I found this a while back and wanted to share. I found it on Jason Kottke's site, but it was originally posted as a comment on HackerNews.
To generate startup ideas, first pick an industry. Ask someone in that industry what they currently use spreadsheets for. Then, go build a purpose-built solution for that problem.
This works because spreadsheets are a generalized solution used for lots of problems. If you need to capture some data or build some kind of process quickly, a spreadsheet might do the trick although it probably won't do it well. If you can gain an understanding of the problem, you can probably build a much better solution that saves your customers time.
It's a brilliant method because this question is a great way to get at asking, "What's a problem that costs you money?" without asking it outright.
Hope this helps someone build something awesome and make some money! I'd love to hear anyone else's shortcuts to come up with startup ideas.
To generate startup ideas, first pick an industry. Ask someone in that industry what they currently use spreadsheets for. Then, go build a purpose-built solution for that problem.
This works because spreadsheets are a generalized solution used for lots of problems. If you need to capture some data or build some kind of process quickly, a spreadsheet might do the trick although it probably won't do it well. If you can gain an understanding of the problem, you can probably build a much better solution that saves your customers time.
It's a brilliant method because this question is a great way to get at asking, "What's a problem that costs you money?" without asking it outright.
Hope this helps someone build something awesome and make some money! I'd love to hear anyone else's shortcuts to come up with startup ideas.
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