So, what's the big idea?

When I was growing up that question usually came from someone that wasn't very happy with me or something I had done or said. I am sure we have all heard that before in our lives. In the business world of startups, however, that is the first question investors and interested parties will ask about your startup. It short asked differently, it means what's new and different about your startup idea. In order to first gain and then keep someone's attention you have got to have a good answer to the question, "What's the big idea?"

First and foremost, what’s the big idea behind the startup? While bigger, better, faster, and even cheaper works for new products and services, it is hard to make that the big idea behind a new company. Bigger, better, faster implies an improvement on something that already exists, and there are often solutions already in the market that have history and a track record. Penetrating a competitive landscape might be too difficult or too expensive when promoting something that only “improves” on something that already exists. A big idea is something new and different that radically changes the way something is done or is delivered.

We hear a lot today about disruptive technology, a device or process that leads to a more productive and efficient way of doing things. It radically changes how things are done. Disruptive technology and innovation are terms used to describe innovations that improve a product or a service in ways the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into low-end and new-market categories. A new-market innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, which is targeted to consumers who would not have used the products or services already on the market. Lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality.

Disruptive technologies are particularly threatening to leaders of an existing market because they bring competition from an unexpected direction. A disruptive technology can come to dominate an existing market by filling a role in a new market that older technology could not fill. Consider the effects of cheaper, lower capacity but smaller flash memory on personal data storage, as we have experienced in the 2000s. Dominance can also come from successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents, just as digital photography has done to the film photography market. Do we even remember what is meant by a Polaroid picture? The photograph materialized right before your eyes. It was real magic then, but it’s long forgotten and abandoned. The photo was not the greatest quality but you got back your picture almost immediately, one photo shot after another. Today a photo appears immediately on a digital camera screen. It’s a great quality photo that can be shared with anyone and it comes without the wait. That’s the real magic today.

There are dramatic examples of disruptive innovation in history. Firearms replaced crossbows, steamships replaced sailing ships, telephones replaced telegraphy, paper replaced parchment, planes, trucks, and cars replaced rail transport, and plastic replaced metal, wood and glass in many products or parts. These were all disruptive innovations.

Consider the number of disruptive innovations just in our lifetimes. They have come faster and faster and caught many established companies completely off guard.

Consider the following…

Disruptive Innovation	Displaced Technology
-	Mini steel mills	Vertically integrated steel mills
-	Minicomputers	Mainframes
-	Personal computers	Minicomputers, Word processors
-	Desktop publishing	Traditional publishing
-	High speed CMOS video Photographic film
-	Downloadable media	CD’s, DVD’s
-	Mobile VoIP	GSM and roaming
-	LCD	CRT
-	Word processor	Typewriter
-	Computer printers	Offset printing
-	Television/VCR's	Movie theaters
-	Missile weapons	Artillery
-	Light emitting diodes	Light bulbs…

…and so on, the list keeps growing.

Disruptive innovation has played a big part in the success of startups that pioneered and ultimately captured huge market shares in the fields listed above. Each was right for market entry at the time it was introduced and each was largely ignored by the contemporary market leaders in that segment. Disruptive technology can be the heart of a big idea, but the timing of the technology must also be on target.

So does anyone out there have a "big idea" they are willing to share. There is probably a startup right behind it waiting to be loved.