The truth is many successful companies today were founded on the principle of solving a problem. Some inconvenience, frustration, or even injustice -one that they just couldn’t tolerate anymore.
I know this was certainly the case for me.
A few years ago, my wife and I bought our first home together with an audacious goal of renovating our fixer-upper just in time for our first child to be born. I still cringe when I think about Mallory up on ladders painting while 8 months pregnant, but we were able to move in before Audrey’s arrival. The house looked beautiful and reflected our aesthetic values, but I started to question if it reflected our core values as a family after I received our first power bill after the renovation. Despite the renovation investment, there was zero change in our power bill. I started to seriously think about not only what exactly was being put in our home, but how it was going to affect my daughter’s future. I wanted to give her a healthy, efficient, and durable home to grow up in, while at the same time respecting the planet’s resources.
When I started to do the research, it became pretty overwhelming to figure out how exactly to accomplish that. I decided it shouldn’t be that hard to make smart, sustainable choices for our homes, and Rise was born. Today, Rise is an online resource that provides advice, inspiration, and high-performance product info -helping to make healthy, and planet-friendly home renovation projects a reality for homeowners.
Finding a pain point, whether that’s your own -or someone else’s, and addressing it is one of the best ways to find an inspirational business idea. As they say, look to change your world, then go out and change the world.
The best part is that most problems don’t require complexity, meaning that your “a-ha” moment doesn’t have to mean building something expensive or extravagant. In fact, some of the most successful businesses and companies started with focused, pragmatic, and realistic ideas that required very little seed money.
To show you what I mean, take a look at the following companies. They all started with the simple concept of solving a problem.
1. Salesforce
The story goes that Marc Benioff was enjoying a swim while on vacation when he had an idea: why couldn’t buying software be as simple as Amazon is for consumer goods?
Benioff recognized a common problem for businesses: spending excessive amounts of money on physical copies of software. The cost of licenses for certain types of software was prohibitive for many small and medium-sized businesses. So he set out to revamp that system and created a new type of subscription-based software service for customer relationship management (CRM).
(Source: Salesforce)
Instead of having to front the cost for software, individuals and businesses can pay Salesforce a monthly fee and receive CRM software. They also get free updates and technical support. Salesforce made it cheaper and easier to acquire software and allowed customers to bypass lengthy installation and maintenance processes. They also eliminated the need for companies and businesses to keep IT specialists on-staff. This helped to level the playing field a bit, enabling small businesses and startups to remain competitive.
Today, the company has a market cap of $81.36 billion, demonstrating how quickly a good solution can change the course of a business.
2. Glassdoor
Glassdoor solves a common problem: not really knowing how much your skills are worth.
But the inspiration for Glassdoor came about somewhat accidentally, when serial entrepreneur Rich Barton -founder of Zillow, accidentally printed out salary and stock data for every employee in the company. While his assistant rushed to collect the documents before anyone could see what was on them, Barton began wondering why the information needed to be kept private in the first place.
(Source: Glassdoor)
Noticing the need for increased transparency among working professionals, Barton set about to create a platform where workers can disclose their salary, job title, and employer. The result was Glassdoor. The website also lets employees share reviews about their employers, which is especially helpful for those who are in the middle of the job-hunting phase.
Recently, Glassdoor sold for $1.2 billion, proving that the solution to the problem was indeed viable.
3. Square
“Cash only.” We’re all familiar with that phrase. With the growing popularity of debit and credit cards, we’re using less cash to make purchases. Plus, most of us just aren’t comfortable carrying around wads of money.
(Source: Square)
For many vendors and small businesses, failing to accept debit cards can kill a sale. In fact, losing out on a sale because a customer didn’t have cash is what led to the creation of Square. Before Square, the process of setting up credit card payments was extensive and arduous. But Square set out to provide a low-cost and portable solution for vendors, individuals and small businesses; enabling them to easily accept cards without a formal point of sale system. Square also undercut the fees major competitors were charging for payments and made a product that integrated with iOS and Android devices, making it available to nearly all consumers. Now everyone from musicians selling band merchandise, to market stalls, and even brick and mortar startups can accept card payments.
4. Blue Apron
Most of us love to eat, but cooking it seems, just isn’t that popular. In fact, some 90% of people today claim that they don’t like to cook, meaning we’re spending more than ever on eating out -often at the expense of our health -and wallet. In fact, in 2016, one couple who was reviewing their credit card statements discovered that they spent a whopping $30,000 eating out that year! That’s just over $82 a day -something that can add up and fast. Constantly eating take-out or not having enough culinary knowledge to cook quick and healthy meals means that for many, healthy eating is often an afterthought.
(Source: Blue Apron)
Enter: Blue Apron -a company that’s making cooking easy and fun; proving a solution to the problem of wanting to eat healthy, but not having the time or knowledge to do so.
While Blue Apron pivoted several times before they launched as a meal delivery service, eventually they landed on their winning idea of an ingredient-and-recipe delivery service to make the meal preparation process simple and delicious.
5. Uber
If you’ve ever tried to get a taxi late at night, then you know what a hassle it can be. And public transit doesn’t run 24/7 in most areas of the country, meaning that if you need a ride -many times, you’re out of luck. Enter: Uber -a company that created a way for its users to find rides any time of the day, or night. The popularity of apps and digital and mobile payments also helped Uber target younger generations, who prefer apps over mobile websites and phone calls.
(Source: Uber)
Uber’s success in the ride-sharing sector allowed the company to expand and offer spin-off services, like Uber Eats. It seems the company may also be expanding into the financial services industry, with the recent launch of Uber Money.
If you are struggling to come up with an idea for a new startup or business, remember: sometimes, the best solution is to keep it simple. Start by addressing your own problem -and finding a solution. Then find a way to bring that solution to market.
Who knows? You just might land on the next big business idea. At the very least, you’ll be addressing an issue that many others are concerned about as well -and end up making a difference.
I’d love to hear what you think! Are ALL successful businesses the response to a problem of some kind? What other companies are addressing big problems?
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
