Stages of the Startup Journey - #1: The Idea
We get a lot of questions from entrepreneurs and entrepreneur wannabes about what they can expect if they take the leap to build a startup. To that end, this blog series was born!
Over the next few months we’ll discuss the stages that a typical startup will go through, in roughly the order they typically happen.
HOWEVER… Your startup could be different! There could be factors in your target industry that will change the course of things, or you might be independently wealthy and thus never have a money problem. (We’ve known one of these, and the speed with which his business took off is impressive!)
That said, this series is designed to help you anticipate certain things along the way, prompt you to think about things you may not have considered before, and generally guide you to hopefully make fewer mistakes along the way.
Stage #1: The Idea
You’ve had a brilliant idea… A flash of lighting… Something that now seems so obvious, yet didn’t exist 5 minutes ago. It’s a really GREAT place to start, but it’s just that: a start.
The very next questions you should ask yourself include:
What’s the problem I’m solving?
Who has this problem?
How painful is this problem to those who have it?
What other options already exist for solving this problem?
This stage is the perfect time to get in front of as many people who have the problem you’re solving as you can and ask them about it. Find out how they perceive the problem, if they have any tools they are already using to solve it, and how satisfied they are with those tools. Are they paying to solve their problems now? Is the solution cheap but cumbersome? Or maybe it’s just really expensive. Ask a TON of questions to understand the PROBLEM as well as you can.
Be cautiously optimistic
Our ideas are answers to problems we see in the world around us. But beware the thinking that because YOU perceive a problem as painful, then it must be that way for everyone. Go beyond your immediate circle of friends and family when conducting this type of research. Make 100 new friends who all have the problem you’re trying to solve.
You don’t have to disclose anything about your possible solution right now. The purpose of these conversations is to explore the PROBLEM. We want as much input from other people as possible to answer the following questions:
How painful is this problem?
How many people have it?
Are the majority of those people willing to spend money, change their habits, or both, to solve it?
Stage #1 is sparked by your wonderful idea, but is characterized by your willingness to dig into your idea to find the problem and explore it. Ultimately, all of your market research and your potential ROI will be determined based on the problem, and how you solve it.