How to choose a good startup idea and get traction?

Many of us are looking for something cool to work on. To either build a sustainable business or create the next great startup that transforms an industry, how we work, live, or play.

No matter what your goals are, it all starts with an idea. The spark of inspiration that sets you, and others, down a path of discovery, learning, and hopefully financial success.

But how do you come up with an idea that serves your needs and helps you reach your goals?

Where do good ideas come from, and how do you even know if it’s a good idea?

No one article can answer these questions because everyone’s path is unique. But here are a few questions to ask yourself to get the juices flowing. These questions can give you a framework and spark to inspire creativity and get started on building a project that will hopefully change your life and positively impact others.

What problem am I deeply passionate about solving?

You probably won’t just have a pre-existing problem on hand, but might discover one through your own personal frustration. You may wonder why something is so difficult to do, or you may say: wouldn’t it be cool if you could do x,y,z?

Either way something that is close to you that you can muster a high level of motivation to maintain is important at this step. It must burn because you feel it some personally.

Who is willing to pay for this?

You should be able to succinctly describe the person who would want and pay for whatever you’re working on and have a good reason why.

Who do I want to serve?

This is actually important for me because I've been in a few businesses where I literally can't stand my customers. A business is about delivering a valuable product or service and you should genuinely enjoy delighting your customers. You're in service to them and you should deeply enjoy that service or you will end up losing steam, making mediocre products/services and your business will eventually suffer.

How big can this be?

We all have financial and lifestyle goals, so I try to choose something that will fulfill my desire to live a certain way. This is different for everyone, and bigger is not always better.

These are the questions run through when thinking of new projects. I have a running list of ideas that pop into my head that I write down in a notebook and let sit with me for a while.

I find if you take this approach you end up having way more ideas than one could possibly build in a lifetime hahaha.

Where ideas come from

Your life experiences, interests, pursuits, and the things you gravitate towards on a daily basis. The key to finding those nuggets of gold is to be completely self-aware of your challenges in completing something you do as a part of your life. Generally, if you desire to get a specific job or task done, other people will probably have similar issues. Don’t worry about how trivial it may seem to you. The human experience is such that there are probably other people facing a similar frustration. It then just becomes an issue of the intensity and size of that group.

The idea box

Keep a list of ideas. It doesn’t have to be in a fancy SaaS application. I keep all mine in either google docs or a Slack channel called “idea-box”. Often, the problem and the necessary passion don’t seem apparent, but you can tell deep down there is something to the idea - it just may need a little more time to marinate. Leave it and come back to it. Sometimes, it comes up in another moment in life, and then you can add another notch to the quality of the idea. Over time the idea will come to mind, and it will expand over time. As does the passion and resolve to solve the issue.

Domains and naming

This is one of the most fun parts of a startup for most founders. It can turn into an obsession sometimes, but it’s necessary because most good names and .com domains are taken, so you should also keep a running list or even purchase domains when you come up with a good name. Like the idea box, I have a running list of cool names and an ever-growing list of purchased domain names I have parked for when the right project comes along. This may seem like putting the horse before the cart, but I can say that it’s a helpful practice in helping you generate startup ideas and getting you going once you; ’ve solidified what you’re going to work on.

The real problem you’re solving - 5 whys, and the root causes

At some point, the problem will become clear enough for you to take the next step in developing the idea into something tangible. At this time, you should take a deep dive into the real problem you’re trying to solve.

I like to combine 2 well-known problem-solving frameworks into one as a starting point. The 5 whys and the root cause analysis.

Ask why X is difficult, hard to do, or a problem. Then list 5 answers to each why. For every why, your goal is to get to the essence of why this is a challenge or problem and then attack that root cause first.

Startup assumptions - the heat check and MVP

After your problem-solving exercise, create a list of value propositions that solve the root causes of the issues. Being a good copywriter here helps, but understand that part of doing a startup is learning a variety of new skills that all fuse into a crescendo of relationships that creates value—hopefully.

These propositions are merely assumptions that you want to test organized into an offering for a specific person that solves their problem.

Knowing how to build a landing page is one of those skills. It’s essential to master this to move to the next steps in validating your idea. Many tools can help you do this, but the best tools are the simplest and the ones that allow you to move as fast as possible.

An MVP, at this stage, is a landing page and a form. I prefer Typeform, but any form tool that allows you to accept a short questionnaire and contact information is enough for you to move to the next customer validation stage.

Willingness to pay and how to charge

The price for solving these problems comes at a cost, but more aptly, it comes at a value that you need to determine based on the potential customer and their willingness to pay. If the problem is “Cool” but not intense, there will be a low willingness to pay because the problem is not critical enough for someone to overcome for a specific price. Free is not an acceptable price.

Benchmarking your price against your competitors, or if you have something totally unique, what are the substitutes that people are using and how much does that cost, are things you should know. The idea is you should provide value, so this means that whatever you’re charging, the perceived value of the solution should be much more than you’re asking in return.

You generally want to know:

• At what price would this solution be perceived as too cheap?
• At what price would this solution be too expensive?
• At what price would this solution be expensive, but the user would pay?

You can do this in your ‘survey’ form by providing a few options to the prospect.

One price should be your actual guess of what they will pay, one price should be almost ridiculously expensive, and one should be cheap but not free. Add in a freeform field so that they might actually put in a price so you can see any outliers.

Getting traffic

You're just trying to validate ideas at this stage, so pushing your landing page out to social media and any forums is an excellent way to start. Friends and colleagues can be helpful, but there is a bit of bias, so try to be selective on those that give you feedback on your propositions.

This should give your first indicators on whether or not your ideas are worth pursuing. Are people spending time on your site? Do they complete the forms, what are their answers, and what are the trends, if any?

Talking to customers, building momentum, and maintaining motivation

Go through your high-quality responses and reach out to all the people you believe will give you the most valuable insights about your offering. Talk to them. Ask them questions about what they are currently using for the specific problem they are trying to solve and how much time, effort, and money they are spending on this current substitute.

Keep an ear open for any insights they may offer without even realising it. Not everyone is a tech expert, and they may be giving you a glimpse into their world that can be invaluable as an addition to your product.

I personally feel that a community approach is best for this stage. You may not be ready to release a full product, and that customer may not trust you enough at this stage, but they still may be intrigued by how you might solve their problem. Tools like Slack, Discord, and Circle can be great ways to create a community around your customer and around your product. This way, you both can have direct access to each other, build in public, and test out ideas with your earliest believers.

The closed beta and your first customers

After you’ve collected basic and raw information from your landing page, talked to some potential customers, and built a small community, you can start to create the most valuable and easiest to make solution for these people. Allow them to test it and give you feedback so you can improve the product and build a relationship with your customer base.

At this point, you have a lot of options. I’m assuming you have a basic landing page, some customer information, a small community and hopefully a raw product getting tested by some of your early supporters. Some of you may be limited in skills, and that’s ok. You have options. There are plenty of powerful no code tools on the market that can help solo and non-technical founders get amazing products out. See this post I wrote on choosing a no code tool .

Co founder or go it alone?

You might want a partner that complements your skills, perhaps one that can handle the product or another area that will allow you to focus on what you may be better suited for. The good thing is that you have some insights from a bit of history, and you have something you can speak about in-depth, beyond pie in the sky ideas that are too theoretical to get anyone excited.

It’s a lot easier to convince or influence people to help you when they’ve seen that you have something tangible, a few early prospects, and a clear understanding of what problem you’re trying to solve. You can invite them to your community or show them responses to your product so they can feel confident you have sound processes and are committed to building something of value.

This is not an exhaustive list. I’m open to any questions you may have to fill in the gaps, whether tools or processes. Please follow me on twitter. I’m always happy to answer any questions you may have on how to start a startup or launch your idea as an indie hacker.