How did you come up with your startup idea(s)?

Christopher Nguyen
16 replies
For me: 1. Solving my own problems 4. Pay attention to paradigm shifts 5. Brainstorm with friends

Replies

Julien Zmiro
Intercom
Intercom
Top Product
For us it's a mix of solving our own problems and paradigm shifts. We were basically exploring a bunch of side project ideas with a friend and were trying to validate our assumptions super quickly by talking to potential customers. But that was super hard. Most people didn't reply and when they did, it could take weeks to schedule a call. We considered using surveys to get feedback, but we knew our questions required to really adapt to the user answers to dig deeper. In parallel, we were exploring AI ideas. So at some point my friend connected the AI paradigm shift with our own problem of getting more feedback faster. He came up with the idea of using AI to run user interviews that could be as fast and cheap as surveys, but where the AI could adapt to the user answers to follow up and dig deeper. That's where AskMore.ai came from!
Kirill Sokol
Skinive AI: Skin Scanner, health checkup
Before Skinive AI I was involved in the development of telemedicine platform ('remote medicine') and noted that about 20% of all patients' questions related to skin conditions. Patients had to wait a long time for an answer from the dermatologist. Market research indicates a large shortage of specialists: on average, there are only 35 dermatologists per 1 million inhabitants in the EU, which is clearly insufficient. The number of dermatologists in other parts o the world is quite the same. The rise of artificial intelligence gave the solution, particularly highly accurate artificial intelligence solutions for the processing of medical imaging. Unlike complicated X-rays, MRIs and CT scans of internal organs, taking pictures of the skin is much easier. Skinive has automated the assessments of skin conditions through these developments using artificial intelligence and a smartphone.”
Clara Champion
All of the above + I find travelling allows you to discover new ways to work or loopholes to explore with business ideas Another tip is to create a survey on Amazon mechanical Turk asking people what problem would they pay someone / something to solve
Sachin Jain
While working in my previous company, I terribly needed a solution to a problem my entire team was facing daily. As I could find no such product that could be help, I created one on my own!
Manveer Sandhu
Thinking about what I could be good at. Essentially trying to find "founder market fit". This seems especially true for non-technical founders.
Christopher Nguyen
@manveezus I had a few ventures that failed because we didn't have "founder(s) market fit" and that was a really painful lesson. As an early founder (one that started a few years ago) I'll stick to what I know / good at first. Plenty of time to explore the unknown with financial freedom.
Manveer Sandhu
@semigrownkid Appreciate you sharing! Finished reading The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby and a learning from that book was when founders build companies they don't have a good fit in they possibly risk being pushed out. A sort of example is Cisco.
Luke Skyward
Solving my own problem of trying to learn faster from podcasts!
Maël Harnois
Once you've gone through `all` your problems, it's all about curiosity. 1. Learn new stuff = discover new problems 2. Meet people = learn new stuff = ⤴ If you don't find problems, get other people to tell you theirs so you can solve them 👽
Joanna He
We recently incubated a new product, kyligence zen, based on a use case of our customer using our existing product. I have also seen fellow startup founders create their products starting with solving their own problems. We have also released AI capability of our product which could fall into the pay attention to paradigm shift categories.
Developer X
Solve specific problem, bring value, and sustainability/scaling.
Tatiana Vdovychenko
I've found that a combination of factors often leads to breakthrough ideas. Also, I'd like to add one point to your list. It's a working with an experienced partner firm. In my experience at JetSoftPro (https://jetsoftpro.com/), a software development firm where I work, partnering with startups during their R&D journey, has given them insights into various industries, fostering a dynamic environment where ideas flourish. This collaborative approach often leads to innovative solutions that not only solve problems but drive impactful change.
Anatolii
Savvy Planner
Savvy Planner
I remember spending 15 hours planning a project. I was a Project Manager, and it was my first project ever. Obviously, I didn't want to spend the same amount of time in the future, so I created an algorithm that was doing it for me. After that, I added analytics, neural networks, and many more to create Savvy Planner, which is launching on August 19🙂