💡 Adam's Ideas Issue #4 - Taking Businesses Back To Their Roots

Welcome to the new joiners this week!

Bit of a different newsletter today, let me explain why…

I’ve had a great reception to this newsletter so far, it started off on a whim but it seems there is real demand for a UK-focused newsletter.

I’ve trialled a few different sections and content types over previous issues and have been giving a lot of thought to what this should become.

I’ve also been working on a design revamp and ways to enhance the content this week, it isn’t quite ready yet but hopefully next week we’ll be much better looking!

So I’d like to ask for a favour - hit reply to this email and tell me what you want from this newsletter.

So, with all that going on I’ve decided to do something different again this week. Instead of a specific idea, I’ve got an ideation framework to think about and some examples of opportunities it presents.

Let’s dive in…

Estimated read time - 2 minutes.

Businesses lose their way as they grow.

Take a look at any unicorn and trace it back to its roots - in almost every case it will have changed significantly.

Whilst many of them will have maintained their path some will have lost their way.

And this creates opportunities.

To explain I’ll use an example.

AirBnB sucks.

When AirBnB first launched it was a game changer - cheap stays with local hosts and authentic experiences.

Today it is unrecognisable from its early days.

The list of common issues is pretty long:

• Excessive cleaning fees.

• Endless rules and demands to clean properties at the end of a stay - what am I paying the cleaning fee for then?!

• Super hosts with multiple properties dominate the platform.

• The quality of accommodation is very variable.

• Customer service is poor.

• Guests being scammed by hosts.

So what’s the opportunity?

Build a competitor, and stay true to the original mission.

Now this may sound daunting and like it requires millions in investment but remember how AirBnB started?

The founders rented out mattresses in their apartment in San Francisco to attendees of a design conference as hotels were full.

So start similar - you may live in a tourism hotspot yourself and have a spare room, start with that and expand to other hosts when demand gets too high.

If you’re not in that situation pick a town busy with tourism and find some hosts.

Don’t overthink this. You can build an MVP ‘clone’ of AirBnB easily on Webflow.

It’s marketing that will make or break this and where you need to focus all of your efforts.

This isn’t the only opportunity.

AirBnB isn’t the only company that has lost its way:

• Etsy - this was originally for handmade items, now it’s full of cheap rubbish.

• UpWork - it now charges freelancers to apply for jobs, many jobs are a race to the lowest price, and clients are often time wasters.

• ASOS - a lot of people forget this originally stood for ‘As Seen On Screen’ and helped you find cool items you’d seen in movies or on TV. Now it’s just another online retailer.

Fix the above issues and recreate what these businesses originally set out to be.

Look around at businesses you used to love and you’ll find these opportunities everywhere.

That’s it for today.

A bit of a shorter one whilst I work on the design revamp and figure out how to enhance Adam’s Ideas moving forward.

Remember - I’d love your input on what you want from this newsletter. Just hit reply!