Source: Carsonified on Vimeo

For those who do not want to watch the whole video, here are Fred Wilson’s 10 Golden Principles for Web Apps:

1. Speed
   A web app needs to be fast. If the user feels that the application is slow, he will stop using it.
2. Instant Utility
   Fred says that users should be able to instantly use the application and see results without waiting too long.
3. Software is Media
   This basically says that web software should have a personality, an attitute or a certain style.
4. Less is More
   Web apps should only have a minimum set of features when they are launched. Features can be added over time although simplicity should always be favoured over new features.
5. Make it Programmable
   Allow others to build software on top of your product (e.g. via APIs). I guess facebook is doing a good job at this.
6. Make it Personal
   Users should establish a personal connection with the software and feel like they own the application. (e.g. by allowing them to customize backgrounds or avatars)
7. RESTful
   This means that every part of a web app should have a clean and comprehensive URL.
8. Discoverability
   Do SEO and use social media to make your application discoverable.
9. Clean
   Web applications should have a clean and intuitive interface with lots of space and only the most needed features visible.
10. Playful
    There should be a certain game dynamic in any web app. People like to play and this should be reflected in a web app.

That is a short summary of Fred’s points. For a full transcript, please visit the Carsonified Blog where I found this valuable video.

Actively looking for problems in need of a solution

The reason why I wanted to post this on my blog is that I wanted to encourage both, myself and my readers, to actively watch out for problems that we have and could potentially solve. I guess we often deal with problems and acknowledge that there is either no solution or just really bad ones. Therefore the first step should be to actively recognize that we have a problem and then think about a potential solution. That’s the theory but let me give you some real life examples.

• It is almost impossible to find a reliable mechanic online
  I just recently had to find a mechanic who would do the regular annual checkup of my car here in Frankfurt so I asked my colleagues whether they knew any mechanic they had been happy with. Unfortunately, the answers I got were not really satisfying because either people had no car or they had only been to a mechanic once and weren’t really happy with the service. So I went on Google and did some research. There were tons of auto repair shops in my neighbourhood but it was just impossible to judge whether they were good or bad at what they’re doing. Only one shop had a review (a positive one) and I ended up choosing this one. I was happy with the service and the price was fair. But having gone through this process I realized that there is no website dedicated to reviews of auto repair shops!
• Tracking todos, meetings, emails and notes electronically isn’t very convenient
  We use Outlook for emails and meetings (calendar) at work which is OK. It is not great but it does a decent job (I think). However, we do not have any system that could handle things like notes, todos or bookmarks in a quick & easy way. I know, Outlook can do these things as well (at least notes and todos) but it just does not offer the slim, nice & easy solution I am looking for. I use iGoogle for my todos and notes now (which is ok but certainly could be improved) but that way I am using two systems (Outlook and iGoogle) which I’d like to avoid. So I thought why isn’t there a simple, slick system a la iGoogle with 37signals style that I could use as my startpage and manage all those things on one page?

These are just two examples I came across during the last weeks by recognizing the problems I had. Probably not the most surprising ones but I guess they might still be valuable input when trying to find a business idea. I’ll do some more research on that in the upcoming weeks and post the results.

Why I think solving your own problem is no Panacea for finding business ideas

I think a weakness of the the ’solving your own problem’ approach is that it requires you to be aware of a certain problem. When I look at some of the recent startups, however, I find that they often solve a problem I was not really aware of before. Some good examples for this are Groupon, Foursquare or the german startup MyMuesli. I personally would not have come up with their business idea because the problem they solve wasn’t really a problem for me. I now use their product/services because the benefits they offer made me realize that I did in fact have a “problem” – it was just a latent one. When using this method as an entrepreneur, however, you should realize that the set of business ideas you’ll be able to find is limited to the problems you have and you are aware of. It will not allow you to find the ones that address your latent needs.

What do you think about this approach? Have you dealt with problems that you think could be solved? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Remember to bookmark this page so that you can watch it everytime your inner chicken says ’starting your own business is stupid’ – because it’s not!

My family likes security, I like security. Having a steady income, a regular, well paid job has always seemed to me like the right thing to do. I ventured out in the unknown fields of the ‘internet’ in 2001 and started my own website (www.movie-trade.com) which is no longer online but was quite a success back then. I had only run it for a few months when the german magazine ‘Stern’ called up to do an interview with me. The whole project was a bit of a grey area thing as it provided users a platform they could use to exchange movies. I thought that having an article in a magazine like ‘Stern’ would certainly not make this any easier so I decided to sell it to a random guy at a ridiculously low price. Since then I have thought about starting a new project so many times but have not managed to overcome my fears of not having enough money, not finishing my studies and of course of just failing. I am clearly a chicken! And being a chicken in business sucks!

I am now in a position where all those fatal flaws are basically gone. I got enough money, I finished my studies, I got no one to support. So why not start my own business? Well … I will … kind of … But what should I work on? I don’t really know yet. So I thought why not figure that out while blogging about my ideas, thoughts and work? I bet know there are thousands  of people out there who are chickens when it comes to starting a new business – just like me. I truly believe that there is a way to overcome our fears and on my way to being a (hopefully successful?) entrepreneur I will share videos, interviews, links, ideas, concepts, … with you. Because I have realized something: being a chicken in business sucks!