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CHAPTER 2
I DONT HAVE A GOOD IDEA

I DONT HAVE A GOOD IDEA

Most people who want to start a venture say they

have not yet because they dont have a good idea
The fact is that good ideas are cheap and plentiful
Its what you do with them that matters

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PEOPLE FOCUS ON THE MYTH OF THE

VISIONARY ENTREPRENUR
Holds them back
Not yet had the Eureka moment
Not possible to know with certainty a priori the
success of the business opportunity
One way to determine this
Go ahead and implement creatively with low
investment, find real customers and locate
committed partners who are willing to commit real
resources

WAITING FOR AN IDEA THAT IS GOOD

First-time entrepreneurs, (with job market prospects)
tend to worry a lot about finding the right opportunity.
Frankenstein (movie, 1931) inspired venture by Earl
Bakken 1949, 1957
Medical equipment technician
Founded the medical devices firm
Pioneering the pacemaker (Hardly a vision)
Market expected 10,000 units (small market)
Initially sold fewer than 100 units
Today Medtronic, US$11 billion business leader in
medical devices

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WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM

OPPORTUNTIES ARE
CREATED BY ACTION

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IDEAS ARE A DIME A DOZEN

Way to come up with an idea is
To think of things we like and

Things we dont like

Reiterate
There is no such thing as Good Idea!!!
There are only ideas
A good idea can be wasted
A bad idea can be can be turned into an opportunity

Think of successful venture

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STARTED WITH MUNDANE, EVEN SILLY IDEAS

Financial Blockbusters
Google
Walmart
Facebook
Alibaba

Sweeping Social Changers

Grameen Bank
Red Cross

Came from a Trash

Agilyx
Fixit (Karachi)

IF VALIDATION STILL NEEDED?

There are ways of assessing an idea

Not Go - No Go tests
Just ways of selecting among multiple ideas

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USEFUL CONTACTS FOR GENERATING IDEAS

IS IT A GOOD IDEA?

Predicting the feasibility and value of new

venture ideas

Claimed by number of frameworks in

textbooks, trade books, journal articles,
periodicals, sources on the web

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IS IT A GOOD IDEA?
Assessing the opportunity Do-ability
Four key concepts are heart of these
frameworks
External Factors
(Technology, market environment)
Is it doable?
Is it worth doing?

Internal Factors
(Entrepreneurs circumstances/motivation)
Can I do it?
Do I want to do it?

ASSESSING THE OPPORTUNITY DO-ABILITY

List of questions needed to be answered
Read from book

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IMPORTANCE OF COMMITMENT

Doesnt matter how good the check list

looks
Idea is not a good idea until you find
someone who is willing to support it in
one way or the other
Some form of pre-commitment from
Partners

Customers

NO CONCEPT OF TENTATIVE COMMITMENT

What really matters?
Not whether you think its a good idea
But whether you can get someone to commit to
your idea

Otherwise idea is not sustainable

Commitment
Not only financial
Sharing in production
Moral (Mentoring)
Logistic (Office space, office support, etc.)

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COMMITMENT ISSUES
How do you know when you should give up?
How long do you look for someone to commit
before simply dropping the idea?
Depends on how much you can afford to lose!
(Affordable Loss Principle)
May be you can afford to wait for years for your
idea to come of age (Video conferencing
technology investors did this)
Technology based ideas
Stew on the back burner for a long time

TURNING A HOBBY INTO A BUSINESS

LOFTY BEDS

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CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD IDEA

CONVERT NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE

Look at things that evoke a negative response

Think about transforming them into positive basis
for a new venture
Opportunities are blind, scary, and exciting, yet
memorable and worth embracing

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IDEA-TO-VENTURE FORMULA

Divine intervention; not the source of opportunities

From where viable ventures come from?
Start with an idea
Ideas start with transformation of your means

IDEA = ANYTHING + YOU

IDEA-TO-VENTURE FORMULA

Ideas are plentiful and common

ACTION TURNS A MERE IDEA INTO VIABLE
OPPORTUNITY
OPPORTUNITY = IDEA + ACTION

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IDEA-TO-VENTURE FORMULA
Gathering information is not as taking action
Action is
proposing a deal with a client
getting a supplier to knock together a prototype
convincing a co-founder to join the business
interaction with the world

ACTION = FUNCTION (INTERACTION)

ON MONEY, PRODUCT, PARTNERS
Action goes beyond observation and calculation to
invoke transformation, manipulation, fabrication

IDEA-TO-VENTURE FORMULA
What turns an opportunity into a viable business?
Commitment of
stakeholders!!!

the

Entrepreneur

and

other

VIABLE VENTURE = OPPORTUNITY + COMMITMENT

Interactively creating more viable opportunities than

original idea

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Answer the Questions - A

Answer the Questions - B

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