Product Ideas #18: Personalized clothing, a CRM for startups, and affordable premium luggage
Product Ideas #18: Personalized clothing, a CRM for startups, and affordable premium luggage
Hi,
I’m bringing back the Product Ideas Newsletter!
But I’m doing it with a twist: I will leverage GPT-3 to brainstorm interesting ideas.
Now before you roll your eyes and close this tab, let me explain.
I’m of course aware that this has been done before and the results haven’t been particularly impressive. But the thing with machine learning models like GPT-3 is that the quality of the output depends heavily on the input you’re providing.
If your input is just “Give me 5 startup ideas”, you will mostly get what Paul Graham calls "sitcom startup ideas” (ideas that sound plausible but are actually bad). But after playing around with GPT-3 for a while I found that if you’re providing more context and more elaborate prompts, you can generate surprising and occasionally maybe even some viable ideas.
In addition, I will not expose you to the raw output GPT-3 provides but manually curate the best ideas plus occasionally add my own.
You can find a few first examples below with many more to come in future issues. This is obviously an experiment and I will try all kinds of different methods to squeeze out interesting product ideas from GPT-3.
In addition, I’ve decided to offer (for a limited time) free, tailormade product ideas. More information here.
Now let’s dive in.
Session 1: Markets, Problems, and Solutions
In this section, I’m highlighting interesting results GPT-3 came up with when asked for markets, problems they’re facing, and solutions that can be turned into startups.
👀 Market: Startups and investors
🤔 Problem: Startups tend to lose track of who they've talked to and what they've offered. Investors tend to lose track of who they've talked to and what they've offered.
💡 Solution: A CRM for startups and investors that remembers everything that's been promised.
👀 Market: Businesses or VCs wanting to see if their portfolio companies are hiring
🤔 Problem: Finding hiring details is hard.
💡 Solution: A tool that aggregates all jobs posted by portfolio companies.
👀 Market: Small to medium sized businesses trying to figure out what customer they should target next
🤔 Problem: Small businesses don't have the resources to do lots of market research to figure this out
💡 Solution: A tool to help them figure out what market to target next.
👀 Market: Coding bootcampers
🤔 Problem: Finding a job
💡 Solution: Provide a platform for bootcampers to post their profile and find jobs.
👀 Market: Website owners
🤔 Problem: Not sure if their site is secure
💡 Solution: Provide a scanner that will scan a website for vulnerabilities.
Session 2: Ideas sparked by a prompt
In this section, I’m highlighting the best ideas GPT-3 came up when given the following prompt.
Is there a really expensive product where you could create a new category that is much more affordable than the current luxury and yet retains high standards and much of its appeal?
💡 Personalized clothing.
The idea is that a customer will be able to upload a picture of themselves, and a machine will create a personalized pattern based on the picture. This pattern will be scanned and used to cut the fabric, and the customer will be able to specify the fabric, lining, and any extra details.
It would take about 4 hours to create the pattern, and then another hour for the machine to cut the fabric.
💡Prescription-Only Apps
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Insomnia (CBT-i) is a scientifically-sound, medication-free process where you train yourself to fall asleep by altering your schedule and sleep conditions.
There is an app called “Somryst” which holds the patient’s hand through the complicated CBT-i process. Studies show it works as well as a real therapist, which is very well indeed. But there’s a catch: you need a doctor’s prescription. Also it costs $899.
Other examples are reSET and reSET-O (12-week courses to help addiction and opioid addiction), EndeavourRx (a video game which is supposed to help manage ADHD in kids).
Read more here.
💡 High-quality, affordable wine.
One example could be a high-quality, affordable wine. Wine can be expensive, but there are also many affordable options that still retain high standards. For example, Charles Shaw wine is a popular, affordable wine that has excellent reviews.
Another example could be a high-end wine club that offers a more affordable wine experience without sacrificing quality. The club could offer a curated selection of wines that are not only from well-known regions but also from up-and-coming winemakers.
💡 Affordable, luxury hotels.
Travelling people who want to stay in 5-star hotels but can't afford them. Many people cannot afford to stay in 5-star hotels, so this idea may be appealing to them.
💡 Custom-made, handcrafted furniture.
A person might want to have a beautiful, custom-made, handcrafted furniture piece. They could buy a beautiful, custom-made, handcrafted furniture piece from a designer at a furniture store. They could buy a beautiful, custom-made, handcrafted furniture piece at a DIY furniture shop
💡 Music production software.
It's a high-cost item that many people aspire to buy, but it's also an industry that is being disrupted by technology. This could be a potential opportunity for a new product.
💡 Affordable jewelry.
Handmade jewelry with the same quality as expensive jewelry with a price point under $100.
💡 High-end home entertainment system.
Creating a more affordable line of products that still offers high quality and appeal could be a successful startup.
💡 Affordable Premium Luggage.
There are a lot of expensive brands out there, but there is definitely room for a more affordable option that still has high standards and much of the appeal. For example, a company could create a new category of affordable luxury luggage that is still made
I hope you enjoyed this report. If you have a minute, please respond and let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Jakob
PS: Opportunities.so is still going strong in case you’re looking for more in-depth idea brainstorms and trend reports.