
I want to start a startup, but have no ideas. What should I do? - zavulon
I really want to quit my big corporation job and start a startup. Problem is, I don't have any viable ideas. I tried a startups before (while still working my main job), but didn't get far. Should I join someone else's startup? Should I start a consulting business? Or keep plugging away at BigCo, biding my time until ideas appear?
======
tptacek
Start a two-person consulting practice, making sure to bill corp-to-corp and,
if you can, avoid staff-aug projects that will simply stick you in one place
for months at a time. Two people. Solo consultants get screwed by clients,
have less time to manage and grow the business, and aren't learning how to
operate as a company.

You'll learn how to market yourself, how to manage a sales pipeline, how to
keep a set of books, how to track utilization and how to set up triggers for
hiring new people.

If you're successful, you'll build a revenue stream that you can divert from
to build a full-time product development team, at which point you'll have
bootstrapped yourself _and_ be at cash-flow-positive.

The ideas will come.

Working for a startup is fun. It will definitely teach you how to develop
under hair-on-fire circumstances, and probably expose you to current
technology (Rails instead of J2EE, Erlang instead of C++, etc).

But I was --- am --- shocked by how much 10+ years of dev work for startups
did _not_ prepare me to start a company from scratch. I got very lucky picking
my partners; had I been even a little less lucky, I'd have failed in the first
six months.

~~~
CyberFonic
Consulting has both pros and cons

Pro: Being exposed to many clients may help identify a need that you can
develop into a product/service.

Con: Having clients is a distraction when you are trying to develop and launch
a product/service.

In the given situation, hanging in at BigCo provides for steady income and the
freedom to pursue ideas in free time.

~~~
tptacek
Respectfully, this doesn't make any sense to me at all. Being beholden to a
BigCo gives you _more_ opportunity to develop ideas than having control over a
sales and delivery pipeline?

So, no. But I think you have a kernel of a valid caveat there, which is that
as long as you're bringing money in that isn't coming from your product,
you're going to be distracted. My proposed solution for that --- one that's
working well for us --- is to get to a point where you can simply hire people
to do one or the other. Hard to argue that a full-time product person is
"distracted" because his paycheck is coming from a consulting practice instead
of a VC fund.

This is also why I recommended starting a two-person _company_ , and not
simply becoming a freelancer. Freelancers do get sucked into "temporary W2"
consulting hell.

------
tjic
The problem that most people (including myself) have is that they jump at the
first halfway decent idea they come across.

Don't do that!

Sit down with a piece of blank piece of paper (metaphorically - you'll want to
use a text editor) and start writing down ideas. Make them crazy. Zero
negative feedback. Get the creative juices flowing.

What do people pay for?

Services. Information. Money saving. Social opportunities. Access to money.

So, let me get the list going for you with some bizzare / useless ideas, based
off of one random concept - "sneakers".

* software to manage collections of high end sneakers * software / service that lets you design and produce your own custom sneaker * social networking for fans of sneakers * sneakers that verbally encourage you to take the stairs * sneakers with GPS that issue you different reminders at different locations ("you're in the lobby of the office, on the way out - don't forget to pick up chicken on the way home")

All idiot ideas. But maybe buried in there you come up with "software that
lets small shoe stores manage their inventory", or something.

The point is this: until you've generated 100 ideas, you'd be foolish to leap
at the first one.

...and the second point is this: once you've generated 100 ideas, you'll be
more practiced and fluid, and you'll find it easier to generate the next 100.

Run the ideas past a few friends, and ask them each to pick 10 that are
interesting.

Chances are, there'll be a point of overlap. And maybe it's even something
that was already tugging at you.

It's an interesting exercise.

Go do it.

~~~
arohner
This is an excellent idea. I would make just one small addition, which is do
it with your co-founder. Make your list. Have them make their own list, and
then compare notes over dinner/beer.

Doing it with a friend will cause you to come up with ideas that you wouldn't
have alone, and it's good to make sure you're both on the same page.

------
icey
Read this and see if you get any ideas:

<http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

It's important to be passionate about whatever it is you decide to do. If you
don't really care about whatever it is you're working on, it's not going to be
successful.

I do want to be careful about the definition of passionate. It doesn't have to
be some world-changing thing; just something you enjoy working on or something
you feel is very important.

Here are some ideas you can have for free as well:

* A website builder specialized to a specific industry. Real estate agents for example. Build widgets that they can drag onto their own pages that provide things like MLS searching. Or appointments for a doctors office, etc etc.

* Yet another polling site. Except let people login to track their polls. Later you can use the data to give them suggestions about potential matches, or build a personality profile for them, or whatever. People seem to like hearing things about themselves.

* A health tracking site that lets people keep track of diet, various health biometrics, drugs / vitamins they have taken. This one would require some serious UI-fu, as I think it would only be really successful with a shitload of really beautiful graphs that allow people to track their progress / amount of money spent on supplements / whatever.

~~~
paralogical
The health tracking site that I use to track my diet and exercise is
<http://www.fitclick.com> \- needs some work with the graphs, and UI, but the
idea's there.

~~~
icey
See? Market validation :D

------
joshu
Start building things you are creatively and emotionally invested in. Even if
they are very small things.

\- work creates ideas

\- you need to hone your skills; how to make decisions, how to negotiate
constraints, how to balance tradeoffs. you can't do this until you've got
really thorny problems. and the best problems (that is, profitable) problems
to solve are all thorny ones.

------
mixmax
I would start by putting an e-mail address in your profile so that others can
contact you. Who knows, maybe there's someone reading this thread with a great
idea but noone to partner up with.

just press this link: <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=zavulon>

~~~
agrinshtein
I have plenty of ideas as well. @arongrinshtein

------
AndrewWarner
Great question. I answered it by putting together a list of what entrepreneurs
I interviewed did.

<http://mixergy.com/how-to-find-an-idea-for-a-new-startup>

------
brk
while ($ideas < 1) {

do dayjob;

}

~~~
spydez
That's an infinite loop.

Or, that's what it feels like to me, anyways. :/

~~~
CyberFonic
Break out of the loop by exploring lots of areas of interest, sooner or later
something will grab you and once you have found your passion, you will be
unstoppable.

------
Kaizyn
Start out simply. What sorts of things are you doing in your day job? What
technologies do you use in your day-to-day work? At a more conceptual level,
what sorts of problems does your work attempt to solve for its customers? From
there, ask yourself what other problems could be solved for the customers?
Were any potentially profitable ones overlooked? What other existing
technologies that you are not presently working with can be used to solve
those same problems more cost effectively? Looking at the technology set, what
other related problems can you solve that either no business is currently
working on or that you could solve cheaper/better/faster, etc?

The intent behind this questioning is the important thing. In an evolutionary
context, the work you're doing is like an organism that is adapted to some
degree to its business niche. You may be able to strike out on your own by
making a business 'better adapted' to the same economic niche through changes
in the technology/skills used. Alternately, you may be able to find a niche
that better supports the toolkit you presently have to work with. This is the
simplest way to generate innovation but it will likely not produce results
that are the best for your overall happiness.

For that, you'll have to determine what kind of niche can support you
financially and which you personally are well suited for. From there, it's a
matter of figuring out what adaptations in your personal skill and technology
set are necessary to transition you over to that niche from your existing job.

------
DirtyAndy
Personally I'm in the process of starting something and trying to focus on
that as much as possible, but I still have lots of ideas. So I have a
whiteboard in my office and when I get an idea it goes on the whiteboard. The
whiteboard is divided into two sides - ideas that are fun but will never make
a penny, and ideas that need further investigation to see if they are
commercially viable.

Up until recently I have done contract development work. Nearly all of the
ideas that I have that are on the potential money making list come from my
work interactions. Either systems I have developed where 90% of the system
would work for loads of other companies, or systems that the company wont
develop but that the users want, that I think other companies would want.

I am assuming you are a programmer of some description (I assume most people
on here are) in which case I think you are in the best position. Look at the
systems you work on, Can they be improved, can they be generalised so that
other companies may pay for them. It is amazing how many companies will take
the $200 a month option where you cannot change the background colour to cyan
over the fully customised internally built $20,000 option.Obviously be
slightly careful that your company does not have rules where if you invent
stuff whilst in their employment then they own it etc - but most companies
don't seem to bother too much.

Your startup can accomplish boring business jobs and make money, it doesn't
have to be a rip off of Facebook or aggregate Twitter data for you to have a
happy life.

Good luck

------
TallGuyShort
I often see people suggest things in comments on HN, and say, "that would make
a great startup!" but no one ever does it. Keep an eye out for comments like
that.

~~~
wlievens
Maybe make a crawler that finds those.

------
davidw
I think joining someone else's startup is a good place to start, especially if
you're young and have lots of time ahead of you.

------
olefoo
First figure out why you want to do a startup. Then figure out if a startup
will actually meet the needs and expectations you have of it.

If it will; and you don't have an obvious business that you should be getting
into, then do some research and look for problems that you are uniquely
situated to solve better than anyone else.

Don't just pick an idea and run with it, be critical of your ideas, and of
yourself. A startup is hard work with relatively small chance of reward; and
if you don't have a sense of why you are doing it that is strong enough to
carry you through you won't last the distance.

See this wiki page for inspiration as to what your idea should look like
though <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal>

------
snowstorm
stop dreaming about killer ideas. start looking for problems. If you find a
problem that's big enough and people are willing to pay for a solution, you
can start bootstrapping.

Joining a startup should be a good experience for you. You'd find out whether
you'd really enjoy startup life or not.

------
jerryji
You should find Steve Blank's post today helpful -- "Am I a Founder? The
Adventure of a Lifetime" ( [http://steveblank.com/2009/06/11/am-i-founder-the-
adventure-...](http://steveblank.com/2009/06/11/am-i-founder-the-adventure-of-
a-lifetime/) )

------
warwick
What do you love doing?

~~~
CyberFonic
From the tone of your question, it seems that you are attracted to the idea of
a startup but haven't identified your passion yet. Toiling away in BigCo means
that you should be able to build up considerable cash reserves for when you go
full-time in your new venture. The prudent course of action goes something
like :

1\. Find your passion

2\. Develop the business around your passion in your spare time

3\. When you predict that you can be ramen profitable, and only then, quit
your BigCo job

4\. Work harder than ever before

As someone on HN commented, "mega-successful entrepreneurs are the statistical
outliers". But that shouldn't stop you from having a go.

~~~
wlievens
And the objective doesn't have to be "mega-successful" anyway. Makin-a-decent-
livin' would be enough to most geeks who yearn for independence I think.

------
ziadbc
I think having no ideas is almost better than having tons of ideas. I would
get on crunchbase, look at the hundreds of startups on there, and see if there
are ones that you find interesting. More than likely that company failed, and
you can improve on the idea it was going after.

------
pedalpete
do you have 'non-viable' ideas? can you refine them to be viable? do you not
have many ideas? or do you just think they are not that good.

Though i agree with the whole passion thing, their are lots of people who are
successful because they are passionate about creating or passionate about
business rather than just their ideas.

two ideas on finding ideas 1) get dissatisfied. find something things you
don't like and figure out how to make them better 2) get playful. try new
things. have you written a mobile app? build one. have you seen the new
mozilla video stuff? try writing tools for stuff like that, or business
surrounding the newly created technologies. as you play, you learn, and may
discover new opportunities.

------
mkjame
Whenever you find your idea and whatever you end up doing: Do it with passion,
Focus on value.

------
thingsilearned
Start positioning yourself in a setting where you are more likely to gain
ideas, find a great co-founder, and build up some capital and connections.

A startup is a long haul. The idea part is a minor portion, start working on
the rest and the idea will come.

------
macco
Work on Ideas! Look out for problems that have to be solved. For example "Why
is tea sold in smaller packages than coffee? Although you need more tea per
cup." I don't think that ideas pop out of nowher suddenly.

------
bemmu
If you know some other people who might be interested in doing a startup,
maybe you could get together and have a brainstorming session.

------
aditya
yeah, go work for another startup. you'll learn a lot more than your bigco job
and you'll figure out if you're ready to do your own thing, also you'll meet
people that you can start startups with.

on the other hand, start building something, anything on the side with your
bigco job, release-iterate-repeat from there.

------
Tichy
Think about stuff that bothers you and ways you could improve it.

------
omarish
Invest in a whiteboard. Write down a random idea everyday.

------
ieatpaste
I have tons of ideas. Shoot me an email and we can chat.

------
NonEUCitizen
don't quit your day job yet... at night, figure out what you want your startup
to do (preferably in a field not related to what your employer does).

------
trapper
What's your email, I've got plenty and no time.

~~~
buholzer
I have plenty too and have to prioritize them! Can only follow less than a
hand full and see how they grow ...

~~~
rogercosseboom
I don't mean to piggyback but I find myself in a similar position as the
origin-poster and would love to chat with either of you-
rogercosseboom@gmail.com

------
barnaby
Find somebody who already has a startup. join theirs.

You don't want to have to go through the hassle of starting one your own.
trust me.

------
petervandijck
while (prove_market($idea) < 1) { do dayjob; $idea = generate_idea(); }

------
TweedHeads
I'll give you 100 ideas:

Pick the top 100 web business in US and port them to spanish to cater users
from Mexico to Argentina, or portuguese for brazil.

There are three huge markets this side of the pond, in english, spanish and
portuguese, each one with 300M potential users.

