A playbook for Generating Business Ideas

Examples of Known Needs

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1. Make Money or Save Money
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Salesforce - Salesforce helps salespeople organize and manage their
pipeline of leads so that they can more effectively close those deals.
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Commercial/retail banks - Banks offer savings accounts to clients.
Savings accounts provide clients with interest on their cash that would
otherwise not be earning interest.
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Airbnb - For the supply side (homeowners), Airbnb provides a way to
earn money for excess capacity by renting it out. For the demand side
(renters), Airbnb provides a cheaper solution to the most common
alternative, hotels.
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Schools - Schools provide students with a way to learn and get
credentialed so that they can be awarded higher wages by employers.
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Wealthfront - Wealthfront provides wealth management services to
people so that they can earn a return on their capital.
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Casinos - Give people the opportunity to make money.
2. Eating
Eating is a need not just because it tastes good, but because it is essential to
survive. I have no idea how much people across the world spend on food, and it
is not important to know the exact numbers, but I know that it is an extremely
high number. In other words, it is more than just biology and logic that tell us
that people need to eat; it is the action that people take daily to solve the need.
There are many processes that go into eating. Today, the process of eating is
much easier because all the processes that go into eating can be paid for at fairly
low prices. Now, in most populated areas, you can easily find a restaurant that
will provide you with a fully cooked meal within minutes.
One of the earliest solutions to the “eating” need was probably a spear for
hunting and gathering. Selling spears made for a great business, because hunting
and gathering was one of the most essential components of the need to eat. An
alternative solution might be to teach someone how to make a spear. A much
more valuable solution to the eating problem might be to sell the food you hunt

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and gather. Selling food would eliminate the process of learning how to make a
spear, making a spear, and hunting. The process of eating could be further
simplified by selling prepared food instead of raw food. This eliminates the need
to cook the food.
Examples of businesses that help with the process of eating include farms
(previously: hunters), transportation/logistics companies, chefs, grocery stores,
restaurants, and more. One of the more recent major innovations in food is
Soylent, a powdered food that makes it easier for people to consume the
nutrients they need.
3. Save Time
To many, time is as valuable as money. So many of the best products in history
provide value to people by saving them time. Providing a product that reduces
the time that a given task takes will probably be valuable to people, especially if
they are in any way limited by time, and/or have enough money to be able to
trade their money for more time. A few examples of many:
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Vacuum cleaners
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Cars
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Prepared food
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Buffer (social media management)
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Zirtual (virtual assistants)
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Employees (without employees the founder[s] would have to do all the
work themselves)
4. Self Image and Power
People have a desire to be liked, respected, and presented in a good light to their
peers. It’s probably an evolutionary trait. I imagine if you did not fit in with your
peers during tribal life that you would be excommunicated from your tribe,
which would give you a very low likelihood of survival.
As technology and society have advanced such that survival is quite easy, needs
have become more ambitious. Now people have a desire for power and

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admiration from others. Below are some examples of products and companies
that satisfy the need to improve self image.
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Twitter - the amount of followers you have
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College - the credential you get when you graduate
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Klout - quantifies your level of “influence” on the Internet
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Facebook - people collect friends, share photos (selfies), and brag
about their accomplishments
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Personal trainers - help people look better, and therefore feel more
confident
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Self-help books and seminars (for example, Tony Robbins) - help
people avoid unhappiness and be more happy
5. Relationships and Reproduction
Almost everyone wants to have kids. In fact, it’s almost “taboo” not to want
kids. In order to have kids, you need a partner of the opposite sex. Most people
also like having sex. This also requires a partner. Sex and reproduction are
natural desires based on our biology as humans. This can be scientifically proven
as well as validated based on the effort and money people spend trying to
improve their chances of finding a mate. The following examples would fall into
Dave McClure’s “laid” category.
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Cars - look “cool” and display wealth
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Clothes - Look attractive, and in some cases display wealth
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Tinder and other online dating sites - find mates
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Gyms and personal trainers - look more attractive
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Bars - many people go to bars and spend up to ten times more for a
drink than they would at a store, mostly for the opportunity to meet a mate
6. Entertainment
People like to have fun. People like an escape from their daily stress. Like other
examples in this chapter, the desire for entertainment can be proven by studying
biology and validated by looking at how much money people spend on
entertainment.

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Entrepreneurs have been successful in providing entertainment for generations.
Shakespeare is probably within the top 1% of most well-known and respected
people in the history of the world. Now, we have Netflix, which has made it
cheaper than ever before to be entertained in such a way.
Below are a few examples of some very large products and businesses that solve
the need for entertainment.
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Movies
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Video games
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Music
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Zynga
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Gambling
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Television
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VHX
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DVD
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Theater
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Board games
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Netflix
7. Security and Safety
People like to feel safe and secure. This is evidenced by the success of the
products and businesses listed below.
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Insurance
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Warranties
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Locks
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Guns and weapons
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Karate classes
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Gyms
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Financial advisors
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Bodyguards
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Bike helmets

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8. Transportation
People have been moving from “point A” to “point B” since the beginning of
time. The process of getting from point A to point B can potentially take a lot of
time, money and/or effort. To solve these problems, entrepreneurs have created
solutions such as horseback riding, the wheel, trains, Uber, and self-driving cars.
There are many multi billion-dollar ideas and companies that help people get
from point A to point B. Below is a brief progression of some of the innovations
in transportation.
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Horses
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The wheel
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Rickshaw
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Cars
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Busses
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Trains
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Electric cars
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Uber - taking advantage of new technology to solve old problems. It
wasn’t possible for this service to be provided before. But now that
everyone is walking around with small computers in their pockets (smart
phones), it is.
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Self-driving cars
9. Shelter
People need shelter in order to be protected from weather and to have privacy.
There are businesses that have made money assisting people with several
components of housing and providing a variety of alternative solutions. Early
forms of shelter included teepees and cabins. Now we have prestigious
penthouse suites and mansions.
Examples of products and businesses that help meet the need for housing:
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Building materials
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Construction
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Housing brokerage

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Houses
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Hotels
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Home repair providers
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Home Depot
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Architects
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Trailers
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Tents
Airbnb is one of the most significant recent innovations in shelter. Airbnb takes
advantage of the widespread use of the Internet to communicate and build trust.
Prior to the Internet it would have been too hard to find someone with an extra
room, or for someone with an extra room to find someone to rent it.
10. Communication
Humans have a natural desire and need to connect with other human beings.
Communication is a major component of the relationship-building and
connection process. Communication is also essential for people to do business
(make money). There has been a tremendous amount of innovation in
communication over the years, and several companies have profited
tremendously from developing it.
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Pen and paper
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Paper mail - via horse, car, and then plane...and potentially soon to be
drones.
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Telephone
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Mobile phone - Gordon Gekko style
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Email - I personally consider email to be one of the greatest
innovations within the past fifty years or so. It has massively improved the
way business can operate. It’s used by almost everyone in the world.
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Smartphone
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Skype - another one of the most valuable innovations in recent
decades. Skype makes it free to communicate by live video and audio with
anyone in the world.
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Snapchat and Yo! - Products like Snapchat and Yo! tap into different
means by which people prefer to communicate -- photos in the case of
Snapchat and binary in the case of Yo!

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