30 Days: 30 Ideas
For those of you who read my previous entry, you’ll recall that I’ve decided to start a software business. Or rather…the fates decided that I should start a business. Or something like that.
But before I do anything else, I need to decide what kind of software I want to sell.
Generally speaking, it seems like software developers usually have a difficult time thinking of new product ideas. That’s why there are a thousand different RSS readers and untold multitudes of backup/sync programs.
For some reason, though, I’m flooded with ideas. Off the top of my head, I can think of ten different products that I might like to develop. Over the last few years, I’ve written some code for several of them. Each has its own pros and cons. Some of them would be extremely complex development projects, but they’d be unique in the marketplace. Other ideas would be very very simple to develop, but they’d enter into a crowded marketplace.
And the marketplace is a funny thing.
In many cases, an already-crowded marketplace can be a great environment to introduce a new product. Particularly if no existing product already stands out as a clear leader. In such a scenario, the crowded marketplace validates that the product idea is marketable, but the lack of a dominant product opens up the potential for newcomers to compete.
Likewise, a brand-new kind of product might benefit from the lack of competition. But in a completely empty marketplace, the lack of competitors might indicate a lack of customers. And even if there are potential customers out there somewhere, the sales process is generally much more difficult. Before you can convince the customer to buy your new-and-different product, you need to convince her that she has a problem that needs solving. And that software could solve that problem. Innovation carries a heavy burden of evangelism in addition to the existing overhead of sales and marketing.
Anyhow, I’m letting the cart get waaaaay out ahead of the horse.
I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. A lot of brainstorming.
I’m going to spend the next 30 days posting software ideas. One each day. Some of the ideas will exploit my experience with (and my fondness for) natural language processing and statistics. Some of the other ideas will be for ridiculously simple consumer desktop applications.
(Admittedly, right now I only have about a dozen product ideas, but I’m sure my muse will deliver a few more, just in the nick of time.)
Each day, I’ll jot down all of my thoughts and ideas. I’ll weight the pros and cons of developing each idea into a product, especially given my own strengths and weaknesses as a developer, my development budget, and my crystal-ball predictions about pricing and profits.
I hope the process is equally illuminating (for me) and entertaining (for you).
June 8th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Best of luck in generating ideas. I’ll stay tuned to see what crops up…
June 8th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Should be interesting. I’ve added you to my daily-visit bookmark list. Good luck!
June 8th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
I was planning to subscribe to your feed but I noticed that the “entries (rss)” hyperlink doesn’t work. I’m smart enough to figure out the correct feed (i.e. remove ‘feed:’, but it is something you ought to fix…
June 8th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
An interesting idea Benji. I’ll look forward to reading where you go with this. Oh and here’s a lucky penny from me. :)
June 8th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
This is the article I recommend to anyone looking for software ideas. It’s about a guy sold company #1 for $30M then started #2 by doing MARKETING and SALES *first* simultaneously.
If your’e lucky, you already know the problem domain and you instintively KNOW the marketing and sales for that domain. If you don’t know that already, I recommend LEARNING it BEFORE you write your first line of code.
Here’s the article
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20020201/23855.html
June 8th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I wish you all the best in this endeavor, and I look forward to following along. As for Google…it is most certainly their loss. Good luck.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:04 am
First, awesome idea.
Second, the article posted above is a very good one, and I recommend everybody read it for an alternative take on things. Some would even say this guy has taken the “release early and often” to the extreme of “release” before you have code. Release functionality concepts only.
Third, good luck Benji. Keep in mind though, it’s not so much the idea as the execution. I mean, if you are inventing special relativity, it’s the idea, but if you are making software for even semi-normal people to use, then it’s a lot about execution. I think both Joel and Eric Sink are good examples of how their execution overcame crowded market places. Just my $0.02.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:05 am
And then you spend another 30 days deciding what one to pursue? ;)
June 9th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Good article, I am new reader of this website and I took no time to add it my Google Desktop Webclip.
Will stay tuned to see your ideas!
June 9th, 2006 at 1:03 am
Good luck in your endeavor.
June 9th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Interesting idea. I’ll be following along.
(BTW, the link to the previous article in the first paragraph is wrong. There’s a wayward http:// in there.)
June 9th, 2006 at 11:41 am
Thank you for fixing your feed links.
June 10th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Dude! That has to be the longest tee-shirt I ever saw on your photo along the left-hand margin. Is it like 15 feet long or what? Whoa. Where did you buy it?
June 12th, 2006 at 8:19 am
J. Scott, you’re stealing my thunder!!
Idea #30 was going to be “Really Long T-Shirt Store”.
June 24th, 2006 at 2:25 am
Software ideas…
Benji Smith is presenting 30 ideas (one each day) on his site. He’s currently at number 8 or so. You should read the relative post, 30 days: 30 ideas for his reasons.
Obviously Benji believes it’s the implementation and not the idea that ma…
July 19th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Good Ideas! Keep it up!!