

Ask HN: I really want to start a startup but I don't know what to do. - hungry_hungry

I need some advice:<p>I really want to start a startup but I don't know what to do.<p>I worked at friend's startup for over a year but it wasn't my startup, and it wasn't my dream.  I feel I'm capable of learning or using any technology I might need - that's not my barrier.<p>My barrier is that I'm just not exactly sure what I would do.  Sometimes the options seem so numerous that it's overwhelming.  I have many interests which makes it hard to narrow my focus.<p>Ideally, I will be building a product or service that I can charge for, e.g. not an ad-based service.<p>Any ideas on how I can overcome this hump?<p>Thanks,
~Henry
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nudge
What in your life would you pay for, that does not exist?

What do you know others will pay for, that does not exist?

What is your unique intersection of talents, interests and experiences, that
might allow you to find a new angle on something?

Don't start with the idea of "a startup". Look for a way you can make life
sufficiently better for a sufficient number of people/companies with
sufficient ability and willingness to pay. The startup is the vehicle by which
you trade your solution for money.

~~~
hungry_hungry
This is part of what holds me back. I have a lot of ideas for startups but I'm
not sure that some/any of them will be revenue-generating.

Maybe a better starting point for me is to post some of the ideas and see what
kinds of responses those get.

However, picking a project that will generate money does not necessarily mesh
with making the project that is most interesting to me, which adds to my
confusion.

~Henry

~~~
nudge
It is entirely sensible not to go ahead with a startup if you're not sure
about whether and how it would be a successful business. You'll never know for
sure, but it makes sense to have a good idea of whether you have a market, for
example, before putting in all the work of building the thing.

Putting out your ideas and getting responses is a good way to start. Start an
ASK HN post, explain what you're doing, and put each idea as its own reply to
your post. Then people can reply to each idea separately, and you'll get a
conversation on that.

Remember: the idea itself isn't always fascinating to hear. Basecamp - project
management for teams; Posterous - simple blogging. And so on. So don't worry
if your ideas get an "It's been done" response. What matters is whether there
is room in the market for you, for your price point, for your feature set, for
your marketing strategy, and so on.

------
nyef
I'm a big fan of throwing things against the wall until something sticks.
Success is not about having THE great idea; it's about being persistent and
determined. Don't think too much about HOW to start, just START! Then never
give up, and success will come (probably sooner rather than later).

~~~
bryanh
I am also a huge fan of this. Even if you don't have the big hit, you have a
good chance of stumbling across something decent that can sustain you while
you search for the big hit. The problem with this technique is I never know
where to draw the line between "wasting your time" and "staying determined".

~~~
zackattack
Since freshman year of college, this is what I did too. I had tons of ideas
and off the top of my head, at least 6 of them made it into the construction
stage. The score: 4 busts, 1 nice acquisition, and 1 evolved into a business
I'm currently working on. Aim for success, but don't be discouraged by failure
if you learn from it. Also, market response to your ideas is 100%
unpredictable. Users/customers vote with their attention and wallets and not
with their words of encouragement/discouragement. Don't run your idea past
anyone... just do it. One of my bigger failures was the one most congratulated
by peers and one of my bigger successes was mocked before it became a cultural
phenomenon. Good luck and have fun!

------
ekidd
Here are some suggestions I've seen on HN and elsewhere. Your mileage may
vary. :-)

1) Work on something that interests both you and a cofounder. 2) Choose a
potentially huge market. 3) Compete with big, dumb competitors in a market
with no current winner. 4) Build something you would use yourself. 5) Build
something for businesses, because there's less competition than there is for
the trend-of-the-week in the Valley. And you can charge them money. 6) Choose
an interesting hypothesis, and be prepared to pivot as you learn about the
market.

Any other suggestions for choosing between startup ideas?

------
olliesaunders
Get out and talk to people. If you don't have a good startup idea then join
someone else's. I'm looking for people to work with right now (Edinburgh).

------
webwright
WHY do you want to do a startup? Because it's fashionable?

Working at a startup is a good goal-- it's a fun work environment with a small
tight-knit team.

STARTING a startup should be fueled by either a missionary zeal or a desire to
gamble with 2+ years of your life to make a big pile of money (the average
time to liquidity for VC backed startups is ~7 years). If you don't have one
of those two, I can all but promise you'll burn out and/or get bored.

My advice: wait for an idea/market that you love to pop into your head that
you can't ignore. In the meantime, work at a startup for a decent salary
(don't sacrifice much salary for options-- it's a sucker's bet).

~~~
hungry_hungry
These are good questions...

I want to start a startup because I: \- Want to do something I care about,
slash it's meaningful to me. I'm tired of realizing other people's ideas. \- I
want to make important decisions and have responsibility for their
repercussions. \- I want to create a lifestyle that I'd enjoy more for myself,
including not having to be tied to a specific location. \- I want to do
something 'important' (a relative term, I know). I'm tired of wasting my time
and talent on silly projects and bug fixes. \- Money is important but not
everything. Ideally I'd be earning as much as I do now from my corporate gig
but that's not even necessary.

I'm willing to gamble a couple of years of my life, but as I said, I'm not
sure what to do/make. I agree that working for options is a sucker's bet,
hence leaving a previous startup after working there a year.

Thanks for getting me to clarify this. ~Henry

~~~
webwright
check this:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded)

Don't "do what you love"... "Love what you do". Aim at something rewarding in
autonomy and mastery rather than holding out for a "cause" (if you want to
maximize happiness). If you find a cause ("something important") anytime
during this process, you can chase that too. But if you look at 100 people who
really love what they do with their lives, I think it's surprising how few of
those jobs fall into the "something important" bucket.

------
jeromec
If you have not read the Request for Startups Paul Graham has started posting
for YC I highly recommend reading it here <http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html>.

These can spark ideas to work on while possibly providing an edge to be
accepted into YC. The other road I'd advise is to think about things you're
already passionate about. If you can find a passion you can monetize you have
most of the battle won IMO (tip: start blogging about it and build an audience
which may also turn into your first customers).

------
oxygen
I was in a 'similar' stage 2 years ago. I grouped with 3 of my friends and
started having conversations on a daily basis. All of us came from different
background -tech, finance, marketing, research; but had the same start-up
itch. We threw ideas on the wall, critiqued them, followed up with some
research. Eventually we found our start-up idea which btw has evolved into
something completely different in 2 years. So: 1\. Form a core group 2\.
brainstorm, read, research 3\. DO IT

~~~
hungry_hungry
Great idea, Oxy, thanks for sharing this too. I like the idea of socializing
this process as well as working on it daily. ~Henry

------
richardw
Put your toe into the water, cheaply. Take one idea and start building your
thinking around it, on 'paper'. Think about problems you'll have to solve,
look at the market for it, maybe write some code. Think about what success
with that idea would feel like - some ideas you might not want to follow for a
few years.

This way you can try a few ideas without committing too many resources. Just
keep moving forward every week until you find something that really grabs you
and where you think you have an edge. Then hammer it.

------
jey
Don't be in a rush. Just give yourself time to explore and think about
problems, and you'll know when you hit on the right idea. If you rush it
you'll probably end up forcing it too much.

------
danielharan
1- Pick a technology that's going to change a >$1B industry or create one.

2- Go talk to people in those industries to test out product ideas. Don't do
this haphazardly: read 4 Steps to the Epiphany. Its editing is brutal (well,
non-existent), but the ideas are vital. It doesn't matter if your original
idea is shit; talking with people that have problems and money to resolve them
will give you more.

3- Find a co-founder with complementary strengths. They can't just be a
business person.

------
jessor
I'm in exactly the same spot. What I did for the last 6 months or so was
hanging out here on hacker news (taking the air in), bouncing ideas off with a
friend and collecting and refining ideas on a password-protected wiki page.

With a bit of luck there'll come a startup with said friend out of this later
this year.

------
malbiniak
There's a lot of other good comments here. Some might be relevant to you, some
might not be.

Here's my advice: If you don't have the AH-HAH moment, don't do it.

More rigid framework:

\- what's the problem you're trying to solve?

\- who is your customer?

\- why would they pay for it?

------
ochekurishvili
You definitely have to read Getting Real by Jason Fried of 37Signals.

By reading this book you'll know every single detail how to direct your idea
to reality, at least it happened to me...

<http://gettingreal.37signals.com/>

------
chmike
If you have many idea and interest and whan to start a business (earning
money), then you are in a good position. My advice would be to sort the idea
by ease of testing and potential benefits. Use this sorting as heuristic and
try them out and see what sticks.

------
bvi
Here's a tip: don't be a "wantrepreneur".

Get out there, focus on ONE THING and execute.

------
quizbiz
Why do you want to start a start-up?

Perhaps it may be wiser to work for a start-up if an idea hasn't jumped at
you. Just keep an open mind and look out for things you can do better, more
efficiently. Then make a system out of it.

------
icodemyownshit
WWPGD?

1\. <http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html> 2\.
<http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

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hariis
Wait. Be patient.

------
xenophanes
First make a small startup that sells ideas for startups.

Even if sales don't pick up, it might come in handy.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
PG was very eloquent on his take as why this might not be such a great idea
(from <http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html>): _Actually, startup ideas are
not million dollar ideas, and here's an experiment you can try to prove it:
just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that
there's no market for startup ideas suggests there's no demand. Which means,
in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless._

------
Charuru
Relax on your desire to join a startup, get some outside interests, and find a
problem you want to solve.

I have too many ideas. :(

------
JohnIdol
welcome to the club!

