I liked the concept of ‘tar pit ideas’ that is talked about in this StartupMBA TikTok that I came across. These are common startup ideas that multiple entrepreneurs have come up with before, which continue to attract a lot of focus, but which end up going nowhere.
Tar pit ideas form around a common problem which seems on the surface relatively easy to solve – the example used in the video is the stereotypical but widespread problem of trying to coordinate a diverse group of friends to organise a night out. It seems that this might be easily solved by a startup but it’s an illusion since there are structural reasons that actually make it much harder to find a workable solution. They are not necessarily impossible to work out but these can be dangerous ideas because it can be very easy to waste a lot of time trying to fix them. Talking to founders that have tried to solve the same problem before can help to understand the critical blockers to progress.
This is a concept which I think can just as easily apply to big companies. Every large business has known challenges that look easy to solve but are actually structurally trickier than they look. Employees can waste a lot of time pursuing tar pit ideas that other staffers may well have already tried and failed.
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