The final class in my I&E journey at Duke was all about how to Discover Opportunities. This class, taught by Aaron Dinin was all about how entrepreneurs can not only find opportunities for business, but also evaluate opportunities to know which ones have the best chance of being successful.
The first part of our class was all about different strategies for identifying potential opportunities. To develop this skill, we practiced adopting a questioning mindset. To do this, we began by looking at our own day-to-day life. We were tasked with finding inefficiencies in our routines. This gave us a chance to start asking questions such as "How can I improve my life?" on a narrow scope. A few weeks later, we were tasked with solving the problems of three strangers. The tricky part of this assignment was figuring out problems that other people might have. It may seem straightforward - go up to someone and ask "Do you have any problems that I can solve?" however we quickly found out that most of the time, people don't even know what problems they have. We instead had to continue to develop our questioning mindset to wonder about problems that other people might have. As a culmination to this part of the class, we had to identify over 200 problems by interviewing people.
I found this experience incredibly valuable and incredibly challenging. If your goal is to create the next Amazon, Google, or Facebook, you first have to solve someone's problem. Nobody will pay for your product if you don't solve a problem and create value for them. Chances are, the first couple of questions you ask are not going to give you a billion-dollar idea. Unfortunately, chances are the next couple hundred won't do it either. Adopting a curious mindset is the only way to fully assess the range of problems that we face on a day-to-day basis, and find potential opportunities. This is not an easy task. Most of us are not conditioned to view the world this way. It is important for an entrepreneur to build these habits until they become second-nature.
Let's say that you do find an idea that you think shows promise. What do you do next? You have to have a framework for evaluating your idea to see whether it actually has potential. This is done by trying to evaluate different metrics as obejctively as possible.
First, you must prove demand. You have to prove that people actually want to give you money in exchange for your product. One way to do this is with a Smoke Test where you advertise your product and set up a means for people to buy the product online. Even if you cannot fulfil orders, you can see metrics such as how many people followed your advertisement, how many people added it to their cart, and how many went to try to purchase it. These numbers give you a way to validate demand for your product in a way that is much more telling than a simple survey.
Next, you have to prove that the timing is right to launch your venture. Timing is an incredibly important factor to consider when launching a business. For example, if a new technology is emerging, being the first mover to take advantage of it can allow you to very quickly capture a large share of the market. Conversely, if a new technology is emerging and your product relies on soon to be out-of-date tech, your product has little chance of success. As an entrepreneur, you have to be in-touch with the world around you to identify things like consumer trends, new technology, and policy trends that can make or break your business.
Finally, it is also important to consider the impact that your product may have. We tend to be very optimistic about our own ventures. We see all the positive changes that our product may bring to the world, yet rarely stop to conside the potential negative effects that a product may have. While this is not a concern that many people think about, it is very important.
Reflecting back on this part of the class, I learned that I never appreciated how much effort has to go into evaluating an idea. I always thought that finding the next big idea would be the hardest part of launching a business, but in actuality it is validating that idea. Being an entrepreneur is inherently risky. You are blazing new trails, and every step could potentially lead to utter failure. In order to minimize risks, you must thoroughly vet your ideas to ensure they hav ethe best chance to be successful.