Source: Xconomy, Apr 2012
The quickest way to create a billion dollar company is to take basic human social needs and figure out how to mediate them online.
Is It a Problem or a Need?
I’ve now come to believe that the value proposition in a business model (value proposition is the fancy name for your product or service) fits into either one of two categories:
- It solves a problem and gets a job done for a consumer or a company (accounting software, elevators, air-conditioning, electricity, tablet computers, electric toothbrushes, airplanes, email software, etc. )
- Or it fulfills a fundamental human social need (friendship, dating, sex, entertainment, art, communication, blogs, confession, networking, gambling, religion, etc.)
Lessons Learned
- Value propositions come in two forms: they solve a problem or they fulfill a human social need
- Social Needs are friendship, dating, sex, entertainment, art, communication, blogs, confession, networking, gambling, religion, etc.
- They have always been fulfilled face-to-face
- They are now moving on-line
- The market size for these applications equals the entire human race
- These are the ultimate applications
