Twenty years of DJing and almost nothing I played was mine.
The records belonged to other people. The skill for me was never writing the song. It was finding the ones the room hadn't heard yet, and making them stronger in that moment through song selection. That's only something you achieve by understanding your audience.
I spent this week inside two studies built from my own tools, and both say the same thing about building a business.
BigMoneyIdeas has now scored 156 ideas. Not one was genuinely new. 85% were a sharper version of a model that already works, and the rest were a new angle on an old problem. The ones that scored highest weren't the most original. They were aimed at a specific person with a real budget, usually a simple service or an AI angle on a boring problem. Originality wasn't the edge. Doing a proven thing better was. In other words, understanding the pain or problem you are trying to solve.
The second study at theFirst100, we looked at where founders actually find their first customers. We mapped 100 businesses and 1,239 communities. The customers were never waiting in one big obvious room. They were spread across a dozen small ones each, and 80% of those rooms punish anyone who walks in selling. You don't get discovered there. You show up, you make yourself useful, and you earn the right to say what you built. In other words, make yourself useful first by listening to the pain point. Then offer the solution.
You don't need a new idea to succeed in business. Oftentimes you need an old one done better. Then you find your audience in the right room, and step in.
I've been at it with my own products for 30 days now. I understand the pain point. I know where my customers are and what they need. Now, I need to step into the room!
🎵 The Winstons — Amen, Brother Six seconds of this 1969 B-side became the backbone of jungle, hip-hop, and drum and bass. They didn't invent a new beat. They found a better use for one that already existed.
— Nicc