Simple ideas can be profitable
I love receiving (and giving) feedback on startup ideas, pitches, and product demos. It allows people to look for ways to improve their product as well as see their startup from objective eyes. I think the biggest deterrent to creative feedback comes from people that discount ideas simply because ... they appear to be simple.
I love this quote from Paul Graham's Essay "How to Start a Startup" (http://paulgraham.com/start.html):
"In particular, you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. The way a startup makes money is to offer people better technology than they have now. But what people have now is often so bad that it doesn't take brilliance to do better."
In my experience, some people like to think that all the easy problems have already been solved and thus you should only look at solving the huge and complex problems. Unbeknown to most, there are tons of horrible (any annoying) solutions for rather simple problems. Additionally, these companies might have completely solved the problem wrong to begin with and it is just up to you to create a simple and elegant solution.
Here are some great examples:
- Groupon (http://www.groupon.com/) - People have been able to get coupons before, but never before has a website made it so easy and enjoyable to look at deals and new venues in your city. The solution is amazingly simple so much so that thousands of Groupon clones are starting to take over internet. Great idea, simple solution, $1+ billion company.
- 37signals (http://37signals.com/) - For those using MS Project, you know the pain and angst that is involved with doing the most simple task. 37signals didn't set out to destroy MS Project, but rather just focus on the customers that just wanted to manage a small team or project. The overhead and headaches of MS Project allowed 37signals to solve the problem the correct way.
- Inventables (http://www.inventables.com/) - For years, people scoured big material books, bids, and online to find things like 'squishy magnets' or 'water proof coatings' when building new products such as cars, running shoes, airplanes, etc. Inventables is changing the way people find these unique materials buy offering a digital marketplace for buyers and sellers to interact and discover new materials. Buying materials isn't anything new, but enabling people to easily find and buy them is.
- Snuggie (www.getsnuggie.com/) - As most people on this earth already know, the Snuggie is amazingly well-known and is an incredibly simple idea (essentially a backwards robe or a blanket with sleeves). Not only was this idea easy to create, manufacture, steal, and reproduce (if someone was so inclined), but it was a wild success and has generated millions of sales.
In a quote from Twitter user heathwblack, "Sometimes the best inventions don't reinvent the wheel, they just make it roll better."
