Successful products are first and foremost wants. Over time, they can become needs. If you want a cool startup idea and go looking for needs, you’re probably going to hit a wall.
Take Uber, for example. Up until 2010, hailing a cab on the streets or calling up a taxi company was inconvenient, but not painful. It usually worked just fine. Then, one fine day, Uber let you hail a cab through your phone. Life got a little easier. Fast forward to 2018, I can’t imagine life without Uber. People wanted Uber in 2010, but they need it now.
Hotels have always been expensive and most of them suck. Couch-surfing wasn’t for everybody. People wanted cheaper and better hotels. Most homeowners wanted more sources of income (and still do). Airbnb bridged the gap. This was a “want” gap up until 2009, and over time became a “need” gap.
Products can go from a want to a need pretty darn fast. People starting using WhatsApp in 2009 because texting was expensive, whereas WhatsApp was free and fast. Moreover, people missed the desktop-style, cross-platform chat on their smartphones. WhatsApp became exactly that. Soon enough, it was hard to imagine a lifestyle devoid of WhatsApp. Food delivery apps like Deliveroo, Swiggy and UberEATS are relatively new innovations and have already become needs, simply due to the convenience factor (as someone who doesn’t cook much, I can vouch for this personally 😬).
Successful products don’t always become needs. Pinterest is still a want for 99% of people. It could become a need one day for a large number of people, but probably not in its current avatar. Instagram hovers somewhere on the border of a want and need, for most. Snapchat is still a want. Zomato, India’s restaurant aggregator, is a want.
The next time you’re grilling an entrepreneur with the question “why do people need this?”, you’re probably going to get a faux answer. In the earliest stage of a product hitting the market, you almost can never tell whether someday it will become something people need. If you’re looking for a startup idea, looks for wants, not needs.