Business Idea Generator

How to use it

1. Pick a preset, or leave it on Any. Startup, App and Side hustle set the filters for you. Open Filters to change budget, where the business lives (online, offline or hybrid) and whether it is a solo or team effort.
2. Roll. Press Roll again. If one part of the pitch has a spark, lock it and roll the rest.
3. Answer the question under the pitch. Who would pay for this, and why would they pick it over what they do today? Write a sentence or two, even if the pitch is silly.

A pitch from a generator is a prompt, not a plan. Most will be wrong. The useful ones are the ones that make you say “well, actually, what if…” and keep going.

Why four parts

The Scavengers chapter describes a technique sometimes called attribute listing. You take an existing product or service, break it into its components, and then build it up again. A pen has a look, a feel, a material, a type of ink and a way the ink is released. A restaurant has a type of food, a price, a style and a way of delivering it. Each part has many possible versions, and changing one of them gives you something new.

A business has parts too. This generator uses four: who it is for, which problem it deals with, what it uses to do that, and how it makes its money. Because each part is rolled separately, you can hold three still and change one, which is the whole technique in a button.

Presets and filters

Startup leans toward businesses that need funding and a team. App keeps to online ideas. Side hustle keeps to small, low-cost ideas one person could start. They are shortcuts, not rules, and you can change any filter after picking one.

The tags behind the filters are our own judgment calls. A stall is small and a franchise is not, but you can build a franchise on a shoestring in your head. Treat the filters as a nudge.

The scavenger prompt

Under the pitch there is a second prompt that points you at an everyday frustration to look into. The idea comes from the Scavengers chapter, which treats ideas as things lying around that you have to go looking for. Take the prompt away from the screen. Go to the place it names, watch, and write down what bothers people. Then come back and roll with a real problem in mind.

Where the words come from

Every word in the generator comes from the text of the book. The lists are short, so you will see repeats sooner than you would with a giant word bank, and some pitches will be odd. That is part of the point.

Questions

Is this a business plan? No. It gives you a starting sentence. A plan needs customers, costs and a lot of checking that no generator can do.

Is the idea mine? Yes. The tool picks words with a seeded random number generator, and nothing you do here is sent to us.

How do I share a pitch? Press Share link. The address holds the preset, the filters, the seeds and any locks, so whoever opens it sees the same pitch.

Does it keep my ideas? Only if you press Save, and then only on this device. You can clear them at any time.