UTEP
Studio GMike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce

Where good ideas
actually
come from.

Workshop #2Business Idea Generation
David MarekFounder, DropDev
11 September 2026Union East, Acacia 102A
Scan to join
studiog.dropdev.co/join
Get your phone out. Yes, really.

You are going
to do most of
the talking.

Scan it once and leave the page open. Questions show up on their own.

0already in
Studio G · Idea Generation
press T to start the clock
Before anything else

First person to bring me
an object that starts
with the letter F.

There is a gift card. Go.
60
Studio G · Idea Generation

Thirty seconds ago you
could not see a single
one of those objects.

Nothing in this room changed. You did. You went from sitting there to hunting. That is the entire difference between people who have ideas and people who do not.
Studio G · Idea Generation
On your phone now

Where is this room right now?

0answers
Studio G · Idea Generation
One word: broken, annoying, or a waste of your time
0words
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Every word on that screen is somebody’s business. Most of them will never be built.
Let us talk about why.
Studio G · Idea Generation
The trap almost everybody falls into

You think of a solution first.
Then you go hunting
for somebody to want it.

You cut a key. Then you walk down a hallway trying it in every lock, hoping one opens.
Studio G · Idea Generation
What most people do

Product
market fit

Cut the key. Then go door to door looking for the lock it happens to open. Sometimes one does. Usually you just run out of hallway.

What actually works

Market
product fit

Study the keyholes first. Find the shape that opens the most doors. Then cut that key. Same effort, completely different odds.

Studio G · Idea Generation
The Mom Test

Your mom will never
tell you your idea
is bad.

Neither will your friends, your classmates, or anybody being polite at a networking event. “I would totally buy that” costs them nothing to say.
Studio G · Idea Generation
Look at the idea. Answer honestly.

Would you buy this?

0answers
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Same idea. Real money. Right now.

$20. Out of your pocket.

“I would buy that”
—
said yes
“Here is $20, right now”
—
said yes
Studio G · Idea Generation

That gap is why
businesses die.

Compliments are not data. Nodding is not data. A signed check is data. If you cannot get $20 out of somebody today, a finished product will not change their mind in June.
Studio G · Idea Generation
Bee sting

It hurts.
They live.

Real, annoying, genuinely unpleasant. And they will complain about it forever without ever paying a cent to make it stop. Most ideas die here.

Shark bite

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.

Studio G · Idea Generation
How badly does your problem actually hurt?
1 · bee stingshark bite · 5
0problems named
Studio G · Idea Generation
Five kinds of people have your problem. Only one is your customer.
1
They have the problem and do not know itYou would have to teach them they are in pain. Expensive.
2
They know, but cannot explain what it costs themThey cannot justify paying you, because they have never done the math.
3
They know exactly what it costs, and have no moneyReal pain. No budget. This is charity, not a business.
4
They know, they have money, and they have done nothingCloser. But doing nothing is a choice they are comfortable with.
5
They know, they have money, and they already built a bad fixThe spreadsheet. The group chat. The intern. They are crawling over broken glass to solve this today. Go find these people.
Framework: Arrowhead Center, NMSU
People were sleeping on strangers’ couches for years before anybody built Airbnb.
The workaround came first. It always does.
Studio G · Idea Generation
The duct tape. The spreadsheet. The group chat.
0workarounds
Studio G · Idea Generation
Jobs to be done

Nobody wants
a drill.

They want a hole in the wall. They do not care about the motor, the torque, or the battery. Sell the hole. Better yet, ask why they want the hole, because what they actually want is the shelf up before their mother in law arrives.
Studio G · Idea Generation
The milkshake

A chain asked customers how to improve the milkshake.
Flavor. Thickness. Price.
Sales did not move.

Then somebody asked a different question: why are you buying this at 7am?

Long commute. One free hand. Bored. Hungry until lunch. A bagel gets crumbs everywhere, a banana is gone in a minute. The milkshake was thick enough to last the whole drive.

They were not selling a drink. They were selling a commute.

Studio G · Idea Generation
Red ocean

Everybody is
already here.

Same customers, same offer, and the only lever left is price. You can win here, but you have to be cheaper or better funded than people who started before you.

Blue ocean

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.

Studio G · Idea Generation
Where does your idea sit?
Go here
Nobody does this Everybody does this Desperately Barely
0ideas plotted
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The cheapest idea in the world

You do not need
a new idea.

Take something that already works and already has customers. Read its one star reviews. Fix the one thing everybody complains about. That is a business, and the market research is free and already written for you.
Studio G · Idea Generation
Something you use, and the one thing that ruins it
0openings
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Before you talk yourself out of it

You do not need
a billion dollars.

50 × $100

is $5,000 a month. That is rent, groceries, and the freedom to stop asking permission.

Fifty people. You could meet fifty people this semester. You are on a campus with 24,000 of them.

Studio G · Idea Generation
What to actually do on Monday
1
Talk to five people who have the problem.Not five friends. Five people who are already paying, hacking, or bleeding. Ask what they do today, not whether they like your idea.
2
Try to sell it before you build it.A deposit, a pre order, a signed letter of intent. If nobody will commit, you just saved yourself six months.
3
Walk into Studio G.It is free, it is for you, and they do not take equity. You are already enrolled in the hard part.
Studio G · Idea Generation
Scan to join
studiog.dropdev.co/join
Three questions, then you are free

Tell Studio G
what landed.

It is anonymous, it takes two minutes, and it decides what the next workshop looks like.

0submitted
Studio G · Idea Generation

Go find
somebody
bleeding.

David MarekDropDev · david@dropdev.co
Text me(915) 234 1444
Book timelinks.mylayerone.com/widget/bookings/dropdev