Should a first business be something you are passionate about?

Helpful, not required — and knowing the customer matters far more than loving the product. Passion is useful mainly because it makes the dull eighteen months bearable.

In more detail

What actually predicts survival is familiarity with the buyer: knowing what they complain about, what they will pay for, what they will not wait for. You can develop enthusiasm for a category; you cannot fake having belonged to it.

What to do about it

A market that already spends money is easier than a market you have to convince exists. Competition is evidence, not a warning.

Test whether people will pay before building anything. A hundred people saying they like it is worth less than one paying.

An idea is worth almost nothing on its own. What is scarce is somebody who will keep going after the first version does not work, which is every first version.

The mobile app angle

If the idea is a shop, the sequence matters: sell first, prove people come back, then build the app. An app before the customers is a cost with nothing to do.