Here is a repeating story – An entrepreneur gets excited about a new product idea & he presents it to someone. The listener searches the web & says “there are already products like that”, and the idea gets dismissed.
If your idea is a for new mobile app, expect to hear “There is an app for that”.
We know the power of a brand new idea – It is a passport to a green field with no competition, it makes good story lines & gets publicity, it gives room to make some mistakes and still succeed, …
Then, we also know that iPod came after many mp3 players, Amazon after many online book stores, Facebook after MySpace, and the list goes on.
So, how does one decide if the idea is to be dismissed when there are similar products?
I’ll start the answer with a story. Drew Houston, founder of Drop-box, pitched the idea of file sharing across computers to a bunch of investors. The leading objection was “there are many file sharing services out there”.
Drew Houston turned to an investor who dismissed the idea & asked “Do you use any file sharing service?”. The answer was “No”. In the following discussion, he established that prospective users were not yet taken.
That is how you find if the idea is already taken – by checking if the prospective users are already taken.
If prospective users are still available, the idea is still available. If the need is real, all you need is to reach and resonate with those users, in a way earlier entrants could not.
Very good point. Ideas are not a source of sustainable competitive advantage because people can copy them anyway. It’s all about the execution.
This can even be applied to the trend of cloning startups (e.g. Groupon clones, Fab clones, Foursquare clones, etc.). Are you just a clone in a different country or are you actually innovating on an idea and adding your own spin, creating value, and making something better for your particular niche.
I largely agree. However, it is important to point out that the fact that “available users” are not the same as “prospective users”. Dropbox is indeed a success story, but that is only because the execution of the idea was very close to perfect AND the market was ready for Dropbox. It is also possible that the market is not ready for your product, that is, that your users do not see the benefit of using your product. In other words, creating a market is a very tricky and difficult endeavor.
I just talked with the founder of Glancee. He has many competitors including Highlight, Sonar, Banjo, and others to come soon. He is competing by not just knowing the most of the market hasn’t been satisfied yet, but by differentiating on execution (in his case, for instance, he doesn’t share exact location, which might freak out some of his potential users).
When VCs want to invest, they want at least a billion dollar potential. If the market is large, then there will definitely be a number of companies addressing the market. The key is what is your competitive advantage?
Very nice article by the way. I agree with the readers that it is all about execution.
It’s not relevant at all, if an idea is already taken. Just think the iPhone. Was it the first phone? Was it the first touch-screen phone? No and no. Startups are about a team, an idea, and the will to execute. It doesn’t matter, if an idea ‘is already taken’. Many people are anyway way to anxious to talk about their startup ideas. But again, an idea alone won’t help. Others cannot just ‘steal’ it. As you also need a great team, and you need to execute. Luckily there are more and more meetups taking place all over the world where people openly discuss their ideas. Same is happening online in forums or dedicated websites like http://Founder2be.com – and this is important: you need to discuss your ideas. No idea is perfect right from the beginning. Do you want to miss out on potentially valuable feedback? Of course not.
“Ideas are cheap, it’s the execution that matters” (paraphrased) – Paul Graham
I love this piece, a lot. I’m not a ‘techie’ but I enjoy reading related ‘techie’ stuffs that are applicable to me. This piece I must say one of such! Thanks for sharing.
I can’t think of any successful startup which idea didn’t exist before. Google had Yahoo as a predecessor, and Yahoo had a myriad of other search engines.
Youtube’s idea was there for a long time.
In order to fund a successful startup, you will need to have a workable business model – regardless of whether the idea was there or not.
I your interested in the subject, give a try to “The Dip” from Seth Godin.