Daniel Lubetzky knows firsthand that great business ideas can sound far-fetched at first.
But the “Shark Tank” investor and Kind Snacks founder says entrepreneurs should not dismiss their most outlandish ideas too soon because they’re the ones that can turn into some of the most successful businesses.
“Out of those crazy things — that’s when the Kind bar comes out, the Ring machine that Jamie Siminoff invented — it has to come from the thinking outside of pushing yourself,” he said, citing his company’s Kind snack bar and the smart-doorbell company acquired by Amazon in 2018 for about $1 billion.
The business world is littered with such examples. Airbnb cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky has said people thought it was “crazy” to imagine strangers staying in one another’s homes. And Spotify founder Daniel Ek has described the company’s original aim — making every song instantly and legally available — as an “impossible idea.”
Ahead of the launch of his “Build or Break” podcast on September 3, Lubetzky shared with Business Insider his three-part framework for turning any business idea — no matter how bizarre — from a brainstorm into reality.
1. Be a curious creative
“When you’re brainstorming, you have to only brainstorm,” Lubetzky said. “You have to not allow any filters to apply because it’s almost like you need to be looking for the stupidest idea.”
He said founders should push beyond the obvious options and put every idea on the board, however unrealistic it may initially appear. The goal is to escape conventional thinking, because that is where original concepts can emerge.
“The crazier you go, the more you put on your board,” he said. “You cannot filter anything out because you have to push yourself outside of that box for you to come up with something that nobody else has ever come up with.”
2. Be a consummate critic
Then comes the critical stage.
After stepping away from the brainstorm, founders should interrogate the ideas that remain with discipline, Lubetzky said.
They should consider whether they have the necessary skills, whether customers want the product, whether the economics work, and whether competitors could do it better.
“You take a break and then you start applying all of the filters,” he said. “Do I have what it takes to do this? Are these the skills that are necessary, and do I have all those skills? Is the input-to-output correlation worth it? Does the consumer really want it? Is there no other competition that can do it better?”
This stage requires founders to be tough on their own ideas.
“You have to apply 20 filters and ask really tough questions to clean up your brainstorm list and zone in on the thing that’s most creative but actually you can pull it off,” Lubetzky said.
3. Be a committed crusader
Finally, once an entrepreneur has subjected an idea to that “intellectual trial by fire,” they need to stop second-guessing themselves and execute, Lubetzky said.
“If you still believe that your idea is worth pursuing, once you’re ready, you need to switch from being a critic to being a believer,” he said. “And you have to just go and execute it no matter what.”
Lubetzky said the framework applies beyond startups. People can build companies, inventions, schools, or bridges between groups, he said, but they also have a choice in how they use their ideas and energy.
“All of us can be builders or destroyers,” Lubetzky said. “It’s up to us to decide whether we wake up in the morning and try to tear each other apart,” or use those tools “to solve problems together.”
