Skip to ContentGo to accessibility page
OpenStax Logo
Entrepreneurship

Introduction

EntrepreneurshipIntroduction
Figure 6.1 Sometimes, navigating from the recognition of an opportunity to overcoming problems in the development of that opportunity can feel like winding through a maze. (credit: modification of “human hand company paper solutions” by “Eluj”/Pixabay, CC0)

Chapter Outline

Introduction

Portions of the material in this section are based on original work by Geoffrey Graybeal and produced with support from the Rebus Community. The original is freely available under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license at https://press.rebus.community/media-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/.

Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi met when they worked together at DoSomething.org, a youth-oriented global nonprofit organization. They considered each other aspirational peers—accessible friends they looked up to and leaned on. While working together, they got the idea to turn the support they gave each other into a product idea: an inspirational platform that would send users a motivational text message each day. In 2015, Hirabayashi and Lidey began to focus on turning their idea into a reality. They conducted a test with seventy individuals before publicly releasing Shine in beta in October 2015. They formally left DoSomething.Org in April 2016 and their startup venture, Shine, was born.

The problem Shine tackles is that “self-help is broken” and its value proposition addresses in part what is known as “the confidence gap,” often cited as a barrier that holds women back when it comes to advancing in their careers, raising money, investing, and planning retirement. Shine has four pillars it is built to address: mental health, confidence, daily happiness, and productivity. As of 2018, the Shine community had two million users from 189 countries. What began as a motivational text message service has since evolved to include an app and additional services such as Shine Talks and audio challenges.

Hirabayashi and Lidey recognized a need—or an entrepreneurial opportunity. You learned about identifying opportunities in the chapter on Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunity. This chapter will explore what happens next—the problem solving and need recognition techniques that entrepreneurs employ to carry the idea forward, and to solve issues that arise as the enterprise advances. Problem solving is essential to the genesis of entrepreneurship. At the same time, problem-solving techniques can be used in management and in an individual’s everyday personal life.

PreviousNext
Order a print copy
Citation/Attribution
Reuse and redistribution of this content in digital or print format:
  • This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's prior written permission.
  • This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which means that you can reuse and modify the material only for noncommercial purposes, must attribute OpenStax, and must distribute any derivative works under the same license.
  • Any commercial printing of this textbook, including using a local or custom printer, must be approved by OpenStax, and proper citation provided.
  • OpenStax-copyrighted images, activities, assessments, and similar components of this book are subject to the same licensing – CC-BY-NC-SA. They can be used for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.
  • Permission requests: Anyone who intends to incorporate this content (including text, images, and other components) into large language models, use it in AI offerings, use it commercially (including in print), and/or has questions about another use case is welcome to complete our reuse request form.
Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/1-introduction

  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial digital format, then for every page that includes OpenStax content, you must license the derivative work under the same CC-BY-NC-SA license as the original, and include on every digital page view the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/1-introduction

Citation information

The information below includes the information needed to generate citations in most major styles (APA, MLA, etc.); you must reformat and organize the information as needed to fit the requirements of the style. Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.

© Jun 17, 2026 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo, and Rice University name, and Rice University logo trademarks, or wordmarks are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.