Business frameworks
Frameworks for building new businesses.
Recent funding rounds
Analyze companies that have recently secured significant investment, identifying trends and opportunities in emerging markets or technologies.
Unbundling
Breaking down a bundled product or service into separate, standalone offerings, often to target specific customer segments more effectively or to compete with established players.
Industry timing arbitrage
Apply newly developed technology from one industry to another that hasn't yet adopted similar technology, capitalizing on the timing difference.
Acqui-deaths
Identify opportunities created when large companies acquire startups, potentially leading to a loss of innovation or focus in the acquired company's original product or service.
Three-star reviews
Find business opportunities by analyzing moderately satisfied customers' feedback (typically 3-star reviews) to identify common pain points or areas for improvement in existing products or services.
Niche down
Focus on a highly specific market segment or customer base, becoming a specialist in that area to differentiate from broader competitors and build a loyal customer base.
Disruptive innovation
Start with a big market that's ripe for disruption. Look for industries where customers are underserved or overcharged. Then, build something that's initially worse but cheaper or more accessible. The incumbents will ignore you until it's too late. This is the Y-Combinator Favourite.
Invent a new sport
Create a game that taps into human nature and competitiveness. The best new sports combine familiar elements in novel ways, making them easy to learn but hard to master. Think of how skateboarding merged surfing with urban environments.
Investigate the graveyard
Failure doesn't always mean a bad idea. Sometimes, it's just bad timing or execution. Look for startups that died but had a compelling core concept. With better tech or a changed market, these ideas might now be viable.
Investigate science fiction
The best sci-fi writers are often accidental prophets. They imagine technologies that don't exist yet but solve real problems. Your job is to make those imaginary solutions real.
What won't change
In a world of constant flux, some things remain remarkably stable. These are often fundamental human needs or behaviors. Identify these constants and build solutions around them. Amazon's Jeff Bezos famously said customers will always want lower prices and faster delivery. By focusing on these unchanging desires, you can create enduring value even as technologies and trends evolve.
Build a copycat
Don't be afraid to copy what works, especially across different markets. The key is to execute better or adapt the idea more effectively to a new context. Facebook wasn't the first social network, but it executed the concept better than its predecessors.
Sign up to see all 39 frameworks
Sign up