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The answer to this is always yes. Unless it takes months to build an MVP. By building one you'll gain a lot of insights 99% of the population don't have, so it

The answer to this is always yes. Unless it takes months to build an MVP. By building one you'll gain a lot of insights 99% of the population don't have, so it's a win win situation. Don't ask for permission

Alex3917 10y ago
I don't agree. Spend a week coming up with 100 other ideas first, and then get feedback on the most promising ones. Then do the best one. It might still fail, and if it does you'll still learn a lot, but you won't be wasting months or years when you could have chosen something more promising from the beginning. (And that's not a criticism of this specific business idea.)
- siquick 10y ago
  Alternatively, solve your own problems first and you'll make your own life better and potentially others (i.e. your users) too.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    I never liked this approach. I am a dev. If all I did was solve my own problems all I would write is developer tools. Which is about the worst market to sell in. Many problems out there that aren't my own.
    - scawf 10y ago
      You are also a human. You may be a father, a driver, a shopper, ... Most widely spread projects are not about jobs.
      - brianwawok 10y ago
        Sure, but think about b2b. An example problem is software for a port-a-potty business. I doubt many people that run a port-a-potty business are as good of software developers as I am. If everyone just scratches their own itch, who would write software for port-a-potty businesses? Do they just not get software? Maybe a little bit of a stupid example, but there are many unsexy b2b software opportunities out there. There is no need for it to be an itch for someone to come in and make a lot of money making their life better. If you can scratch your own itch and make something awesome, great! If not, it doesn't really matter as long as you scratch someone's itch. In my opinion - The top reason to pick a product is where can you provide the most value. If you can solve your own problem of unorganized MP3 files but there is no value (i.e. no one will pay you $20 for it) - then don't do it. If you can solve something unsexy (i.e. save a port-a-potty company $2,000 a month), you can very likely make real money on it.
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  I agree about coming up with 100 ideas first and picking one from them, but disagree with how you should get feedback from others on whether you should start or not. You really don't know if your idea is "promising" or not until you actually start executing. A lot of startups started with mediocre ideas or even a good idea with small ambition but ended up realizing there's something big in there. Uber didn't start out thinking "Yeah we're totally going to disrupt how humans move around". They started out as a limo service. When Snapchat first launched nobody cared. Pinterest was in hungry mode for a quite a while before it found its audience. But only because it was so hard when they succeeded it meant a lot. If you keep asking others for "promising" ideas, you'll probably end up with the most obvious idea. You should work on something that excites you the most.

Alex3917 10y ago

I don't agree. Spend a week coming up with 100 other ideas first, and then get feedback on the most promising ones. Then do the best one. It might still fail, and if it does you'll still learn a lot, but you won't be wasting months or years when you could have chosen something more promising from the beginning. (And that's not a criticism of this specific business idea.)

siquick 10y ago
Alternatively, solve your own problems first and you'll make your own life better and potentially others (i.e. your users) too.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  I never liked this approach. I am a dev. If all I did was solve my own problems all I would write is developer tools. Which is about the worst market to sell in. Many problems out there that aren't my own.
  - scawf 10y ago
    You are also a human. You may be a father, a driver, a shopper, ... Most widely spread projects are not about jobs.
    - brianwawok 10y ago
      Sure, but think about b2b. An example problem is software for a port-a-potty business. I doubt many people that run a port-a-potty business are as good of software developers as I am. If everyone just scratches their own itch, who would write software for port-a-potty businesses? Do they just not get software? Maybe a little bit of a stupid example, but there are many unsexy b2b software opportunities out there. There is no need for it to be an itch for someone to come in and make a lot of money making their life better. If you can scratch your own itch and make something awesome, great! If not, it doesn't really matter as long as you scratch someone's itch. In my opinion - The top reason to pick a product is where can you provide the most value. If you can solve your own problem of unorganized MP3 files but there is no value (i.e. no one will pay you $20 for it) - then don't do it. If you can solve something unsexy (i.e. save a port-a-potty company $2,000 a month), you can very likely make real money on it.
cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
I agree about coming up with 100 ideas first and picking one from them, but disagree with how you should get feedback from others on whether you should start or not. You really don't know if your idea is "promising" or not until you actually start executing. A lot of startups started with mediocre ideas or even a good idea with small ambition but ended up realizing there's something big in there. Uber didn't start out thinking "Yeah we're totally going to disrupt how humans move around". They started out as a limo service. When Snapchat first launched nobody cared. Pinterest was in hungry mode for a quite a while before it found its audience. But only because it was so hard when they succeeded it meant a lot. If you keep asking others for "promising" ideas, you'll probably end up with the most obvious idea. You should work on something that excites you the most.