Demoralized trying to find ideas that stick

Take it as a positive sign - you come up with right ideas. It will take time to find the one that works.

What I learned from Y Combinator is, competition should be ignored. If the idea that you have is already implemented, try to find what problem they are solving. If you can solve it better, then that idea finding stage is actually solved. You must have reasons to stick with the problem that you want to solve instead of ideas. Remember, a startup idea is a problem, solution, and insights(founder advantages, can it make a monopoly, is market growing or are you making a new one, is it cheap to get users, is your product better than your competitors).

It's okay when someone else has already solved the problem that you wanted to solve. As long as your reasons for that problem stick, just go for it. Don't give too much credit for competitors. Remember, Peter Thiel said that competition is for losers. If you have a great way to make a network effect or some patent that make competitors not even start, then you'll actually solve the demoralizing issue.

Dude. Rule number one.

1. It doesn't matter if you're solving the same problem as someone else. In fact, it's usually a good thing.

Why?

• Just because you found a competitor doesn't mean your customers will.
• Even if they do, now they have a choice. They still might choose yours.
• Some of your competitors customers will be unhappy. You can make them happy.
• Unless you're intentionally copying someone else, chances are your solution will be different.
• Having competitors means there's a market for the idea.
• Competitors can co-exist. Look around at the businesses around you and tell me how many of them don't have competitors?
• Consumers rarely flock to a single competitor. Sometimes they even use more than one at the same time.

Your problem is not ideas. It's your mindset. Stop it. Get out of that frame of mind and realise that you can create something awesome even if someone else has already done it.

As soon as you realise this, you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with. Then you can pick an idea based on what you'd enjoy solving rather than trying to find one that hasn't been done before.

Most things have been done before! But maybe you can find a way of improving it or adding value.

Sometimes it's easier to see what's frustrating you about how you currently work or live - and then see if you can solve those problems if something doesn't already exist - or if it does, try and make a more valuable version, or a version with a better user journey and UX

Maybe try finding problems instead? If it is a problem, it probably isn't solved very well right now.

I hear you loud and clear. Seems I'm constantly hitting the same wall. And actually felt pretty low about it, then started thinking actually if I'm feeling like this, then maybe others are too.

And your post strengthens that theory.

So if we feel like this, then maybe there's a hundred others, a thousand, even ten thousand others who also feel like this.

This made me wonder If only there was a platform available that used AI to take the hard work out of idea validation, finding opportunities while we sleep and notifying us immediately when it finds a golden goose, a gap just screaming to be filled.

A combination of scraping, ML and real-time social media monitoring could perhaps accomplish all of the above, looking through reviews (across competing products) and identifying common complaints, spotting trends in social media channels when a new version of a product is released and again common problems are identified...

What is it they say, see if you produce something that solves your own problems?

Take it easy bro. Ideas are cheap. Do not embrace any ideas in you head, execute it!

Admit it, competition is good. Why? It shows there's market potential, a need, and people are willing to pay for it.

Ask yourself, what you did last year. If you're going to build a rawg, can you do a better job?

Stay strong. Maybe next idea :)? @kotojo

You are welcome to use any of these ideas :)

https://albertideation.com/greatideasgoingnowhere

I feel ya!

Video games! The video game industry sucks so much right now. Indie games are some of the best and those indie developers that are successful make so much money! Just an idea.

I find that people are usually better problem solvers than problem finders. My advice is to find a problem that already exists, and that people are already trying to solve. Then bet on your ability to solve it in a unique and better way.

For example, if there is an established player in the space, likely they have a lot of legacy stuff to deal with and it's not easy for them to just go and implement new ideas any day. You can come in and make a contemporary solution to the same problem and disrupt them.

I would recommend watching Jack Dorsey of Twitter giving a talk at Startup School. In there he said something along the lines of:

"Don't listen to what other people say, they don't know what they want, and they don't know what you have to give".

The second part is critical. Find something where you know you can give a lot of value, regardless of whether there is already a player that does it.

Betting on your own skills, problem solving and ability to learn is the best bet you can make any time, and the one you cannot regret making, even if you fail temporarily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEQawgkCMOU