little strange at first – was very well integrated and the marketing adapted to the importing countries, it is a success!
In the next article, we will see how to choose the best idea among those you have found!