“Obvious Problems? No Startups Needed.”

Spotlight: The (Apparently) Unnecessary Existence of Startups

If there’s one thing entrepreneurs love more than their morning biodynamic, fair trade coffee, it’s the thrill of tackling voice-worthy, world-altering problems through their startups. But here’s a nugget of wisdom, comrades. Those issues that are as obvious as the tomato in a BLT sandwich? They probably don’t require your cutting-edge, disruptive, unicorn-hoping startup.

The Not-So-Startling Obvious: Redundancy of Startups in Obvious Problems

You see, the world’s arena of ‘obvious problems’ is like a very talkative aunt at a family reunion. Everyone knows what she’s going to say, and despite her endearing enthusiasm, we’ve all got the solution down pat. The same applies to our world of startups.

In essence, those bumps that plague us daily and are unanimously understood? They likely already have a solution. They’re waiting in the sidelines, as visible as an eager toddler in a game of hide-and-seek. The issue isn’t the lack of solutions but rather our readiness to face that annoying aunt, uh, I mean, to implement the glaring resolution.

Reality Check: Avoiding the ‘Make Bigger Problem’ Startups

So, startup wannabes, before you spend your life savings and abandon that stable 9-5 job, consider this: Is your innovative startup solving an ‘obvious problem’, or is it simply making a party balloon out of another issue? Because remember, folks, creating bigger problems is a specialty of Godzilla, not startups.

Hot Take:

Discovering a problem that’s as clear as daylight and thinking, “Gee-whiz, people would pay big bucks to have this solved through a startup!” is quite the entrepreneurial epiphany. But realistically, if the problem is as common as dad jokes on Father’s Day, the solution is probably hanging about somewhere, waiting patiently to be noticed, not unlike the keys you lost only to find in your jacket pocket. A startup may just complicate things further – because nothing says “entrepreneurial spirit” quite like replacing a simple problem with a convoluted one! Next thing you know, you’ll be pitching a startup to solve the issue your first startup created. Oh, the irony!

Original article: https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/02/how-hard-is-it/