One of the questions that keeps coming up here is:
I want to start a business, but can’t come up with an idea.
or
Here is a list of ideas I came up with, help me choose the best one.
I’ve written an article to counter the thinking that you need an “idea” to start a business. This is a myth (I believe) that just won’t die.
The article is written in a humorous and slightly tongue in cheek manner, so if that turns you off, you might want to skip this.
Thanks for the article. Agreed, there was no “idea” for my own product. It was a technical software solution for my own technical problem when I was working in office. I did it without even listening to the customers.
Did you find marketing it hard, or easy? Usually with scratch-your-own-pains type products, you have to be very careful you are not creating a product for a market of one.
How did you avoid this problem?
I definitely think the key (in my 20+ experience of creating 20+ profitable software products) that LISTENING is key. Your goal is to pass the test the customers give you. Why not CHEAT and ask them what’s on the test?
MeWare is fine as long as you represent a significant market.
I.e, Joel created FogBugz to scratch his own itch, BUT he’s an experienced programmer and knew what he needed in a bug tracking program.
Conversely, he also created CityDesk for blogging, but he didn’t realize the world was moving to online platforms for blogging so he lost out to WordPress.
@shantnu, I was just lucky. When I did a market research, I found that there is a good and narrow market, so decided to put more efforts into the product. When I developed it for myself, I did not think about selling it to someone else. I needed no marketing, only SEO.