Another trigger for tech companies is "curiosity" instead of deliberate "problem-solving". The software or hardware engineer "tinkers" with something simple.

Another trigger for tech companies is "curiosity" instead of deliberate "problem-solving". The software or hardware engineer "tinkers" with something simple. And then, a lightbulb goes off and the "toy" looks like it is well-suited to solving a particular problem. Larry Page wasn't looking to solve a "problem of inefficient advertising expenses." He was satisfying an intellectual curiosity about applying the citations (e.g. Erdos #) in research papers to web pages. (One could argue that you could reformulate "The Problem" to be "retrieve more relevant weblinks than AltaVista" but for my example, I refer instead to the "ad dollars problem" because that's the one that pays Google's bills.) Maybe it depends on the person. One type of person sees a "problem", then he/she deconstructs that into components and try to make a viable business. That's definitely where a lot of B2B businesses get started. Another type of person simply tinkers and experiments and "solves problems" as a side effect.