Are you building [Ice Skates] or are you building [Ear muffs]?
Ice skates allow you to do something new that you didn't even know you had a demand for. Ear muffs solve a problem that you were already solving poorly (with your hands).
[Business vs toy] is an insanely counterproductive mental framework which will create a false sense of security in founders who are actually building crap - just because you can play with it does not mean it has value.
I believe you can only do that distinction (business vs toy) after the fact. So it offers no guidance at all.
Was Dropbox a toy in the beggining? You can argue. Was Google a toy in the beggining? You can argue. Was Uber a toy in the beggining? You can argue. Was Airbnb a toy in the beggining? You can argue.
Unless, of course, you're talking about the famous SOCIAL NETWORKS. In which case they were -- and continue to be -- toys.
That's only from the perspective of the user. From the perspective of businesses using the data for marketing, the actual customers, social networks are definitely not toys.
Ex. Facebook obviously felt like a toy at the beginning whereas Salesforce has never been a toy.
I mean, I was honestly trying to figure out which way you were going with that analogy while reading is, because it seemed to cut against your point.
Perhaps instead of this false dichotomy or business vs toy, we should actually consider supply, demand, reach etc and many the other variables that have proven the test of time that they actually help define future success.
Here's a list of toys I can rattle off the top of my head, let me know whether they are crappy businesses to start if they didn't exist: Movies, Video games, Comic books, Frisbee.
Entertainment is a business.
Eh, I should know better than to comment when I'm that worked up about something. It's too easy to get tunnel vision. :/
No benefits but toys are really profitable to be simply let go.