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Yes, of course if you have domain expertise and there is a need you can recognize a niche to fill with a company. I think getting domain expertise is easier sai

Yes, of course if you have domain expertise and there is a need you can recognize a niche to fill with a company. I think getting domain expertise is easier said than done and could probably require quitting one's day job to go work in industry X for 5 years. Possibly just to find out that filling a niche is hard.

7Figures2Commas 13y ago
1. I didn't suggest that domain expertise is easy to develop. Nobody gains expertise overnight. That's the point. 2. You don't have to quit your day job to develop domain expertise. Be strategic and try to make sure your day jobs are related to a specific industry. Far too many people hop from random startup to random startup. That's not surprising: the pay can be excellent, you get to work with the latest and greatest technologies, and you get a lottery ticket in the form of equity. But many of these jobs won't provide enough exposure to a vertical to actually gain meaningful knowledge of it. 3. If you get involved in an industry, you should take the time to establish relationships, especially with folks who are non-technical. If you nurture those relationships and keep your eyes open, you will often meet highly-knowledgeable, well-connected non-technical individuals who make for perfect non-technical co-founders. These are not the "non-technical co-founder seeking technical co-founder" wantrapreneurs with no domain expertise of their own who you run into all the time in Silicon Valley. 4. If you're not prepared to invest the time in understanding a specific market, that's fine. Be the best engineer you can be, try to maximize your income and consider whether it's worth continually beating your head against a brick wall to find an "idea" so that you can create a "startup."
- abrichr 13y ago
  Great points. Any suggestions as to verticals which are particularly under served by software?
  - 7Figures2Commas 13y ago
    Let me put it this way: in all of the industries I've been exposed to, I've never encountered one that had a) no pain points or b) companies entirely happy with their current vendors. Note that you don't necessarily need to find a market that's underserved. Plenty of markets are served, but not well. Sometimes, doing something marginally better and/or doing it for less than the entrenched competition is all you need to create opportunity. The size of that opportunity will vary of course. A lot of wantrapreneurs look at huge markets and think in terms of 8, 9 and 10 figures, but if you're more realistic (i.e. you'd be happy with a six or seven-figure annual top line with healthy margins), I would suggest that opportunity is abundant. The easiest way to find that opportunity? If you meet people in unsexy markets, talk to them. Most wantrapreneurs won't give these folks the time of day.
Spearchucker 13y ago
Not that difficult. Instead of starting a start-up when you come out of school, go work in a few IT departments. You will find something that is needed somewhere.
dreamfactory 13y ago
Write articles and go and interview people as a journalist/researcher. You can do that in your spare time and you will get good access to decision makers and find out all about industry perspectives and pain points.

7Figures2Commas 13y ago

1. I didn't suggest that domain expertise is easy to develop. Nobody gains expertise overnight. That's the point. 2. You don't have to quit your day job to develop domain expertise. Be strategic and try to make sure your day jobs are related to a specific industry. Far too many people hop from random startup to random startup. That's not surprising: the pay can be excellent, you get to work with the latest and greatest technologies, and you get a lottery ticket in the form of equity. But many of these jobs won't provide enough exposure to a vertical to actually gain meaningful knowledge of it. 3. If you get involved in an industry, you should take the time to establish relationships, especially with folks who are non-technical. If you nurture those relationships and keep your eyes open, you will often meet highly-knowledgeable, well-connected non-technical individuals who make for perfect non-technical co-founders. These are not the "non-technical co-founder seeking technical co-founder" wantrapreneurs with no domain expertise of their own who you run into all the time in Silicon Valley. 4. If you're not prepared to invest the time in understanding a specific market, that's fine. Be the best engineer you can be, try to maximize your income and consider whether it's worth continually beating your head against a brick wall to find an "idea" so that you can create a "startup."

abrichr 13y ago
Great points. Any suggestions as to verticals which are particularly under served by software?
- 7Figures2Commas 13y ago
  Let me put it this way: in all of the industries I've been exposed to, I've never encountered one that had a) no pain points or b) companies entirely happy with their current vendors. Note that you don't necessarily need to find a market that's underserved. Plenty of markets are served, but not well. Sometimes, doing something marginally better and/or doing it for less than the entrenched competition is all you need to create opportunity. The size of that opportunity will vary of course. A lot of wantrapreneurs look at huge markets and think in terms of 8, 9 and 10 figures, but if you're more realistic (i.e. you'd be happy with a six or seven-figure annual top line with healthy margins), I would suggest that opportunity is abundant. The easiest way to find that opportunity? If you meet people in unsexy markets, talk to them. Most wantrapreneurs won't give these folks the time of day.

Spearchucker 13y ago

Not that difficult. Instead of starting a start-up when you come out of school, go work in a few IT departments. You will find something that is needed somewhere.

dreamfactory 13y ago

Write articles and go and interview people as a journalist/researcher. You can do that in your spare time and you will get good access to decision makers and find out all about industry perspectives and pain points.