Aditya Kothadiya's Blog

I read a very insightful article on How To Spot a Breakthrough: Tips from Early Amazon Investor Nick Hanauer. It talks about what are the key elements to identify breakthrough ideas. The key elements are value creation and social disruption.

Value Creation:

Value is difficult but possible to quantify – it’s the ratio of benefits to cost, divided by those of the alternatives. Benefits are things like a product’s durability, speed, and appeal; costs are things like price, distribution, and training. The solution should be in some way 10 times better than the existing alternative. No breakthrough idea has ever delivered less.

Social Disruption:

• If everyone thinks it’s a great idea, it probably sucks.
• If people understand it, you’re too late.
• If people don’t like it and don’t understand it, it probably still sucks.

Read on the complete article here for more examples and great stories.