What problem could we solve for you?

A few years ago I met an entrepreneur named Nick. After he sold his first business, he was trying to find his next one. His method was to take everyone he knew out for lunch and ask: ‘Do you know of any business opportunities?’

After 30 or so lunches, his girlfriend’s uncle got talking about building Tesco superstores in the North East. (This was in the days of the space race. That’s the UK space race — the race to build out-of-town supermarkets. Nothing trivial like being first on the moon.)

The uncle said Tesco was struggling to find tenants for the shop units in the entrance to the superstores.

The problem was the shops couldn’t sell anything that competed with Tesco. And the store was so big that it sold virtually everything. The opportunity was loads of footfall and cheap rents. Nick methodically created a list of possibilities and hit upon tanning salons. His first one was a success, and as another 10 stores being built, it was clear how to expand. A couple of years later he sold his successful chain. Badda bing.

I love that story.

It’s the opposite of Mint’s traditional approach. We’ve tended to dream up ideas from thin air. That has led to some interesting places — real time fantasy football, Instagram magnets or personalised marshmallows.

I’ve recently rejoined Mint after two years leading a spin-out, Boomf, and I’m looking for a new venture. This time round, I’m keen to take Nick’s approach and start with a problem someone — possibly you! — wants solved.

In the spirit of Nick the entrepreneur asking his girlfriend’s uncle for lunch, if you’ve got a problem you’d like fixed or an opportunity you can’t pursue, contact me at andy@mintdigital.com or @bellomatic. If the problem is too hard to describe in an email, or if you’d like to chat about it more generally, I’d love to buy you lunch.

* The title is inspired by Paul Graham’s suggestion “Instead of asking ‘what problem should I solve?’ ask ‘what problem do I wish someone else would solve for me?’” in Schlep Blindness.

Originally published at mintdigital.com.