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Everyone should be using ChatGPT to generate business ideas. That was Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch’s conclusion after asking ChatGPT to generate 200 product ideas. The language learning model completed the task in just 15 minutes and came up with better ideas than a cohort of business school students. That said, ChatGPT has its limitations. In another study, researchers found that AI-generated solutions were more valuable, but human solutions were more innovative. That’s why, rather than replacing human creativity, generative AI can be a powerful tool to enhance it.
ChatGPT is an efficient and relatively inexpensive collaborator. It can help you get the ball rolling, doing the heavy lifting during the ideation phase and leaving you with more bandwidth to evaluate, fine-tune, and implement.
I’m a proponent of automating your busywork and my team regularly uses ChatGPT to help us brainstorm our next big idea. It doesn’t do the work for us, but it offers additional possibilities to consider. If you’re looking for a profitable startup idea, here are some ChatGPT prompts to get the wheels turning.
I’ve always said: don’t blindly brainstorm your way into a new business. The most successful startups are born from a need, frustration, or opportunity to do something even better. Before I launched my business, I worked for a New York media company where I was tasked with coding forms. The tedium and frustration of my day job inspired me to start an easy-to-use online form company. To give another example, Uber came about when two guys couldn’t hail a taxi in Paris.
Applying this approach to ChatGPT, you could use the following prompt:
“I am an entrepreneur coming up with startup ideas. Here is a problem I want to solve: [description]. Can you generate 10 different business ideas for solving this problem in the [market]? Use market research to ensure each idea is feasible and profitable.”
One of the limitations of AI is that it lacks the kind of context that humans acquire through experience and expertise. If you want to serve a specific market, you can combine your human understanding of context with AI’s powerful idea-generation capabilities. Together, you can generate startup ideas targeted to a specific market.
For example, I asked ChatGPT to come up with profitable business ideas targeting university students in southern California. That generated a range of interesting ideas, from Eco-Friendly Transportation Rentals and Virtual Reality (VR) Study Aid Platforms to Customizable Dorm Room Décor Services.
Here’s a prompt to consider:
“I am coming up with business ideas for [target market]. Based on market research, can you generate 10 profitable startup ideas to meet their specific wants and needs?”
Remember: the more details you provide ChatGPT, the more tailored your answers will be.
Another approach for finding a profitable startup idea is to increase accessibility for a product that’s proven to be successful. For example, I recently read about a startup called Campo Grande that brings traditional Spanish food products, like Iberian Ham and Vaca Vieja beef, to the U.S. market. They’re not reinventing the wheel—these are time-tested, delicious foods—but they’re making the products more accessible to Spanish-food-loving Americans.
For example, I asked ChatGPT for ideas for making French wine more accessible in China. Based on market research, the LLM suggested a Mobile App for Wine Education and Purchases, French Wine Experience Centers, and more.
With this approach, the prompt could be:
“I am an entrepreneur coming up with profitable business models for making [product or service] more accessible in [region or to population]. Can you come up with 5 ideas for profitable business models?”
History is littered with stories of hugely successful businesses that arose from a pivot. Wrigley’s launched as a door-to-door baking soda vendor, with chewing gum as a complimentary gift. They pivoted when they realized customers were more into the gum than their original product. Netflix began as a company that shipped DVDs. As Harvard Business School explains, with the advent of streaming, Netflix incorporated the new technology into its business model. Streaming was a sustaining innovation.
As an entrepreneur, it’s critical to understand that your customers are your most important stakeholders. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you think your idea is. If the customers want an adjacent product or service, you must listen to them. But if your startup is struggling to gain traction—maybe your products aren’t “sticky” enough—and the pivot isn’t obvious, ChatGPT can help you explore the possibilities.
Here’s a prompt to test out:
“My company is a(n) [company description] that serves [target customer]. The idea is to [general mission statement]. We currently have [number] users in [geographical region]. Can you generate 10 possible business pivots to increase our user base? We would like to focus on gaining users that become regular customers.”
Whether you’re polishing an important email or editing your pitch deck, ChatGPT can be a valuable resource. Dan Kraemer, co-CEO and co-founder of IA Collaborative, explained how his team uses AI to “conceive future businesses and to make those ideas more likely to become big hits.” For example, once the team settles on a few ideas, they use generative AI to help with due diligence: competitive analysis, market forecasting, labor market statistics and financial modeling.
Likewise, you can use ChatGPT to get feedback on your proposed startup idea.
The prompt could be:
“I am developing a business idea for a profitable startup. The idea is to [product or service description]. For customers, we are targeting [target market] in the [target region]. Can you offer feedback on this idea, including competitive analysis, market forecasting, labor market statistics, and financial modeling?”
In just 10-15 seconds, ChatGPT can churn out detailed feedback on your idea. And remember, the more context you provide, the more pointed the reply will be. Help ChatGPT to help you do your job even better.
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