I recently heard that one of my high school friends quit his job up north to move back home and launch a start-up. I won’t even bother adding the site link here, because I have nothing good to say about the startup, and I don’t want to be mean:
- Its success hinges upon the favor of a very small niche. A dorky niche.
- The site does not provide a necessary service
- The site does not provide access to necessary products
The very best ideas in the world of technology are those that fulfill a need people were previously unaware of. Just to list a few examples: Google (research anything in seconds), Orbitz (plan trips fast, cut out the middle man), Ebay (online auction), Amazon (online store), Skype (talk on the phone, for free, anywhere o earth), Facebook (a platform with dozens of options used to connect with friends—pictures or chat or messages or pokes or just stalk people without becoming their friends).
People lived without any of these services or products in the 1980s, but probably cannot imagine life without them now that they’ve had a taste of them.
Good Ideas leverage the very best ideas out there, offering a service or product that enhances an already something that already has a high number of users. Take Kayak, for example, which is a search engine of search engines for all travel related sites. Picasa, a free and more simple version of kodak gallery. Take any of the facebook applications. I would even bucket Perezhilton.com into this category, because the site leverages great ideas (youtube videos, song clips, etc) into one easy to access bundle. Good ideas. Not the best ideas because they did not revolutionize anything or create a giant market to make mounds of money off of, but decent ideas that generate profit and are useful to those souls that choose to use that site.
Blah Ideas, like the one my friend is launching, do nothing. They add no value. They attract only a sliver of the population and do little to change their lives. The money being invested into this startup could probably earn a higher return in a 9 month CD at a bank. In other words, there is no economic or social reason why anyone should develop Blah Ideas, yet people do…..
bluntlysaid 