Why do some startups offer solutions to non-existent problems?

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed under belong solely to the writer.

When Covid-19 became a pandemic two years in the past, it was not the one illness that hit our shores. With practically 100,000 new companies registered over the previous 18 months, entrepreneurship fever is nicely and actually alive in Singapore.  

A fast scroll by LinkedIn or some other social media feed is all it takes to verify that quantity. Nearly everyone seems to be both beginning a startup or working for one. 

Maybe, island fever is the right incubator for enterprise concepts to pop up like a unending recreation of Whac-A-Mole. Take into account this, in 2021 alone, startups have raised an unbelievable S$11.2 billion, double the quantity raised in 2020. 

This startup bonanza has led to the creation of 15 unicorns in Singapore, proving that fairy tales exist within the grownup world. 

Legendary creatures apart, for each unicorn, there exists numerous companies struggling to be seen or heard. Many will fail, and extra will fade right into a black gap of obscurity due to a mixture of things, however none extra so than the pointless startup. 

What’s a pointless startup?

At its core, a pointless startup is a product touting to unravel issues that don’t want fixing or worse, don’t even exist. These are corporations so determined to disrupt and innovate, they turn out to be satisfied that each minor irritation or inconvenience in life would require the assistance of an app or a third-party service. 

Typically, these startups are buried underneath so many layers of business jargon, it’s virtually not possible to grasp what they’re attempting to realize. For instance, what’s a “full stack B2B2C picture sharing platform”? Your guess is pretty much as good as mine. 

The laundry listing of pointless startups worldwide is infinite. Even in Singapore – a rustic the place individuals are higher identified for his or her practicality slightly than creativity – our startup scene just isn’t immune from pointlessness.  

As an example, why do youngsters want a devoted cell fee platform to empower their spending when a debit card can do the trick? 

Elsewhere within the depths of our startup ecosystem, there are additionally proposals to develop merchandising machines with gamified parts. This begs the query, are we as a nation affected by consideration deficit so dangerous, that we want video games to have interaction us when shopping for a beverage?

Except for the superfluous, there are additionally startups whose execution of their product is so poor, they may as nicely fall into the pointless class. The truth that there are actually companies providing an academic product that’s nothing greater than PowerPoint slides masquerading as a cell app is laughable. What could be the worth of that?

Behind the rise of pointless startups

On account of aggressive promotion by the federal government, Singapore’s startup scene is prospering. Actually, the abundance of companies has made any makes an attempt to maintain up with the startup scene extra taxing than maintaining with the Kardashians. 

Nonetheless, there are different causes resulting in our deluge of startups. 

Firstly, entrepreneurship as a journey has been romanticised, perpetuated by the life tales of Invoice Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. 

The blood, sweat and tears that go into constructing a profitable enterprise have now turn out to be a ceremony of passage seen with reverence. Neglect what occurs between pre-seed funding to IPO providing. The reward of success is immense, however virtually nobody talks about setbacks and failure. 

Nonetheless, that doesn’t clarify the shortage of originality, market analysis {and professional} experience plaguing many startups. 

Even with essentially the most beneficiant funding, a motivated group and the appropriate market situations, the success of a startup is rarely assured. Why then, accomplish that many individuals persist in beginning a enterprise constructed round a imprecise thought? Have they thought of failure, or are they so swept away by their very own delusions of grandeur to suppose they’re indefatigable?

In our fashionable society, the place immediate gratification triumphs and shallowness is acquired from job titles, the enchantment of startups is apparent. Why wait 20 years to be promoted to CEO if you could be one at present, through your very personal firm? 

The flexibility to bestow oneself an honorific title is interesting. As an alternative of being outlined by a hierarchical job title, one might be a founder/co-founder of a enterprise. 

All it takes is a leap of religion, and you can be on the prime of the apex the place, as an alternative of being an operations supervisor, you at the moment are the COO. Somewhat than being a anonymous promoting govt, you at the moment are the Artistic Director.

Finally, there are not any guidelines towards frivolous or inane merchandise pushed by hubris instead of sense. Merely put, anybody can register an organization in Singapore and name it a startup.

I’m additionally reminded of an episode from Silicon Valley, the place the Pied Piper group got here up with a mathematical mannequin as an example optimum tip-to-tip effectivity. It’s a hoot and possibly the closest to the reality behind how pointless startups happened. 

The expansion of startups is a pattern that exhibits no signal of abating. Whereas actually revolutionary concepts will emerge, wholly pointless merchandise crowding the market can also be unavoidable. 
However fortunately for all of us, the startup market favours the survival of the fittest. As for pointless startups, likelihood dictates that the majority are destined to fail as soon as their founders are performed roleplaying.

Featured Picture Credit score: The Key phrase