What to ask yourself when creating a startup

Update like 2 years later: I must have been down when I wrote this, because the age of invention will never dwindle.

The golden age of invention is dwindling. Look closely, and you’ll see that the most successful products and startups today are not original ideas, but iterations on previous ideas. Very little is new; most just an upgrade of the old. Every new generation of people refuse to live by the rules and ideas of previous generations, and are therefore always in an effort to replace what they did not have any say-so in. The “old generations”, whether of people or products, have not been brought up to the standards of today, and when the new steps in and shows them how it should be done, we call this disrupting.

Uber disrupted the taxi industry.

Chipotle disrupted the fast food industry

Tesla disrupted the automobile industry

Nest disrupted the thermostat industry

Simple disrupted the banking industry

iPhone disrupted the mobile phone industry

Tuft & Needle is disrupting the mattress industry

Robinhood.io is disrupting the stock trade industry

Most entrepreneurs today futilely ask themselves the difficult question of “what can I create that doesn’t already exist and can make life easier?” While both questions may lead to the same result, it is easier and more practical to start with the question “what already exists but can be done better?” What industry is in desperate need of disruption?