The internet is fickle. Attention spans are short, That means you've got to be compelling. And you've absolutely got to make something people actually want or they'll never stick around, let alone come back.
I encounter plenty of startup founders who have a great technology they've engineered and shoehorn that into a solution that they hope people will want. To me, this route is much harder than identifying a real problem first and then solving it as simply as possible.
Worse are the founders who aren't able to build anything yet and are simply brainstorming and drawing mock-ups in the vacuum of their own heads. Find your customers right now and talk to them. Are they just being polite? Bear in mind that most people don't like giving bad or honest feedback. That positive reinforcement about your idea doesn't mean a thing until someone actually pays you or until you see repeat, engaged visitors coming to your website.
So how do you make something that people actually want? Start with a real problem.
Obviously it should be a problem for you, but be sure it's also a problem for others. The thing is, sometimes people don't realize they have a problem. And often just telling them they have a problem will only elicit an "Oh, that's good enough for me." As the old cliché goes, we're creatures of habit. It's really hard to persuade someone to try your thing when the status quo is good enough. But put a better solution in front of the same person and suddenly the status quo looks repugnant.
This is precisely what happened with hotel- and flight-booking service hipmunk. Few people thought there was a problem with how they searched for flights. They took for granted that you had to sift through tons of terrible flights and hunt across a mess of tabs for the best itinerary. It wasn't until we launched and consumers saw our agony-free alternative that they realized how bad everything else was by comparison.
You've undoubtedly encountered products or services that have frustrated you. Keep a notepad or a tablet handy and write down whatever is upsetting you. There's a good chance you'll find a business in those notes.
Another starting point is to have an idea that very few people other than the founders can actually build. These technical feats provide a natural defense against competition. Remember, every hard problem you solve drops a massive obstacle in front of anyone who'd want to replicate you. Certain problems haven't been solved because none of the few people smart enough to do so have made it happen. Look at something like Google, which co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were technically capable of building at a time when not many people were. Back then, there were very few people smart enough to build their own search engine let alone imbue it with software that could crawl and rank the entire World Wide Web.
There's also a third route: think of an idea that is rooted in a perspective that everyone else is missing because they don't see the potential today.
