Why? Why would I start a business where there is no market? We've gone over this. It's not a technical and/or solution issue. It's that the gate keepers - the ones who would but the product - don't want something that's good for consumers but bad for them.
> “I think the issue is just that truly solving an important problem for lots of people is so absurdly hard that very very few entrepreneurs can manage to achieve it“
But many businesses don’t try to make products for lots of people, just for very small, focused sets of customers.
> “People might love that your company is financially transparent and socially responsible, but that won’t get them to use your product. So thinking much about these things before you start seeing product-market fit feels like putting the cart before the horse.”
But what if your goal is not to find product-market fit unless it also satisfies other constraints like sustainability or financially ethical behavior? What if, in the absence of those, your preference is to go out of business and shut down?
> You are talking about markets that already exist
No I'm not. Suppose I told you my business idea was this: build a time machine. There's no time machine market right now. But do you think if I built one, people would be interested in it? Answer: hell to the yes. There is zero market risk in this idea.
The problem, of course, is that I have no feasible way of building a time machine. But thinking along these dimensions is better for entrepreneurs/VCs/the world. It forces you to work on things that actually matter/will move the needle. When they work, the VCs will appreciate it quite a bit and the world will appreciate it quite a bit. You also get to transfer your time from working on marketing problems/science experiments to working on engineering problems/real science experiments. I think this is probably a more fulfilling way to live as an entrepreneur than otherwise.
>But it has to be the right market, too. Selling to consumers is a non-starter. You need to sell to people who have money.
What about small businesses? Is that a pipe dream, or do you think it's possible to get them to actually spend money on service and support? (I'm asking because I have a business idea for software which would only appeal to SMBs, generally smaller ones I think.)
> As far as the idea, go for something as boring as possible. Preferably something that someone else is already paying money for but that the incumbent product is shitty or lacking in some major way. Fix it or make it signficantly cheaper. Business is just a wrapper around value.
> In my life, I have tried to start a business or frequently had the urge to start one. But, retrospectively, when I look at them, I see many reasons why I shouldn't have done it.
What were the reasons (that you see), why you should not have started those businesses?
> resources and goods are so cheap that there's no point in selling them anymore
That's a good point. Adjacent, but related, I was thinking about starting a company to develop, make and sell educational tools to school. Think micro:bit-like boards, robot kits, water rocket kits, stuff to do experiments, along with the content for the teacher. I didn't do it for a lot of reasons, but one issue I constantly ran into was that market_size * price * profit_span was always just small. Not worth it.
> the typical business can use something off-the-shelf
I think we generally have this problem. It's not the typical business that can use that stuff, it's the average business. Unfortunately no business is the average business.
> I can't help but wonder if the world really needs another Canva or Airtable or whatever
it probably doesn't and a business venture is a means to an end. I always thought the idea of 'doing startups' is kind of silly. Business as a recreational lifestyle produces mediocre entrepreneurship and probably stuff nobody needs.
there's nothing wrong with getting a job somewhere and working on something interesting that needs fixing, there's enough of it to go around.
> This just sounds so wrong to me. If you have a good product and it brings value, then others should be able to value it by paying you back for your product or services. Period.
I completely understand this philosophy, but an attempt at building a two-sided market place is very likely going to require outside investors. This opinion that you need to be profitable from day one has been proven wrong repeatedly and while some 'unicorns' will fail or become less than worth $1bn, their achievements are still very real.
It is 100% OK to want to build a business, but entrepreneurs should be flexible enough to understand when it is appropriate to raise money, or make a product that does not generate profit up front.
For the record, I also attempted to create a two-sided market and I also failed. It was super painful and I hope you move on quickly with some really solid lessons learned.
> I think it's better (if less lucrative on average) to start your own business that takes a small chunk of business away from the giants, that you have ethical control over.
Ok, what's your business? I'll gladly check it out! I'm open-minded, love new ideas, and admire integrity and good founding principles!
Only 30 years. You? Not mean to be as snarky, but this US all or nothing stuff is getting on my nerves just a bit. I came from a simple background, but in a country with free education, so I got a degree in uni, opened a company in high school, all without too much risk. Didn’t need to work myself to death, didn’t have much stress, didn’t need VCs and make more than most here who seem to be dying of stress, lack of proper healthcare, free education etc etc. My clients like I have no funding and that I have enough money yet want to keep working as I like it.
> There are some time periods (now, dot-com bust, or the late 80s & early 90s) where there are basically no viable B2C ideas available.
What leads you to believe that? I know plenty of people with healthy B2C businesses started recently. Heck, my business is B2C and while niche, it's viable for me.
Why? Why would I start a business where there is no market? We've gone over this. It's not a technical and/or solution issue. It's that the gate keepers - the ones who would but the product - don't want something that's good for consumers but bad for them.
I can't explain it aby other way.
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