Business ideas don't have to come from seeking out a problem to solve, and they don't have to start out in a niche market.

You can build a business around anything that people are willing to pay you for, as long as you do that, in my opinion how you come up with the idea doesn't matter.

You can find a problem people have and then solve it by building something. Or building something (for whatever reason) and find the people that might find it useful.

It seems like the common advice nowadays is that you should find a problem first, and that is because it just makes success more likely since you're sure there are people with the problem and most of the time people are willing to pay to have their problem solved.

But there's no reason why you couldn't build something really amazing and try to build a business around it, it just seems like it'd probably take more time and resources to do so, with a higher chance of failure.

The project that I am working on at the moment came from building something for myself and now I am trying to market it to other people, I do it this way because I find it more effortless to work on something I am the target audience for, which means I'll be more motivated and increase chances of success :)

Business ideas don’t have to address painful problems. They can also fulfill desires. People want to be entertained, they want status (luxury goods), etc.

But, it’s generally easier to sell the solution to a pain. People will pretty much do anything to remove pain. So… the advice is usually to find problems and offer solutions. Especially in the B2B world that indie hackers / bootstrappers tend to operate in.

You also don’t need to go through a process of finding a niche, talking to them and finding their problems and then figuring out a solution. A simple alternative, is pick something that already works and make it better.

The Hustle, the skimm and Rocanews are all examples of that - people have wanted news since the dawn of time. The founders found a better way to deliver it. They changed the format and voice so that it resonated with their target market (which for the hustle and the skimm, the founders were the target market - they made the product they wanted to see).

The concept of generating business ideas has always felt a bit strange to me. Like - why go out looking for / generating problems to solve when you must already face so many pain points in your day to day life / work anyway?

This is another very lukewarm take but I think it's true; so many of the best indiehackers' stories are people "scratching their own itch". Building something to solve a problem they have -- because others must surely have it too...

Cool thread, thanks for starting 👍

One thing I have learned about business ideas is the idea of "giving water to fish". Every business always has its target market at the onset. You just have to figure it out. You can have an Instagram account and post memes as much as you like, yet you won't get the right following because you are posting for the wrong audience. So yeah, it is proper to bring a solution to the problem of a specific audience, no matter how specific or general the problem is.

I think James Clear has the best quote on the conflict between ideas and execution:

“If you're not working hard, ideas don’t matter. The best idea is worthless without execution.

If you're already working hard, ideas are crucial. Most effort is wasted on mediocre ideas.”

Execution is critical to business success, but it's much, much easier if you start with a good idea.

Good point and I agree. But I think the common sentiment is that it is easier to build product around customer problems. You'd need much less luck and lower quality is better tolerated.

Businesses are ALWAYS going to start with a niche - or rather, a target market and a customer persona (or two at the most - to start with).

It's impossible to be broad right at the start, with maybe the exception of making candles for a living or creating a certain payments API!

Why? Because all the examples that you've used are niches.

The Hustle wouldn't appeal to people who aren't looking to be entrepreneurs, for example, or who aren't interested in business and tech - there are millions of people who really aren't.

Kids toys are targeted at...kids! That's a niche!

Interiors or homeware products are aimed at niches, it's just not immediately obvious. Especially furniture. Think about it - is a homeowner more likely to buy a three-piece couch set than someone who rents? The homeowner is the niche, the price is adjusted accordingly.

Great points @tbonejonez.
Value is value at the end of the day. You could frame entertaining people as solving the problem of being bored, but I don't think that is necessary. Execute well and provide value! Keep it simple.

I am not an expert, but I found something for you. I browsed a query about how to build a website like angie's list and found a great article to read. So if I were you, I would rather take some time and read it too. Just to see that you are sure about where to start and how to move on. Haste is always time waste.

Although it seems like it would probably take more time and resources to do so, with a higher chance of failure, there's no reason you couldn't create something amazing and try to build a business around it.

I am working on something https://tothefinance.com/ I am the target audience for, this project. It started as something I made for myself, and now I am trying to market it to other people. This is because I am more likely to be motivated and have a higher chance of success if I am focusing on something I am the target audience for.

I agree. There are so many products out of there, that were just the copy of other products but improved somehow.

Maybe what I am going to say now is not so pertinent to this discussion, but in some way is still related, I believe. The whole point of this argument, it makes me think about the words that Steve Jobs once mentioned in one of his interviews: 'Good artists copy, great artists steal'. Take the example of the first iPhone. Apple didn't invent the touchscreen, or solved a problem, they've just improved it.

Improving experiences > solving problems.

Cars solves a problem, but no one enjoys a base model car. We need mercedes for comfort, volvo for security, tesla for auto pilot or save the planet via consuming electricity. Not because we don't want to go a from b bare foot.

We had mIRC, which solved a problem of online communication with public chat rooms.
ICQ came with "offline" messaging, MSN offered video chat and buzzing. Then facebook messenger, then whatsapp, finally signal for more privacy.

IDK any of the brands you've listed but we humans have herd mentality. Few people thought those were good and the rest potentially agreed and it snowballed. If we don't have an opinion on a topic, we tend to agree with who we love or admire. I bet there are better newsletters or funnier meme accounts out there with a fraction of the followers. But as long as your co-workers talking about the hustle on the breaks. You have no other choice to join in.

I think you can extend that to "already solved problems" like project management software. There's a new pm tool every day and you could argue they all do pretty much the same thing. Yet there's a lot of them doing successful business with their software.

I have been writing this newsletter that is very general, sometimes it's about technologies, sometimes markets, sometimes just some philosophy. I have been thinking if I should drop down to a niche. But I personally like to explore more wide subjects.

yeah, that true.