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General #

• The best way to find a good idea is to fall in love with a problem
• Just Google the problem to see if someone has worked on the problem before
• Ideas that make ideas seem bad but are actually good
  • Ideas that are hard to get started
  • Ideas that are in a boring space
    • Because a lot of founders shy away from this these ideas have a better hit rate than “fun” ideas
  • Ideas with existing competitors
• Trying to think of startup ideas is often the worst way to come up with ideas because you invent problems that don’t exist
  • See Paul Graham essay
• The best startup ideas are ones that a few people want badly rather than ones that a lot of people want a bit
• “Live in the future, then build what’s missing/what’s interesting”

Common Mistakes #

• Common mistakes
  • Building something that doesn’t solve a problem for real users – a solution in search of a problem
  • Getting stuck on a “tarpit” idea – ideas that get you stuck
    • Widespread problem that lots of founders encounter
    • Problems where there is a structural reason why you can’t solve the problem (e.g. an app that makes it easier to go to events with friends)
      • The common theme here is ideas that are harder than they seem
    • Make sure you don’t just hop on the first idea and evaluate
    • Don’t wait for the perfect idea

Idea Evaluation #

• Evaluating an idea
  • Do you have founder market fit?
  • How big is the market?
  • How acute is the problem?
  • Do you have competition? Counterintuitively, good startup ideas have competition
    • If going up against entrenched competition you want to have a unique insight
  • Why now?
• A great situation is a problem with a bunch of competitors but everyone had missed something or the other products suck

Idea Generation #

• The best way to have startup ideas is to notice them organically rather than thinking through a process
• If you are running a process for idea generation
  • Start with ideas your team is actually good at
  • Start with a problem you have encountered – especially one that you are uniquely going to see
  • Think of things you personally wish existed
  • Look for things in the world that have changed recently
  • Look for new variants of already successful companies
  • Talk to people and ask what problems they have. This actually takes a lot of skill
  • Look for big industries that seem broken
• It’s often hard to tell if a startup idea is good or not
  • You just have to launch it and find out