
How To Choose Your Startup Idea - amirkhella
http://blog.amirkhella.com/2011/02/16/how-to-choose-your-startup-idea/
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tptacek
None of these are wrong or unhelpful, but it's telling that not one of them
touches on the market's pain points, a notion of what problems customers are
budgeting dollars to solve, or even really a notion of what things people will
pay for.

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amirkhella
True. Some problems are not painful enough for people to take out their
wallets and pay to solve.

Yet it is the founder's responsibility to make sure the benefits of their
ideas are measurable and outlined in a way that makes people take out their
wallet and pay ;)

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bpeters
>To me, an idea is a good excuse to go out and talk to customers.

I really like that point. When any idea comes to mind that seems worthy of a
possible startup I immediately start to talk to potential customers to get
feedback. If I can convince random people to believe in my idea before I even
put effort towards it, it is probably worth pursuing.

My favorite test to evaluate my idea is the $20 Starbucks test.
<http://read.bi/gnVYKv>

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efields
Didn't read it. I'm hoping its just a one page site that says, "Be passionate
about one idea."

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wmboy
Yeah, easier said than done though. If you're really an entrepreneur it's
pretty darn hard to be passionate about ONE idea!

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prawn
Exactly my problem. I drop one when I get distracted by another. My list is
long too, so there's always something else to get distracted by. Interested to
hear how others deal with this?

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wmboy
Here are a couple of articles that have helped me;
<http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html> <http://spencerfry.com/idea-shaping>

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prawn
Thanks. I think I have about 5-8 "I'm in love" ideas though! Entrepreneur ADD
is a fair description of it.

