
Ask HN: Can't come up with a good startup idea, shall I just get a job? - nnd
Hi HN,<p>I&#x27;m doing some consulting at the moment, it&#x27;s a challenging gig, but doesn&#x27;t fell fulfilling enough.<p>I&#x27;m actively trying to come up with an idea for my next venture, but can&#x27;t seem to find anything I&#x27;m passionate about. I wonder if joining an established company would help with that problem.
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ztratar
1\. I think your problem is relatively detached from the "should I join a
company" question. Good ideas take time and are brewed in your brain after
you've seen a problem enough. SolarCity's founders (Elon Musks cousins) first
were told about solar's potential 2 years before they came up with the idea
for SolarCity and their innovative financing model -- they went out and did a
ton of research on the market, interviewed experts, and went to conferences
before they saw that "no one was owning the problem that people couldn't
afford solar." So they chose that as their "idea".

Basically, if you want to come up with an idea, go find problems you think are
injustices in the world and go off and learn as much as you can, both online
and in the real world. Why do those problems exist? Is it a technical problem,
social problem, etc? As you go for a root cause analysis, you'll naturally end
up coming up with solutions.

2\. Sometimes it's simply hard to get a high-level view of the tech industry
and the markets that interplay. There are tons of cool startups. I recently
wrote a blog post that you might like, where my company lists 75 of the most
exciting startups, segmented by problem space:
[https://jobstart.com/guides/top-startup-picks-explore-the-
ma...](https://jobstart.com/guides/top-startup-picks-explore-the-markets)

Hope this all helps, and good luck!

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CyberFonic
Most startups fail. The media only talks about the outliers that have amazing
success. Most struggle for a couple of years and then disappear. The lucky
ones get bought.

If you are feeling unfulfilled, then maybe you should be looking at bigger,
real problems. Of course, big problems are typically too big for a solo
founder to tackle.

I cannot fathom your thinking about joining an established company being an
answer. Generally, such companies stifle innovative thinking.

~~~
nnd
I'm thinking about joining a big company from a perspective of networking
mostly. Like you said, big problems are too much for a solo founder.

------
seanwilson
Maybe try changing consultancy contracts and start brainstorming about the
kinds of problems you're having to solve, things you have to keep doing
manually and pain points you have. It can take months and years for an idea to
develop so don't give up.

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danieltillett
Is your problem a lack of good ideas or a lack of ideas you are passionate
about?

~~~
nnd
Mostly the latter I would say.

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mpbm
Well, step 1 is don't die. Step 2 is don't suck.

So you have to account for survival first. If you need to get a job, then get
a job. You don't need to find a fulfilling passion until step 1 is taken care
of.

Also, I think it's important to differentiate between work and passion. Most
people never discover an alignment between what they do to earn money and
what's most important to them. Instead, most people become passionate about
something like their family and work is just something they do to support
their passion. It's normal to not find a startup you're passionate about.

A pattern I've seen described, that might work in your case, is to ask your
clients if they have any unsolved problems they would happily pay you money to
solve. Use their responses as the basis of your search. Keep paying the bills,
and in your "spare time" investigate these problems. If one of them grabs you,
ask for payment up front, if you get it, then you've found alignment between a
passion and work.

An alternative approach is to look for people who are a little bit ahead of
you and going in the direction you want to go. People who have found an
alignment between their passion and work, and who are a little ways into the
journey. Shop among them for one that you want to join. Work on their passion
and find out how it's going for them.

Another alternative is to dramatically alter the survival equation so that you
can devote yourself to exploring potential passions without worrying about
survival. Live super cheap; maybe move to Vietnam or something.

For context, I found an alignment between my passion and work. At least, I
hope I did. One person's asked to pay for it already, I just have to get that
part built. I never followed a pattern of trying to find a passion I could
turn into an income, I just always chased down and tackled interesting
challenges. A while ago realized that the solution I'd come up with had way
too much potential to remain a hobby. Now I'm in a place where I'd rather fail
at this new thing than succeed at my day job.

If that's the kind of feeling you're looking for then try to tackle problems
that are standing in the way of things you believe should happen. I was trying
to apply the principles of open source software projects to hardware projects
and just couldn't personally accept that they weren't working. It started to
infuriate me. I could picture all the great things that would come from open
source hardware, but none of us could come up with a way to make the process
work, so none of those great things could happen. It felt personal. I don't
think you're going to find that kind of personal, emotional, passionate
connection to run of the mill business problems.

~~~
nnd
I definitely know that feeling you are talking about. Happened to my previous
startup (project) which failed.

Survival is not an issue, as a developer I can always find a remote gig to pay
the bills.

Joining a startup which does something somewhat interesting/relevant to my
passions is a good idea, unfortunately those are a few, but it's a good place
to start I reckon.

As to moving to Vietnam option, I've lived a digital nomad lifestyle for the
last couple of year, and it didn't work out very well, so I moved back to SF.
I'm not sure how "exploring passions" would work living in a complete
isolation in a place where you don't even speak the language.

~~~
mpbm
"I definitely know that feeling you are talking about. Happened to my previous
startup (project) which failed."

> Do you still feel that way, or did the feeling change when it didn't work
> out?

"Survival is not an issue, as a developer I can always find a remote gig to
pay the bills."

> That's a good position to be in. I've got several siblings and at this point
> all of us have migrated over to software engineering of some kind because
> it's so powerful and flexible.

"Joining a startup which does something somewhat interesting/relevant to my
passions is a good idea, unfortunately those are a few, but it's a good place
to start I reckon."

> Yeah, it seems like even if the startup itself isn't doing anything you're
> passionate about, at least you'll be surrounded by people who grok it.

What kind of stuff are you passionate about?

"I've lived a digital nomad lifestyle for the last couple of year, and it
didn't work out very well, so I moved back to SF."

> Did it just not agree with you? I've been wondering whether or not I should
> try it.

"I'm not sure how "exploring passions" would work living in a complete
isolation in a place where you don't even speak the language."

> From what I hear there are large expat communities. I've found that a lot of
> my exploration is limited by my own ability to learn and apply, rather than
> direct access to other people. I got on my current track because I was
> searching youtube for robot engineering. But other people are an important
> part of it. It seems like SV is probably the best place in the world to find
> like-minded people.

~~~
nnd
Yeah, the feeling definitely changed after the project didn't work out.

It's just that the throughput of in-person communication is much higher than
that of digital. Here in SV you have access to some of the smartest people in
the world, and having this opportunity to speak to them and exchange ideas is
invaluable for me.

