Spotting Opportunities

A Path to Entrepreneurship

In hindsight, we all know a good idea when we see one. It’s easy to retell the story of successful entrepreneurs and justify their decisions after the fact. Yet it is more challenging to predict what will be successful when you are in the driver’s seat looking forward. That’s because there is a near-infinite number of factors to consider when launching a business. Thankfully, we have identified three actions entrepreneurs can take to help them better identify an opportunity. These steps are vital for the both disruptor or the incumbent to perceive opportunity.

Observe

It’s common knowledge that two people can look at the exact same image and interpret it differently. They may see a different color dress or a different shape in the same drawing. What many people fail to understand is that seeing both is a core tenant of disruptors. To find these proverbial Yanny & Laurel instances, try increasing your intake and quality of information. Increase intake by practicing being more observant — habitually noting your surroundings. Increase the quality by asking the right questions. Strategically observe your soundings by asking yourself:

What is happening around you?

What problems are people facing?

What is at the root of those problems?

What is going well?

What are the current solutions?

Why aren’t they doing a better job?

Converge

Today’s innovative solutions are the product of new ideas, models, and technologies coming together. Value is now added through the combination and adjustment of existing ideas and we all need to show up prepared. This means that entrepreneurs have to have both deep expertise in a product and a breadth of knowledge in the space’s axillary to that product. Understand the converging forces impacting your solution by detailing out:

What has enabled this solution and how will those factors change in the coming years?

What does your unique set of experiences have to say about these observations?

How have similar problems been solved in other spaces?

Ask

The final step in identifying game-changing ideas is to gain insight through perspective-taking. To do this, ask to listen — not to hear. The key difference is that listening means coming to a conversation with the intention of learning and as assumption-free as possible. Listening is active. That means you are not thinking about statements to make during the conversation, but rather coming up with more questions to ask. Here are groups to speak with to gain a key perspective on your idea:

You — what does this mean for you, your community, and society? Why do you care?

Those Impacted — ask the people that this will impact. Keep a broad definition of impact.

Those Not Impacted — ask people that will likely not be impacted. What are their thoughts?

Demographics — ask people that will give you their honest thoughts and try to get multiple industry, background, racial, and socioeconomic perspectives.

From here you have the opportunity to react to this analysis. Move forward with this idea, pivot, or start the search for the next opportunity.

Do you have an idea? Let us know here. Checks range from $25-$50k.