Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Three years of mobile apps and SaaS ideas ended with one question: what could I see myself working on the longest? That became Trends.vc, and Rovio's 52nd game shows why the question works.
Show Notes
Three years of mobile apps and SaaS ideas ended with one question: what could I see myself working on the longest? That became Trends.vc, and Rovio's 52nd game shows why the question works.
Featuring: Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen, Kim Dikert
Brought to you by:
Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities.
HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do.
Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video.
Chapters:
(00:00) Three years looking for a business idea
(00:08) The question that changed the search
(00:29) A blank key in a door
(00:42) Rovio's 51 games before Angry Birds
(00:58) Ask what you could work on the longest
Where to find Dru:
I write an essay daily. Get them free
Follow me on X
Watch my video essays on YouTube
Follow Dru's Notes on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.
Creators and Guests
JV
Guest
Jarno Väkeväinen
Featured in Dru's Notes: If I Started Trends.vc Over, This Is Exactly What I’d Ask.
KD
Guest
Kim Dikert
Featured in Dru's Notes: If I Started Trends.vc Over, This Is Exactly What I’d Ask.
NH
Guest
Niklas Hed
Featured in Dru's Notes: If I Started Trends.vc Over, This Is Exactly What I’d Ask.
What is Dru's Notes?
One mental model each day in a few minutes. Habits, business, building products and thinking clearly. From Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc.
I spent 3 years trying to find a business idea.
Mobile apps came first, then SaaS ideas. I let each one go.
Then I changed the question. I stopped asking which idea was best and asked what I could see myself working on the longest.
The answer was exploring how businesses and markets work. I could spend years spotting opportunities and finding what links one market to the next. I was already doing it for free.
That became Trends.vc.
Starting a business is like trying a blank key in a door.
It won't turn the first time. So you go back, reshape the key and try the lock again.
The longer you're willing to keep reshaping, the more likely the door opens.
In 2003 Niklas Hed and two friends from university started a game company in Finland.
Over the next 6 years they shipped 51 games. By then the company was close to bankruptcy.
They made one more.
Number 52 was Angry Birds.
Your first idea is like the first cut of that key.
Before you ask what the best business idea is, ask what you could see yourself working on the longest.
What could you start that you could keep doing for decades?