How To Come Up With A Tech Startup Idea? 10 Proven Frameworks In 2023

Every great business begins with an idea… and knowing where great ideas come from is essential to being a great entrepreneur. Some of the most important work you will ever do on your business occurs right at the beginning. How to come up with a tech startup idea, and then turn this business idea into a business concept while addressing the market need, is important. 

There’s a long punch list of things to chase down, from outlining the unique insight to capturing how customers might respond and sizing the market you’re going after. To put it differently, if you want to find the next great startup idea, you can’t just wait for the hypothetical lightbulb moment — you have to do your research. Ultimately, staying open-minded and persistent is crucial in navigating how to come up with a profitable tech startup idea that resonates in the competitive tech landscape.

As you consider successful startup ideas, consider the following questions to help you overcome possible constraints:

• Is there a clear demand or idea around gap in the market for the product or service you plan to offer?
• What unique value does your small business offer? How does it solve a problem or fulfill a need better than existing solutions?
• What technology is lacking that is preventing you from achieving your ultimate goal?
• What can you do now to allow you to put into effect your more ambitious objectives later?
• What are the potential risks and challenges your business might face, and how do you plan to mitigate them?

Where do startup ideas come from? 

Exploring how to come up with a tech startup idea involves understanding emerging trends and technological gaps. Entrepreneurs get their unique business startup ideas to ignite profit from a variety of sources. Some ideas appear just by chance. The entrepreneur may have started with a hobby or a solution to a personal problem with no intention of turning it into a virtual reality, only to discover that there was a high demand for it. 

However, more often than not, a founder will have a new idea for a problem they want to solve and varying levels of conviction about how to commercialize it. 

Then there’s the third group: people who want to be entrepreneurs and love the idea of starting a business and being successful but aren’t sure what to build it on. They are the ones who must understand the art of brainstorming business ideas and identifying market gaps and opportunities. Brainstorming sessions can be instrumental in discovering how to come up with a tech startup idea that solves a prevalent problem.

Also Read: HOW CAN ENTREPRENEURS TURN BUSINESS IDEAS INTO BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES: 6 PROVEN STEPS

How To Come Up With A Tech Startup Idea? 10 Proven Frameworks for 2023

1. Solve a Personal Problem

Some of the most successful startups were established to address the personal issues of their founders. 

For example, the idea for Airbnb emerged when the founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, faced a problem. They struggled to pay their rent in San Francisco. With a design conference in town, they discovered that hotel rooms were limited and expensive.

To address this issue, they decided to turn their apartment into a makeshift bed-and-breakfast for conference attendees, providing air mattresses and breakfast. 

Consider the global perspective and explore how to come up with a tech startup idea that can address needs on an international scale. This experience sparked their idea when they noticed a need for alternative accommodations during high-demand events. Their straightforward but innovative solution of renting out extra space in their apartment paved the way for the creation of a larger-scale home-sharing platform. Encouraging creativity and fostering a culture of innovation is key to exploring how to come up with a tech startup idea that stands out.

Also Read: STANDING OUT IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET: 26 INNOVATIVE IDEAS FOR BUSINESS STARTUP

Incorporating sustainability and social impact into the process of how to come up with a tech startup idea can create purpose-driven ventures. The bottom line is that you can easily build something, but you need to be more rigorous in your approach if you want to increase your chances of creating something that solves a real problem.

2. Consider Your Passion

“Follow your passions” is a piece of generic advice you’ve probably heard a lot, whether it’s applied to finding a career or coming up with a startup idea. However, there is some benefit to it in terms of developing a business idea.

The most successful startups succeed because their founders are passionate about the projects and remain committed to working on them through all of the ups and downs.

Consider that it takes an average of ten years to develop a startup into a strong, established company — you don’t want to be working on something you’re not passionate about for the next ten years, do you? To get startup ideas that you’re passionate about, consider an area or industry in which you’d be happy to work on a project for the next decade, even if it didn’t succeed. Collaborating with diverse teams can also facilitate brainstorming on how to come up with a tech startup idea that combines varied expertise. Then, try to come up with different product/service ideas based on that. This even helps you to generate enormous passive income. 

This informative guide will help you find your passion:  HOW TO FIND YOUR PASSION AND PURPOSE – PASSIONPRENEUR

3. Employ Jobs-To-Be-Done Framework

The jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework is a powerful tool to generate new startup business ideas, in which the entrepreneur attempts to understand the specific goal (the “job”) of potential customers, as well as the thought processes that would enable that customer to use a product or service to complete the job.

Automation is an excellent example of this. Automation, digitization, and transformation are currently top of mind for many customers looking to increase business efficiency by eliminating simple tasks.

For example, The adoption of the Jobs-to-be-Done framework was instrumental in McDonald’s implementation of the drive-thru service. Understanding that customers weren’t just purchasing food but seeking a swift and convenient meal solution, especially during time-pressed situations, McDonald’s identified the core job as “accessing quick meals without leaving their vehicles.”

McDonald’s transformed the fast-food experience by aligning their service with this fundamental job, solidifying drive-thru service as an integral part of their offering and meeting customers’ needs more effectively.

4. Adopt Top-Down Approach

The top-down approach to come up with startup ideas looks for new technologies or situations in the world to build a company around, rather than creating a product or service to solve a personal problem, as the bottom-up approach does. 

For example, the top-down approach used by IBM in software development is visible in its strategic planning and project management methodologies. IBM’s leadership would establish overarching strategic objectives that would be aligned with market demands and technological advancements from the very beginning. These goals frequently included product innovation, market expansion, or technological breakthroughs. 

Experimenting with prototypes and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) can refine how to come up with a tech startup idea into a viable concept. So, if you use a top-down approach to build a successful small business concept around a new technology or situation, keep the execution in mind. Otherwise, you risk developing something too late, when there is no longer a good product-market fit.

5. Employ Strategic Foresight

Strategic foresight entails making educated and informed predictions. To find an idea for a startup, look at past recurring trends and consider how they might affect the future to try to predict future market trends. Embracing a user-centric approach is crucial in determining how to come up with a tech startup idea that addresses genuine user pain points. Considering scalability and future trends contributes to the process of how to come up with a tech startup idea that has long-term potential.

Trends and developments in the political, economic, social, technological, and legal environments are specific areas to consider when employing strategic foresight.

For example, perhaps you believe that certain laws will be rewritten shortly to allow new types of lucrative online businesses to operate. This is exactly what happened with Indiegogo, the largest crowdfunding platform in the world.

Danae Ringelmann, the founder of Indiegogo, predicted that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) laws prohibiting people from investing their money online would be revised because they were written when modern technology did not exist. 

Also Read: 15 BEST BUSINESS IDEAS WITH LOW INVESTMENT IN INDIA

This strategic foresight inspired Ringelmann to launch Indiegogo. She was right about the SEC law changes, and Indiegogo was one of the first major crowdfunding platforms when it launched in 2007.

6. Think of Variations of a recent successful company model

Look for up-and-coming businesses or your business structure that are getting attention due to their recent successes and develop fresh variations of them.

For example, American Express, a financial services giant, was founded in 1850 with an emphasis on express mail, which allowed it to move funds, valuable goods, and stock certificates throughout its native state of New York and later other states. But in the middle of the 20th century, American Express reimagined what it stood for and reinvented itself by providing charge cards that gave consumers and companies access to credit. The company had over 110 million credit cards in circulation as of December 2019, with roughly 55 million of those cards being used in the United States.

Want to transform your dreams into reality? In this enlightening video, Dev shares invaluable insights and practical wisdom on realizing your aspirations and turning them into a successful business model.

7. Analyze an Industry that is Broken

Researching industries and analyzing potential niches aids in determining how to come up with a tech startup idea with market potential. Many industries are out of date and find it difficult to adapt to the demands of their consumers today. Validating the feasibility and market demand is essential when contemplating how to come up with a tech startup idea. One could think of ideas to develop new products or services in any of these industries.

A good example of this is Mixpanel. Mixpanel is a real-time analytics platform that helps companies track user engagement and behavior. Before founding Mixpanel, this startup founder was working with Slide, a business that produced sophisticated analytics software for internal initiatives. The founder then realized that other companies would need those same tools, and that’s how he came up with Mixpanel. 

8. CrowdSource an Idea

Even if you don’t have a personal problem that a product or service can solve, someone close to you might.

To help you come up with an idea, ask your friends, family members, colleagues, and other people in your social and professional circles what products and services they wish existed. People with expertise and experience in specific areas can be particularly interesting to talk to if you know them. Networking with experts and innovators can provide insights into how to come up with a tech startup idea that disrupts existing markets. They can provide insight into specific problems in various industries or areas of life where you may lack personal experience.

9. The 10x Rule

The 10x rule states that you can create a great product by “10xing” something — making it 10x easier, 10x faster, 10x more fun, or 10x better in some other way. So, to get a startup idea this way, look at things that already exist and think of ways to generate startup ideas that help you build a profitable tech business. 

For example, Superhuman is an email app that redesigned the email experience from the ground up to deliver the “fastest email in the world.”

Want to generate passive income with the 10x Rule? This video is a must-watch. With a focus on financial empowerment and entrepreneurial insights, Dev shares potential approaches to creating passive income sources, offering practical tips, and uncovering lucrative opportunities.

10. Iteration As Innovation Or Coming Up With A Low-Cost Variation

Iterating rather than doing something completely new is a final, perfectly valid option to start a startup. Many great ideas have led to successful businesses. Taking that concept and modifying it can result in a very profitable startup. 

Tesla cars aren’t successful because they represent a completely new approach to car manufacturing and design. Tesla vehicles look and drive like regular automobiles. The Tesla company has achieved great success despite its lack of innovation because it can replace the car’s outdated fuel source with a more modern and superior one.  

 Coming up with a low-cost version of a product is another way to enter and disrupt a market to build a successful startup. 

Consider the popular ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft. Traditional taxis used to charge $50+ for a ride that cost $20 on Uber. Because of the ridiculously low prices, these apps became popular among users. What’s more interesting is that, even with such low rates, Lyft and Uber drivers were still making decent profits.

5 Best Tech Startup Ideas

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been receiving a lot of attention over the last ten years, and it will undoubtedly continue to advance. AI will be used by the majority of mainstream businesses in the future, creating many startup opportunities.  Embracing failure as a learning opportunity is integral when figuring out how to come up with a tech startup idea that evolves and adapts.

GROWTH STATISTICS

In 2023, the artificial intelligence market is expected to grow to a size of US$4.11 billion. By 2030, the market is projected to reach a volume of US$14.72 billion, growing at a 19.99% annual rate (CAGR 2023–2030).

2. Cloud Technology

Immersing oneself in technology forums and hackathons is a proactive way to uncover how to come up with a tech startup idea. Cloud technology, also known as cloud computing, refers to the ability to access and store data and programs on the Internet. Cloud computing enables businesses to become more agile and competitive by utilizing software and IT infrastructure. It can also provide faster innovation, more flexible resources, and scale economies.

Also Read: 11 EASY HACKS: HOW TO SCALE UP A BUSINESS FINANCIALLY

GROWTH STATISTICS

In 2023, the public cloud market is expected to generate $7,514.00 million in revenue. The market is dominated by infrastructure as a service, with a projected value of US$3,149.00 million in 2023.

3. Biotech Startups

Leveraging emerging technologies like AI or blockchain can inspire how to come up with a tech startup idea that leverages innovation. Every year, a large number of biotech startups appear alongside the swift advancement of technology. Because biotechs are crucial to enhancing the quality of human life, governments and angel investors support these startups and give them exposure.

GROWTH STATISTICS

With 1,128 biotech startups established in 2021, three biotech startups were incorporated on average every day. Such impressive growth has laid the groundwork for an ambitious goal: nearly doubling the bioeconomy’s size in three years and reaching $150 billion by 2025.

4. Cyber Security

Most businesses are increasing their cybersecurity spending in response to the serious threat posed by cybercrime. This development shows that a cyber security startup will never run out of customers, making it an extremely lucrative industry to explore. 

GROWTH STATISTICS

Iterating on initial concepts enhances the process of how to come up with a tech startup idea by refining and improving the idea. The market for cyber security is predicted to grow to $352.25 billion by 2026, which makes it a brilliant idea to establish a cyber security startup. 

5. EdTech Startup

The integration of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to promote learning is known as educational technology. EdTech companies use technology to help educators function more efficiently and to provide education.

GROWTH STATISTICS

Analyzing successful startups can offer inspiration on how to come up with a tech startup idea by adapting or improving existing models. With more than $4 billion in total funding, the EdTech industry in India emerged as the most well-funded startup segment in 2021. That is 1.7 times the amount raised between 2014 and 2020.

Bottom Line

It’s easy to become stuck when you look for startup ideas and feel like none of them are good. You’ll be much more likely to generate a startup idea that’s viable enough to launch if you use the strategic frameworks covered in this article along with some of the best startup ideas in the tech industry. Seeking mentorship and guidance assists in understanding how to come up with a tech startup idea that aligns with industry standards.

Read this informative guide to protect your startup from failing: 

THE 10 TOP REASONS WHY STARTUP FAILS IN 2024: WILL YOURS BE A STARTUP FAILURE TOO?

How To Come Up With a Tech Startup Idea FAQs