You don’t discover a problem worth solving by fantasizing with your co-founders “If there be an app that could do X, would it be cool?” You don’t discover a problem worth solving by playing the This for That game.
However, here is a way to do it:
Go out and do something ordinary!
Go perform some mundane tasks that ordinary people around you do every day. The choices are endless. Here are some things to start with:
- Sell something you own
- Help a friend move
- Organize a group holidays
- Apply for a job
- Introduce someone to another
- Service your car
This is the important thing. The point of this exercise is not to create a startup that solves the task as a whole. The point is, by performing an ordinary task, you will find inefficiencies at some point in the process. “How the fuck do I…?” moment. How the fuck do I sell what I’m selling? How the hell do I know if the company I’m applying for has seen my job application?
It might be a small part of the process, but it might just be a big enough pain that someone will pay you to solve it elegantly for them.
For startups, this is a great place to start.