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Paul Graham says that many of the biggest companies initially start out as toys, or solve small problems [0]. Gates and Allen thought about whether they could create a BASIC interpreter and sold it, for example, and used that to eventually create Windows.

You can't know whether your company will be a billion dollar one ahead of time, unless you're really working in a large problem space, such as biotech, space exploration, etc, but it doesn't look like you are. Therefore, just solve the problems you have, make money (preferably without raising venture capital), then use that money to fund your business and hire employees.

Check out Indie Hackers for more examples of profitable internet businesses [1].

[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

[1] www.indiehackers.com

I am a big fan of Indiehacker too! Thanks for your comments!

I think this is ultimately a personal choice. People argue that whether do you want to own 10% of $1B or 100% of $100M.

> "My personal ambition is to build a product that people love and which gives me a decent revenue to hire a few people and to continue working on it."

From your last sentence, it seems to me that you already have made a decision in your head. You are leaning towards building a sustainable bootstrapped business.

I guess focus on building the product, providing value, start selling your product early on and let the market define whether its a billion-dollar company or not.

Highly recommend checking out the following websites: [1] www.indiehackers.com [2] https://getmakerlog.com/stories [3] https://district.so/bootstrappers

wow! > "From your last sentence, it seems to me that you already have made a decision in your head. You are leaning towards building a sustainable bootstrapped business." I honestly had not realized this myself ! Thanks !

The chances that you actually have a billion-dollar idea are incredibly slim. The chances that you can execute a billion-dollar idea to its potential (considering that you aren't sure what to do) are even smaller. So work on whatever is interesting to you and just do your best.

Thanks this is exactly what I thought as well! Its a great unknown as to whether something is a billion dollar idea.

Go with your gut! The worst case scenario is that you end up over engineering the idea or new technology ends up obsoleting the idea because it takes too long to develop/research. Everything I've read about unicorn ideas is that the timing and climate was perfect for the product/service--other factors weren't as important. In my opinion the best big ideas aren't apps, rather it's something you made to solve a hard problem or as PG says if you are "living in the future". Trying to make the concept into an app may relegate the idea itself.

Thanks! But arent Uber and Airbnb also apps?

Think it depends on what you want.

Do you want to be the CEO of an Uber sized company, or do you want want a small lifestyle business, that lets you spend your summers in the Bahamas.

Actually I think of it in terms of the product - I want to build something that helps people and a problem that has a lot of potential to where I can keep developing and add new features. So I dont really mind if its a small business which lets me go on vacation in the Bahamas :-) And I dont mind if it becomes huge. The advice that I get and from what I see online is to focus on big problems with big markets...

Ask HN: What to work on – Small idea vs. million/billion dollar idea