Tar-pit ideas

Lloyd Humphreys -

I've been adding to my list of ideas for a decade. Some were great (they got built!) some are dumb (they got built and sucked!). Some are really dumb (I didn't bother). I add to it frequently, and occasionally I go through and "garden" it by grouping things - interesting ideas, requires a skill I don't yet have / a technology that doesn't really work yet, not a big enough opportunity... and now I'm considering adding whether or not they're tar-pit ideas.

A discussion on X/Twitter recently prompted me to write this post. The concept of a tarpit idea. I think it's a YC concept - they would at least be the best people to ask given how many pitches they have seen.

These are the startup ideas that seem good — almost too good to be true! — but have been tried by many founders before with little to no success. Tarpit ideas are often not hard in obvious ways. They might seem so easy and good that it’s unbelievable that no one has done it — but when you look a bit deeper, you realize that they have been tried. Over, and over again.

I'm writing this to capture some of the great suggestions for tar-pit ideas I saw over on X/Twitter.

  • "X with better design" (i.e. Craigslist)
  • Loyalty programs/apps
  • Todo-list
  • Email client
  • Anything that resembles Google Reader
  • Vertical social networks
  • Photo sharing
  • Airbnb for... (maybe any two-sided marketplace?)
  • Note taking app (I half-tried one. I'm half tempted to make another, but if I do, it would only be for me.)
  • Calendar app
  • Personal CRM (eye-roll)
  • Discovery apps
  • Chatbots
  • Health tracking, food tracking

I'm not saying never build one of these ideas. Many great companies come from a tar-pit idea. They have a unique insight, an untapped market, access to a unique technology - and they nuke the space. They re-write the rules. Uber, Snap, Netflix.

Perhaps these ideas are borne from hubris - not fully understanding the real problem you're trying to solve. The ones who re-write the rules really understand the problem they're trying to solve.

It gets me thinking about tarpit projects - manager-mode casualties I've been witness to (and tar pits I've been dragged through).

  • Big-bang migrations to new tools
    • You'll spend forever on the long-tail, end up running both long past anyone who made the decision leaves for greener pastures.
  • Overhauling your product onboarding from scratch
    • Everyone wants a say, but it has to be built to frame your product well, not introduce everyone to all your features. Finding that framing can be an exhausting battle.
  • Anything positioned as an innovation project
    • It's "sponsored" by someone in leadership who couldn't convince the product team to put it on the real roadmap. Why's that?
  • New analytics tooling
    • Just drop in the snippet! ....and define all your metrics, ensure they're accurately tracked. Build out a dashboard people can understand. What do you mean they never look at this one either?
  • Design systems? "Re-designs"?
    • Maybe... I think it's easy to bite off more than you can chew. Or think you've got the backing of the org, but the effort is never the priority.

I think experiencing one of these is a rite of passage. Some tar-pit projects are necessary evils. I would just hope that knowledge that what you're about to get into is a mess gives you some ability to shape it into one that doesn't exhaust you.