Stay away from fads, stay away from cutting edge technology, build something that will always be needed and don't take venture capital money in the first 10-15

Stay away from fads, stay away from cutting edge technology, build something that will always be needed and don't take venture capital money in the first 10-15 years or so. Why: Fads fade. Cutting edge tech is expensive and generally unnecessary to solve most problems. Startups focus on tech and not on the things people need all the time, housing, electricity, food, water, consumables etc. VC dollars are short term focused, < 15 years say, to build a long term business you need fundamentals early on and you cannot be focused on the short game. Essentially the key is building something that not only has a need now, but has a fundamental need in the future. Alcohol is interesting as it isn't a need but a desire/want, and it is fairly highly regulated and has been illegal at times all over the world (still today in some places). Both alcohol and nicotine based products are sticky because they have addictive properties, which even though most people aren't an alcoholic they are drawn to the properties of the drink. One could argue currently social media also shares some of those same traits, it isn't needed and could be argued it is damaging in ways, but people are drawn to it.