Ted Zoller: Intersection of Opportunity and Need

In many cases, you start with the innovation, but it's not enough. You have to build something on top of that. And that typically is the insight. That insight is how that innovation actually takes root, how it has impact, why it's meaningful. Now, I'd argue the type of entrepreneur that starts with the innovation usually is what I'd call an innovation based entrepreneur. Well, there's another topology of entrepreneurship as a matter of fact. It starts in a very different way. How many of you would start this way? Start with the idea and then start to find a market for it? Any of you? Okay, a lot of you are raising your hands. I think that's a typical modality, right? Ideas are inherently valuable, but ideas that are applied are invaluable. I would suggest that ideas that are left on your list that are not acted on are valueless. These are ideas that need to be released. Make them available to society. Don't leave them behind. I can't tell you, and I bet you some of you have been in that situation where some of the best ideas you've had, you see someone else implement. Have you had that experience? Right? You just let the world just pass you on by because you hadn't had the time to make it happen. Think about that. Leverage the individuals who are doing two, three, four ideas at a time or working with teams of people to actually make these concepts available. You know, emulate them, make that happen. The second piece is a game changing solution. It's an ingredient that's really critical to high performance entrepreneurship. What I mean by that ultimately is if you look, and this is a great illustration of all the things that are happening in the software and web environment here in the social media environment. And it occurs to me that it's almost a daunting set of solutions, right? Which solutions are going to actually make their way through? Many of these started with just like you started an idea, but many of these solutions need to find their impact in the market. Only a few will make it through, right? There are certain applications, for instance, certain concepts that end up becoming platforms that end up becoming kind of central to our lifestyles, right? It occurs to me, when you look at your smartphone, for instance, how many of you have over 100 applications on your apps, on your iPhone now? Can I ask, more than 100 apps? Pretty common. How many do you use on a typical day? 1, 2, 3, right? Am I right? How many of you are developing apps? I'm just curious, how many of you are developing apps as we speak? Okay, what's it going to take to make yours a game changing app. Think about it. What is it going to take to become a game changer? That is what it's going to take. You've got to dial in the notion of need. How ultimately is that need being satisfied? How is that pain ultimately being mitigated? I would argue that the intersection of opportunity and need is where the entrepreneur needs to live. Opportunity is the most exciting type of platform an entrepreneur lives in their life. But need ultimately crystallizes it. That's the acid test. I would argue that there's a class of entrepreneurs, you might be surprised by this, that don't start with an idea at all. They start maybe with the market. Try to understand what the problems are that we all face. As they're reading the blogs, or as they're going through the web, or as they're reading the newspaper, believe it or not, in the morning, they actually see compelling need. And on top of that, they define a real customer. In their mind, they see a customer. I call that the beachhead. That need is critical. And I would argue that that kind of entrepreneur is a marketplace entrepreneur. They don't start with the innovation. They start with the problem and then they acquire innovation to solve the problem. These are conjoined and they match. So the market's my wisest teacher. Honestly, the market will tell you whether or not your idea is going to gain relevance because people will walk with their feet. The market is a beautiful crystallizing test. Launch and learn works better than learn and launch. I saw that Steve Blank was here, for instance. Absolutely true that bringing the market into the equation much earlier will help you test your ideas to see if they actually will make their way through.