THRILLING IDEAS, SIMILAR PRODUCTS AND CROWDED MARKETS.

I was performing my daily ritual of reading the top 5 posts on my LinkedIn timeline when I came across a post by a new founder (a software developer) who has just finished building a solution for the fintech sector. Of course every startup has a background story and so he was narrating how an experience he had informed his decision and motivated him to build that solution. Now many things must have happened between conceptualizing the idea and building the product but what I'm sure didn't happen is this founder doing a simple research to find out if there are already existing solutions to his problem because personally I know of two products already on the Kenyan market that are solving the same problem that this founder is trying to do. And I am only realizing just how common this is, as evidenced by the so many similar products built by different founders for the different sectors, the results being overcrowded markets, stiff competition, and thin profit margins.

Now you might argue, and rightly so, that due to the high number of educated individuals and limited jobs in Kenya, people are continuously looking to explore their entrepreneurial spirits. And what we know about first time founders is that they are mostly driven by passion or what they like as opposed to what can bring in money, thus, the first idea to cross the mind wins.

You and I both know that any new idea plays in the mind in the format that is enough to convince you that it's probably the best thing that will happen to society when it's finally live. It's going to be the next big thing that will potentially compete at the same level with Mpesa and swallowing food. When this happens, you hardly want to do any research because who else can think of such a 'revolutionary' idea apart from your great brain?

But to be fair to them, sometimes information about the existence of such solutions are hardly available because, of course they have yet to go mainstream, but also they are new (startups) themselves and due to their limited budgets, haven't done proper marketing and advertising, or they simply haven't done SEO so that anyone searching for solutions online can easily find them.

Regardless of the aforementioned, as a founder, try to be informed about your industry even if it means talking to your friends (even though most of your friends don't tell you the truth).