IKEA startups

I love IKEA. Everybody can set up their furniture. All tools provided. The instructions are clear and make following easy. It can take a while to set up, but it’s worth it.

But a startup is not IKEA furniture. It’s meant to be unique. It’s about crafting the best solution to a problem. Yet, we don’t do that.

We’re stealing and borrowing so much that there is rarely any craftsmanship left.

If you take a scroll through Product Hunt you’ll see what I mean. Every startup are following the same instructions:

• Please write “The complete SaaS solution for your business” for headline. Align it in the center, and make the font-size 80px.
• Gently, add 3 horizontal sections underneath. For each section you need an image that’s 60 by 60 pixels. Followed by two lines under it explaining the “how-to” for your product. Something like “registering is easy!”, “visit the dashboard”, “you’re done!” will work just fine!
• The pricing for your business is set to 3 tiers. Called plans. Each plan has a price ending with the number nine. For enterprise add a contact us button, instead of the price. We talk more about this enterprise strategy in section #3 Out of funding: The Hail Mary
• For branding, we realize you know your brand the best. Proceed to chose your own 4 colors out of the Flat UI Colors site for your brand.
• For the final step visit Dribbble and search for your category in the search field. Find design that you enjoy, copy it and change its color to your custom color-scheme and use it on your site.

… And we’re done.

They’re problem-solving, not crafting.

“I am tired of standing by my desk. What if there was something comfortable that I can sit on?” they thought.

Instead of crafting their own chair, they went to IKEA and bought one. All tools provided. The instructions are clear and make following easy. It can take a while to set up, but it’s worth it.

Then they look at the chair and go:

Wow, wow WOW! Holy shit. I made this. On my own. I solved it.
I’m such an entrepreneur. Eyy! Everybody look at this chair!

followed by upvotes that go:

Bro! I’ve also made a chair! Mine looks like yours,
and I’m an expert at building chairs, so I like yours too!

That’s an echo chamber, not customers.

Try to craft something instead. Craft it exactly how you want it. Imagine chairs didn’t exist. How would it look and feel? What matters to you? The tools are not provided. The instructions are none and at times it’s hard. It can take a while to craft, but it’s worth it.