Monday, January 30, 2017

The Startup Idea Matrix

From Eric Stromberg
Source: The Mission + Media
 meet a lot of people who are interested in starting a company, but haven’t found an idea they are excited to work on for the next 5 to 10 years.
I generally think it is smart to have patience in finding an idea that pulls you in: a market or opportunity you can’t imagine not pursuing. Patience in the near-term will save you a lot of time in the long-term.
However, I’ve found one way to find this idea is to gain broad exposure to different markets until a specific opportunity and mission stands out to you. Of course that is where the real work begins: auditing the industry, talking to customers, learning about its history, and understanding the pain points to validate the idea.
To help with the brainstorming part of the journey, I’ve put together a matrix that outlines various consumer markets as well as tactics a company can take to bring a unique product to the market. Credit to Chris Dixon who showed me this format a few years ago.
This matrix is for consumer opportunities, but if people like it I’ll make one for B2B opportunities. The format could even be applied to one specific market like media to reveal a wider range of opportunities.
I’ve filled in some of the cells with startups that fit the themes. This is by no means exhaustive (and a company could fit in more than one category), but including existing companies helps ground the ideas in reality and makes it easier to draw connections.
To view the matrix, you can follow this link.
Think of this less as a map and more as a starting point for creativity. It probably won’t give you the next billion dollar idea, but might spark a line of thinking that brings you to one.
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Go to the profile of Eric Stromberg
Eric Stromberg
CEO/cofounder of @Oyster (now at @Google). Sometimes startup investor. www.estromberg.com/about
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Hmmm … how would you respond if you were told to keep your mouth shut?


Well, that’s what Trump Senior Strategist Stephen Bannon said recently. “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while,” Mr. Bannon said on Wednesday during an interview. Respectfully, our first response is “No”. Our second response would be to ask why we should keep our mouths shut. 
We think you know the answer to the latter. It’s because as investigative journalists, we know there is work to do to keep government and corporations accountable to the people. We know that if we don’t do our jobs, then you don’t have the information you need to make informed decisions about your health care needs, about who you want making decisions concerning your children’s education, about the environment and health hazards posed by increased toxic emissions, about the security of our networks, and about who’s contributing to what campaign and who is now being offered plumb positions in the new administration. We can’t give you that information if our mouths are taped shut or our access to critical information is denied.
 
No, we’re not going to keep our mouths shut and we’re not going away. We’re going deeper into the nooks and crannies of government to uncover the truth. And we’re doing more to get you the information you need and deserve.
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Apple joins Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft in AI initiative

In Brief
Apple joins with other tech giants in the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society to help steer the direction of artificial intelligence research.
With the absence of regulations in the field, the group will work toward developing standards and ethics around the development and implementation of AI.
This AI “A-Team” promises to push the field even further. However, as more money, power, and capable scientists get behind this initiative, it is important to stop, take a step back, and reevaluate. While we might seem to be worlds away from a sci-fi fueled AI takeover, there are legitimate ethical issues that arise when dealing with AI.
This technology and its potential could revolutionize life as we know it, which is a massive, but positive change. However, as more and more companies get on board with AI, it is important for some amount of ethical supervision, some rules and regulations to ensure that, as we make incredible progress, we do so with care. It is important, that we ask both what we can, and what we should do.
Link >> https://futurism.com/apple-joins-amazon-facebook-google-ibm-and-microsoft-in-ai-initiative/

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