Sometimes coming up with business ideas can be very hard. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an idea I thought was great and original and got all excited building empires in my head, only to find out a few hours later through a quick google search that the exact thing I thought of already exists.
Now, we all know that ideas on their own are worthless. And that ideas are just a multiplier of execution. And more often than not it doesn’t even matter if someone else is already neck deep in your “original” idea. The usual go-to example is that Google was not the first search engine, and there is a lot of truth in that. So don’t give up on an idea just because someone else is doing it.
With that said, I thought I would share a useful formula that I think can help structure how we think about business ideas. Think of it as a brainstorming tool. It’s a simple statement that we all use instinctively when describing companies, but don’t necessarily think of when trying to come up with new ideas.
The simple statement is: it’s the ____A____ for ____B____.
A: Insert a company. Really you are talking about their business model. But “business model” is just too abstract, so think in terms of companies for simplicity and it will be obvious what you mean. For example, Amazon, Netflix, Google.
B: Insert one of the following:
- Geographical location.
- Customer segment.
- Product.
Here is an example of each for our sample companies:
- It’s the Amazon for China.
- It’s the Amazon for Koreans living in the US.
- It’s the Amazon for jellybeans.
- It’s the Netflix for Qatar.
- It’s the Netflix for people who like horror movies.
- It’s the Netflix for clothes.
- It’s the Google for Egypt. (Ok, not sure if this works because there is no physical aspect to Google’s product, but it still gets you thinking)
- It’s the Google for doctors.
- It’s the Google for legal documents.
Here are some ideas about how you could describe some existing companies:
- Newegg is the Amazon for electronics
- Amazon is the Walmart for the internet
- DuckDuckGo is the Google for people who value privacy
- Wholefoods is the Safeway for people who buy organic
- Vanguard is the (Investment Fund) for index funds
- Capital Factory is the YCombinator for Houston
What do you think of this method? Do you think it can work? Can you think of any other axes besides location, customer segment, and product? What other examples can you think of?