3. Talk to potential customers to find what they need, not what they want
What if {{1} ∩ {3}} ∪ {{2} ∩ {3}} = ∅?
That is, what if everything you love to do is not marketable and the solutions to the problems you care about are not marketable either?
> If your starting goal is "I want to start a startup"
My starting goal is "retire by 50 without taking a hit to my six-figure lifestyle".
Achieving it via my technical chops is the only way I know how.
I'm a bad investor and my wife is a spendthrift. It's highly doubtful that we'll get there "the slow way" (e.g. collecting on several corporate real estate investments) by starting at 34.
I work as a Software Engineer. I'm not passionate about the projects I work on at my job, but doing so pays the bills.
Why can I not make use of the same discipline that brings me into work everyday to bring my own product to market?
__My issue is in identifying what other people want.__
The CS & programming topics that excite me (i.e. compilers & PL design) haven't had marketable products since F/OSS won in the '80s/90s. The backscratcher I'd design to scratch my own itch(es) can't compete with thousands of free ones worked on by an order of magnitude more people.
I highly doubt every successful payroll/billing/HR startup founder was intrinsically-motivated to build their product.
I'd be satisfied building boring CRUD like https://bonus.ly if I could turn it into a small, successful "Lifestyle Startup" and coast.
2. Be in love with the problem
3. Talk to potential customers to find what they need, not what they want
What if {{1} ∩ {3}} ∪ {{2} ∩ {3}} = ∅?
That is, what if everything you love to do is not marketable and the solutions to the problems you care about are not marketable either?
> If your starting goal is "I want to start a startup"
My starting goal is "retire by 50 without taking a hit to my six-figure lifestyle".
Achieving it via my technical chops is the only way I know how.
I'm a bad investor and my wife is a spendthrift. It's highly doubtful that we'll get there "the slow way" (e.g. collecting on several corporate real estate investments) by starting at 34.