A lot of people here try solve problems by starting companies or creating technology. So instead of solving the "problem" of serving more ads like a lot of the best tech people do at Google and Facebook I am happy that the people here care about this very real problem and hopefully some of us will do something about it.
Don't just think about solving problems. Think about making people's lives better. Problems can be created just for the sake of being solved so that companies can profit.
I'm not really sure what your point was.
But you seem to think that doing something better is not solving a problem. Sure it is, just a slightly doesn't problem. Your car analogy... The original problem was a carriage needed house to be pulled, the solution was the combustible engine. The next problem was the engine want fast enough. Then the engine used too much gas. Then the problem was it cost too much. Perhaps working on the 20th iteration of the engine isn't as hard as inventing the engine in the first place, but there are still problems to be solved, and value to be added.
Sure, the winner isn't always better, sometimes they just have better marketers. But most of your original examples the succeeder did something better. Yahoo want a search engine and it was noisy. Google was simple and it find stuff. MySpace had a spam problem. Sometimes the new thing is just easier to use, or looks nicer, or it does one small thing the other doesn't.
It's awesome to realize that lot's of products and services are surrounded by the thought of how can most people, or how can the general public best use it etc. But in reality solving a problem for specific use cases can later on be extended to general purpose products and become a good business.
Lot's of successful companies started of just by someone trying to solve his own, or some colleague/friend/relatives specific problem
Every product started off as solving something people wanted to be solved.
Reddit and Tumblr:- solved the problem of sharing links within communities pseudonymously
Tinder:- scaled hookups
Substack:- enabled writers to monetize their periodical content
Twitter:- enabled people to broadcast extremely concise messages globally
Letterboxed:- enabled people to share their film prefs (not sure if this is a real problem, and I actually had to Google this one)
Start by going around and asking businesses near you what the biggest issues are that they face. Sometimes a solved problem in the US may not be a solved problem in another place. Or sometimes a new business trend will open up doors to disrupt traditional businesses. But it all roots back to the problem - if you're not solving a real problem, you're not going to be successful getting even 1 user/customer.
Real problems like how to get people click more ads and how to create useless cryptocurrencies that lots of great (and arguably not so great) minds seem to be nowadays primarily occupied with?
I don't think you're the only one that's realizing this. I'm seeing more and more posts where people complain that startups aren't solving "real" problems.
Perhaps investors look at FB, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and think that these 4 statistical anomalies are examples to follow, and thus fund companies with similar ideas?
On the other hand, I have a hard time believing that the "real problems" aren't being addressed by anyone.
As you point out there are solutions to the problem publicly promoted.
I have always understood this double think in two ways:
1. The problem needs to make sense to the people who are working on the tech and people who might buy the tech, but it only needs to be and is preferable to be only adjacent to the real value proposition of the tech. This provides opportunities to incrementally capitalize (“businesses don’t make products they make money”) without providing too much value for “too little” money.
2. The “I want x” vs “I need x” is a chasm easily bridged by “this is entertaining to me”. Life is small experiences summed together, providing a blank canvas on which people can extrapolate is engaging but mostly wasted time except for a small number of people who can actually change the direction of the tech. It’s fun for people to dream.
I agree that there is a problem to solve. But I'm not sure if this approach does anything other than shift some advertising money around. Does it really change the equation or the size of the pie? I don't think so. Whether or not it's minimally disruptive depends on how it is used - like all advertising.
It's perfectly OK for a startup to do advertising stuff, but I agree with jrkelly that this is not what the world needs engineers for. It's just a way to make some money and I wish them luck with that.
I think you've done this backwards... problems that need solving tend to come with their own niche - the people who want the solution.
Don't get me wrong, this is an interesting app, but I don't see a demand for it (people are more than happy with Google mostly), and I'm curious exactly how you'd expect to turn a profit with it as well? Adverts and mass adoption?
Solving problems is good, however if you end up helping the right set of users from monetization POV it can unlock new revenue streams. Sent you email, lets connect there.
I constantly am in disagreement with those who say "what problem does this solve?".
Many, if not most, start-ups don't solve real world problems, and I'd argue that those with the most opportunity capitalize on a consumers want vs. need.
We can start at the top, Twitter, Facebook (contrary to what the article says), Skype, Angry Birds, Little Wings, Pintrest, etc. did not solve a problem.
They created something that people wanted.
Basecamp, MailChimp, SalesForce solved problems. You don't have to solve a problem to have a business.
This reminds me of a blog post (that I can't seem to find now) where he complains we've gotten so far away fro solving the hard problems that nobody is really doing it because it's too lucrative to make stupid apps that distract people. I have to agree with him and you. Facebook was a nice diversion but there are honest-to-God problems in this world that I think our industry could make a dent in. We need to get back to solving the hard problems.
As much as I agree that solving (technically) interesting problems is more fulfilling than selling ads using distributed clusters, I think that finding an interesting problem that helps business make money is a non-trivial problem by itself and usually requires a separate person doing it full time. If you have such a person in your team, you are in a great luck
reply