Where good ideas
actually
come from.
Phones out. Yes, really.
One scan.
Then leave it
open.
Every question lands on your phone. One tap, or one word. Then watch the whole room answer on this screen.
First person to bring me
an object that starts
with the letter ?
Sixty seconds ago you
could not see a single
one of those objects.
Which one are you,
honestly?
On your phone now. Nobody sees your name.
Something broken, annoying,
or a waste of your time.
One word.
Every word on that screen is a business somebody could have built.Almost none of them will be. Here is why.
You think of a solution first.
Then you go hunting
for somebody to want it.
Product
market fit
A product the market is already demanding. Real, and worth wanting. The trap is the order you go about it: cut the key first, then walk the hallway praying a lock fits.
Market
product fit
Study the keyholes first. Find the shape that opens the most doors. Then cut that key. Same effort, completely different odds.
Your mom will
never tell you
your idea is bad.
Neither will anyone being polite at a networking event. “I would totally buy that” costs them nothing to say.
The fix is not better pitching. Stop pitching, and ask what they did the last time the problem actually hit them.
Would you buy this?
Be honest, the way you would with a friend.
$20. Out of your pocket.
Same idea. Real money. Right now.
That gap is why
businesses die.
It hurts.
They live.
Real and genuinely unpleasant. And they will complain about it forever without ever paying a cent to make it stop. Most ideas die here.
It hurts.
They bleed.
It costs them money, customers, or sleep tonight. They are already doing something about it. That is where a business lives.
That problem you just named.
How bad is it really?
Tap 1 to 5. The same problem you thought of earlier.
Five kinds of people have your problem.
Only one of them is your customer.
People slept on strangers’ couches for years before anybody built Airbnb.The bad workaround always comes first. Go look for it.
Nobody wants
a drill.
Why does somebody buy
a milkshake at 7am,
alone, in a car?
Long commute.
One free hand.
Bored until lunch.
A bagel gets crumbs everywhere. A banana is gone in a minute. The milkshake was thick enough to last the whole drive.
No focus group could have said that, because nobody thinks of a milkshake as commute equipment. They asked how to improve the drink. The job was the drive.
They were not selling a drink. They were selling a commute.
Nobody is
here yet.
Open water. Just check why it is empty first. Sometimes nobody is there because nobody wants it. The good blue ocean is usually right next to a red one.
Everybody is
already here.
Same customers, same offer, everybody shouting. You can absolutely win here, but only by being sharply better at the one thing all of their customers already complain about. Hold that thought.
Which box is your problem in?
The word you sent me earlier. Is anybody already solving it, and how much does it hurt?
You do not need
a new idea.
An app or a company
that annoys you.
One word.
That is your list.
This one decides
the next
workshop.
Studio G reads every answer. Name and email are optional, and only if you want Studio G and the Mike Loya Center to tell you about the next one.
You do not need
a billion dollars.
is $5,000 a month. Rent, plus the freedom to stop asking permission.
Fifty salons, plumbers, and clinics within ten minutes of this room. A front desk that misses calls is bleeding a lot more than $100 a month.