New Business Idea?

I’m asked several times a week if I think a business should be based on a totally new business idea or on existing idea given a new twist. Generally I believe that unless you’re an experienced entrepreneur you’re more likely to succeed in business by taking and existing business idea and implementing it better than anyone else. Possibly using a new twist to make it different (for example video rental by post), a new process reduce costs or technology to offer additional benefits (for example using carbon fibre to build lighter airframes for aircraft).

Sure there are people that have done well with totally new business ideas, but I struggle to think of any that are genuinely new business ideas. Yet if I think of the Billionaire entrepreneurs I’m aware of such as Bill Gates (Microsoft), Richard Branson (Virgin) Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google) Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), Michael Dell (Dell), Sam Walton (WalMart), Pierre Omidyar (Ebay), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) have all taken an existing business idea and done it better (Google, Dell, Microsoft, WalMart, Virgin, Berkshire Hathaway) or added a new Twist (Dell, Amazon, Ebay, Virgin).

So can you name a successful business that has been based on a totally new idea?