Great startups come from problems not ideas

Nowadays there is the misconception that one needs a great, revolutionary, idea to start a startup when what they need is a great problem. But what makes for a great problem? How can I identify a problem worth starting a startup? Startups are not simply new businesses, they are very peculiar businesses that require a lot of focus, time and dedication. Find out what is a startup to learn more on the topic.

What are the characteristics of a great problem to start a startup?

• It's a small problem a lot of people have or it's a big problem that few people have
• People already seek a solution to this problem and they already pay to make this problem go away
• You should know the people who have the problem very well and ideally, you're one of these people
• You should be able to access these people very easily and often to build a feedback loop
• You can build a prototype to solve the most punching part of the problem in a few hours or days
• Happen frequently, ideally daily or weekly rather than monthly or yearly
• You deeply care about this problem or the people who experience it

How can I find such a problem?

• Get good at some technology and be observant of the world around you.

Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, explains it very well in his article How to start Google:

"Once you're good at some technology, when you look at the world you
see dotted outlines around the things that are missing. You start
to be able to see both the things that are missing from the technology
itself, and all the broken things that could be fixed using it."

If you are on the lookout for a great problem as the foundation to build your startup, I recommend you to:

• Spend time learning some technology, if you are not good at one already
• Speak with your friends, listen to what they struggle with at work or in their lives and observe the world around you with the above checklist of characteristics in mind. If a problem:
• doesn't check all or most of the characteristics forget about it
• check all or most of the characteristics note it down

Once you have gathered a list of problems worth exploring further, you should learn how to transform them into problem statements and how to do some basic user research to evaluate if what you gathered are the root problems that punch those who experience them in the guts or if they are simply symptoms. These two are fundamental steps to take to ensure you're building a product or service on solid ground or if you will learn it the hard way, hitting a wall.