This reminds me of Brian Balfour's "Four Fits" model which is the bedrock for how I think about companies. You need four things: (1) a market, i.e. a set of cu

This reminds me of Brian Balfour's "Four Fits" model which is the bedrock for how I think about companies. You need four things: (1) a market, i.e. a set of customers with a valuable problem; (2) a product that actually solves that problem well; (3) a channel through which you can reach these customers; and (4) a business model to sustain the above efforts. A good business idea attempts to account for all of these, and usually starts by looking at the customers and their problems and working backwards. But most new founders confuse "business idea" with "product idea." They focus entirely on the product, which is only one part of a business. And then after they've finished building, they go out in search of customers with problems, trying to fit their square peg in to round holes. I strongly recommend against that path.