START SOMETHING HERE Develop My Idea
Starting a business begins with a great idea. But where do those ideas come from? At STartUP Northshore, we’re here to help aspiring founders and seasoned entrepreneurs alike discover opportunities by solving real-world problems. Stage 1 focuses on two key areas to guide your journey:
- How to Get Startup Ideas: Learn to identify and evaluate problems in your life and the world around you as potential opportunities.
- How to Turn Your Passion and Skills into a Business: Align your interests and expertise with unmet needs in the market.
This stage is all about uncovering and refining ideas that are not only actionable but also solve pressing problems—laying the foundation for a successful venture.
1. How to Get Startup Ideas
The best startup ideas come from solving problems you care about. As Paul Graham emphasizes in his essay "How to Get Startup Ideas", the way to uncover great ideas is not by trying to think of them. Instead, focus on identifying real problems—ideally ones you’ve experienced firsthand.
Here’s how you can start generating ideas today:
Read and Watch
- Dive into Paul Graham’s essay on "How to Get Startup Ideas" for timeless advice on finding problems worth solving.
- Watch Y-Combinator’s video on “How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas” to learn practical strategies from leading experts.
- Sometimes, you need to break the rules to innovate — but which ones? Watch entrepreneurship professor John Mullins share six counter-conventional mindsets for entrepreneurs looking to think strategically, navigate challenges and change the world in his TED talk “6 Tips on Being a Successful Entrepreneur”
Keep a Problem Journal:
- Carry a notebook with you at all times.
- Jot down inefficiencies or frustrations you notice in your daily life.
- Record the date, time, situation, problem, and a few potential solutions.
- Over time, review your journal to identify patterns and potential startup ideas.
Focus on Depth, Not Breadth:
- Instead of trying to solve a shallow problem for a large audience, aim to solve a pressing need for a smaller, highly motivated group of people.
Great startup ideas don’t need to start big—they need to start with clarity and purpose. Start noticing the gaps and challenges around you, and then focus your efforts on crafting solutions.
2. How to Turn Your Passion and Skills into a Business
Every successful business begins with a strong connection between the founder’s interests, skills, and a market need. By aligning what you love with what you’re great at, you can create a venture that not only fulfills your personal aspirations but also solves pressing problems for others.
This section focuses on helping you uncover how your passions and talents can transform into a sustainable business idea.
1. Brainstorming Exercise:
Action 1:
- Start with two lists:
- Problems List: Identify the ten biggest problems you can think of. These can range from global issues (like climate change) to specific, community-based challenges (like access to local fresh produce).
- Skills List: List your skills, experiences, and passions. These can include your professional expertise, hobbies, education, or activities you excel at.
- Action 2: Research your problem list by consuming content like articles, podcasts, and videos. Dive deep into the nuances of these challenges, understanding their root causes and the efforts currently addressing them.
Action 2:
- Research your problem list by consuming content like articles, podcasts, and videos. Dive deep into the nuances of these challenges, understanding their root causes and the efforts currently addressing them.
2. Connect the Dots
Action 3:
- Match a problem with your skillset:
- Look for areas where your skills could tackle part of a problem. The more specific, the better.
- For example: If deforestation is on your list and you have data analytics skills, you might propose a way to analyze deforestation patterns for stakeholders like timber companies, environmental groups, or governments.
Action 4:
- Generate multiple solutions:
- For each problem, brainstorm at least three potential ways to solve it. These don’t have to be fully fleshed out business plans yet—just possibilities that show where you could add value.
- Example: Address deforestation through predictive analytics, reforestation incentives, or improved supply chain transparency for logging companies.
3. Identify Skill Gaps
Action 5:
- Answer the question: What skills, knowledge, or resources do I need to better address this problem?
- Use this answer to guide your next steps, whether that’s learning a new tool, gaining technical knowledge, or finding a co-founder with complementary skills.
4. Test Your Top Ideas
Action 6:
- Narrow your ideas down to the top two or three that seem most feasible and impactful.
- Test them with simple MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) or mock-ups and gather feedback from your target audience to refine the concepts further.
5. More readings to help you monetize an existing passion, hobby, or skill
- How to Realistically Make Money from Your Passion – Entrepreneur – Learn how to monetize the things you care about.
- Turn Your Passion Into Profession – LinkedIn – Learn skills like accounting, marketing, and sales to take your passion or hobby to the next level.
Take The First Step
Great startup ideas don’t need to start big—they need to start with clarity and purpose. Start noticing the gaps and challenges around you, and then focus your efforts on crafting solutions.
Build Your Network
Now that you’ve gone through the idea generation process, it’s time to turn your assumptions into actionable insights through idea validation. Idea validation is the process of testing whether your business idea solves a real problem for a defined audience, ensuring it has market potential before you invest significant time or resources. In this stage, you'll build a strong foundation by identifying your customers, understanding their needs, and refining your business model through feedback and iteration.
Through hands-on exercises and resources, you’ll learn to:
- Complete key sections of a Business Model Canvas (BMC).
- Develop detailed customer portraits.
- Conduct effective customer discovery interviews.
- Use feedback to refine your assumptions and craft a compelling elevator pitch.
This stage will help you transform your idea into a well-defined business opportunity, ready for expert guidance and next steps.Get Hands-On Business Model Canvas Training with STartUP Northshore:
- Sign up for Bootcamp: A four-part program for bringing your business to life. Sign up to discover, promote, build, and launch your business.
- Sign up for IDEAinstitute Northshore: IDEAinstitute is an idea-stage accelerator program that introduces innovative entrepreneurs and aspiring startup founders to the tools they need to turn an idea into a scalable venture.
Be Ready To Launch Your Business
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1. Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a powerful tool to map out the critical building blocks of your business and specify how those building blocks work together to deliver value to your customer. In the early stages of your startup, the BMC serves as a practical alternative to the lengthy, traditional business plan, offering flexibility and adaptability as you test and iterate on your idea. When done correctly, the BMC lays a strong foundation that can later evolve into a comprehensive business plan.
At this stage, you’ll focus on six foundational sections that establish the groundwork for your business:
Action: Download our Business Model Canvas Template. Complete the following sections:
- Customer: Identify who your target customers are and what motivates their behaviors.
- Problem: Define the specific pain points or challenges your customers face.
- Alternatives: Who are your competitors? How is your customer currently solving the problem?
- Solution: Outline what your product or service is and how it addresses the above challenges.
- Benefit: Highlight the unique value or advantage customers gain from your solution. Why does your customer want your product or service?
- Advantage: Explain how your offering stands out from competitors. What makes you better than the alternatives? Why is your company’s team going to win?
*Note: There are various versions of a “Canvas” online, such as the Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas (learn more about their differences here: Lean Canvas vs. Business Model Canvas). At this stage, we use the CO.STARTERS Canvas for its simplicity and focus on key startup challenges like problem identification, solution testing, and value proposition development. This tool helps you build out foundational elements—Customer, Problem, Solution, and Benefit—to craft effective messaging. As your business grows, transitioning to a comprehensive Business Model Canvas will be beneficial for deeper strategic planning.
2. Customer Personas
Understanding your customers goes beyond just basic demographics like age, gender, and location. To create a product or service that truly resonates, you need to dig deeper into their interests, behaviors, and values. A customer persona is a humanized description of your target audience—an amalgamation of customers who share key similarities and represent a core, likely, or potential customer. By crafting detailed personas, you can better anticipate their needs, motivations, and pain points, creating a more tailored approach to your product or service.
Action: Download our Customer Portrait Template and create three distinct personas for your ideal customers by completing the following steps for each persona:
- Draw your ideal customer and give them a name.
- Key Demographics: Include details like their role, age, gender, family structure, education, income, location, and job details.
- Key Psychographics: Identify harder-to-see characteristics like attitudes, values, and interests that might influence buying behaviors.
- Pain Points/Problem: Define their challenges and frustrations that your product or service can address.
- Physical Hangouts: Where do they spend their time offline?
- Online Hangouts: Where do they engage online (e.g., social media platforms, forums, or specific websites)?
By completing this exercise, you’ll develop a clearer understanding of who your customers are, allowing you to create more targeted messaging and solutions that resonate with them.
3. Customer Discovery
Now that you’ve identified some humanized examples of your ideal customers, the next step is to have customer discovery conversations. After all, the initial personae are just guesses. Customer discovery is about validating your assumptions by talking directly to potential customers in order to turn your assumptions into actionable insights. Simply put, customer discovery involves asking your customers what they want instead of telling them what they need. If you truly listen to what your customers (or potential customers) really want and build exactly that, you won’t need to do much convincing when it comes time to sell.
Action: Download our Customer Conversation Template. Using your customer portraits, find real people with the problem you are trying to address and talk to 20 of them, taking detailed notes. Look for patterns and similarities between the conversations. Use these conversations to understand what they need.
A few tips for getting the most out of your conversations.
- Don’t tell them about your product/service until the end of the conversation.
- Ask about the problem.
- Probe into their current problems.
- Get them to dream.
- Don’t ask yes/no questions or have them complete surveys. Ask open-ended questions and get them telling stories. Here is a link to a great video from LIFFFT Inc about how to properly conduct customer interviews (I would watch all of the other videos in the series too, they’re great!
- Always ask them if they would be willing to introduce you to at least one other person who might be a potential customer to keep the momentum going.
- Read The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. “They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little.”
By the end of this process, you'll have a much clearer understanding of your target customers' needs, helping you refine your business idea and set a strong foundation for future growth.
4. Refine Your Business Model Canvas and Customer Portraits
Customer discovery is an integral part of the startup journey. With insights directly from your target audience, you now have a clearer understanding of their needs, challenges, and preferences. It's time to take this valuable feedback and refine your Business Model Canvas (BMC) and Customer Portraits. This step ensures your business idea evolves to address real-world problems effectively and creates value for your customers.
Action:
1. Brainstorming Exercise:
- Reflect on your Customer Discovery conversations using page four of the Customer Conversation Template.
- Identify common patterns, recurring themes, and surprising insights.
2. Update Customer Portraits
- Download a fresh Customer Portrait Template and refine your three customer personas based on real insights. Incorporate new details, behaviors, or preferences uncovered during customer discovery.
3. Revisit Your BMC
- Download a fresh Business Model Canvas Template and refine the following sections using what you’ve learned:
- Customer: What did you learn about your target customer during customer discovery? Are your target customers still the same? Did new ones arise?
- Problem: Are the pain points you identified still relevant, or have new challenges surfaced?
- Solution: Does your offering address the core needs effectively?
- Benefit: Is the unique value you’re delivering clear and compelling?
- Advantage: Does the feedback reinforce your competitive edge, or do you need to refine your strategy?
4. Test Alignment:
- Compare your revised BMC and Customer Portraits to ensure all elements align cohesively.
- Ask yourself: Does this reflect the needs, desires, and realities of my target customers?
The best startups don’t stick rigidly to initial ideas—they adapt. In fact, companies from idea through exit are constantly adapting. By iterating on your BMC and Customer Portraits, you’re building a business that solves real problems, resonates with customers, and is set up for long-term success.
Why This Matters:
The best startups don’t stick rigidly to initial ideas—they adapt. In fact, companies from idea through exit are constantly adapting. By iterating on your BMC and Customer Portraits, you’re building a business that solves real problems, resonates with customers, and is set up for long-term success.
5. Craft Your Elevator Pitch
Your elevator pitch is your startup’s “hook.” It’s a concise, compelling summary of your business idea that distills key elements of your Business Model Canvas (BMC) into a short story that captures attention and communicates value. A strong elevator pitch can be the key to engaging potential customers, partners, or investors in just 30 seconds.
At this stage, your elevator pitch should feel natural and confident—something you can deliver seamlessly at a moment's notice.
Start by trying to answer these simple questions:
- What is the problem you’re trying to address and for who specifically?
- How does your solution effectively address that problem?
- Why are you passionate about solving that problem?
Action:
1. Reference the Pitch Planning Guide
- Download our Pitch Planning Guide. Using the guide, draft an elevator pitch that seamlessly covers steps 1–9. One additional dialogue piece to consider is Mission/Vision – share why you care about this problem and the larger impact you aim to create.
2. Challenge Yourself
- Your pitch should be:
- Clear – Avoid jargon and unnecessary details.
- Concise – Stick to 30 seconds or less.
- Compelling – Convey why this problem matters and how your solution will change things.
3. Learn from Great Pitches
- Watch “The Perfect Elevator Pitch” to learn the art of the 1 sentence pitch and the keys to delivering the perfect elevator pitch, regardless of what your business is.
- For inspiration, watch the pitches from our 2023 NSpire Startup Slam, the Northshore’s Premiere Pitch Competition. While these 10-minute pitches go beyond the scope of an elevator pitch, they’re an excellent resource to see how strong storytelling and clarity bring an idea to life.
Next Step: Book Time with STartUP Northshore
Ready to take the next step? Schedule a 1-hour session with STartUP Northshore to review your progress and get expert feedback.
What to Bring:
- Completed Business Model Canvas
- Refined Customer Portraits (3 minimum)
- Notes from 20+ Customer Discovery Interviews
- Polished Elevator Pitch
How to Schedule:
Submit your materials via email, and we’ll follow up with a booking link to secure your session.
Questions? Let us help you!
Vincenzo Caronna
The two things you will carry into every endeavor are your experiences and your network. Much like having no experience, having no network will hold you back and limit you from opportunities. Building a network does not need to be intimidating though, it is something that is more about intentionality, habits and consistency than skill. This section will help you:
- Find places and ways to network
- Get value out of those connections you foster
- Take the fear out of meeting new people
Getting to meet interesting people and help each other thrive are one of the joys of entrepreneurship.
Section 1: Using Your Network
No matter what your background is, there is someone you know that can help you in your journey, whether you realize it or not. It may not be that they themselves need your product or service, but they might know someone who does or have a nugget of wisdom to share. Our friends, family and former colleagues can provide valuable insights, share a new perspective, or remind us of other people we know who might be able to help.
Action: Reach out to 5 individuals you know personally. Share your ideas with them, ask for their feedback, and dive into their areas of knowledge. Ask questions like:
- Have you heard of something like this before?
- Do you know anyone that works in this type of field?
- What are some of the problems you see in your current area of work?
- If you were going to try something like this, where do you think would be the best place to start?
Being pointed in the right direction can be just as valuable as a new client. Always be sure to follow up and if someone is kind enough to make a connection, show your appreciation.
Section 2: Building Your Network
Your current network will serve you well and be a solid foundation for new connections. However, there are plenty of ways to meet brand new people without having to be connected by someone else. Some of the most effective ways are listed below:
- Join organizations and communities
- Volunteer for non-profits and community events
- Attend professional events in your area
- Sit in coffee shops to work
- Passive conversations with strangers can lead to opportunities
Local Chambers of Commerce:
New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week (NOEW):
- NOEW is the premiere entrepreneurship event in the Gulf South Region. A week of hundreds of presentations from entrepreneurs in the region with thousands in attendance. General admission is completely FREE.
Book Recommendation:
- How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Once you feel confident in your idea, there are steps that must be taken to turn it into a real business. This includes creating a product, finding customers, and making adjustments based on the market. These next steps should be putting your validation testing into action by:
- Develop a minimum viable product (MVP)
- Finding your first customer
- Completing your business model canvas
It’s much easier and more meaningful to show someone your idea rather than tell them about it. It’s time to push your idea out of the nest and let it face the world.
1. Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A minimum viable product is a pared-down version of a product that has just enough features to be used by early customers. It does not need to be a finished product, instead this should be your first draft and highly adaptable to feedback. Treat your MVP like your business model canvas, it should be constantly adapting as valuable ideas and feedback come in.
Action: Create your MVP. Based on the nature of your idea, follow the links below:
- Prototype Development Services:
- Click Here
- Service Based Company MVP Example:
- Create an example deliverable for a completed project.
- Choose a specific end client, use real information or realistic hypothetical information to model a deliverable
- Use this “model case study” to show you plan to bring value to potential clients (This will help you in your early client conversations)
- Create an example deliverable for a completed project.
2. Path to First Customer
If you have completed the steps to this point, you should have a lead on who your potential first client could be. If you are still unsure, follow the link for additional information on finding your first customer.
Action: Reach out to your first potential client and arrange a meeting. If you do not know them directly, use your network to create an introduction. This should be like your customer discovery conversations in the fact you are asking multiple questions and trying to understand them. However, you should be asking for their business at the end of the conversation.
3. Complete Your Business Model Canvas
At this stage you should have a much more complete picture of how your idea fits into the market and what your business offering is. It is time to expand upon the six sections you previously completed on your BMC. However, before you do that be sure to review those six sections to see if anything has changed. Stop to consider how much your idea has changed since its initial iteration.
Action: After reviewing the initial sections of your BMC, complete the remaining six sections.
- Message: What is your story? How does your customer hear it?
- Distribution: How does your product of service get to your customer?
- Revenue: How do you make money from your customer?
- Startup Needs: What are your one-time needs to get started? (Money, People, Things, Technology, Activities)
- Costs: What ongoing needs are essential to keep you going? (Money, People, Things, Technology, Activities)
4. Find an Arena to Test Your Product
Continuing with the theme of this section, it is incredibly important to get your product in front of as many people as possible. Finding a regular place to expose your product to new people is vital. For example, if the product is a food or beverage, a farmers’ market can be a testing ground to get feedback. If it’s service based, going to a networking event can serve as a focus group of peers. The more you open your product up to criticism the stronger and more refined it becomes.
Book Recommendations:
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses - Eric Ries
- Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers - Alexander Osterwalder
- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business - Gino Wickman
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich - Ray Porter
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies - Jim Collins
Be Ready To Launch Your Business
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