
How to Get Startup Ideas - relation
http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
======
kyro
One thing I've noticed that has generated a ton of ideas, particularly within
the hospital setting I'm in, is to listen to all the questions staff members
ask one another. Who's doing that? When's this happening? How do I do that?
etc. They're all seemingly mundane questions that get asked on a daily basis,
but they give you great insight to the daily frustrations that people have
come to accept (that's why they're boring everyday questions). They also often
shed light on a lot of the accessory tasks people endure in order to
accomplish their main job.

As an example: in a hospital, we have the "sign out sheet" which is a list of
the current patients and all of their important data. These sheets are usually
manually updated and it's a very, very tedious task; you've got to make sure
all the dosages are current, and they're already in the system! Anyway, I kept
noticing the residents would ask one another if they had updated the sheet and
realized this was a pain-point that's become an accepted part of the day-to-
day medical routine. That's just one example.

Good problems don't have to elicit noticeable frustration. In fact, I'd say
many of the best problems around are ones that have pushed people past
frustration and into acceptance.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
Required reading: _The Checklist Manifesto_ by Atul Gawande.

~~~
charleshaanel
I've just wishlisted this on Amazon. Thanks for posting it. It follows along
very well with what I'm reading from Michael Gerber's E-Myth (also a
bestseller on processes)

[http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-
Abou...](http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-
About/dp/0887307280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353450538&sr=1-1)

------
nlh
This is a spectacular essay. PG is dead-on correct here. In fact, one of the
strongest reactions I had while reading it just now was "Shhh Paul, you're
giving away the secret!" :)

And this doesn't just apply to tech startups...

The business I currently run (an exotic car rental company) started out
precisely as described -- it was an idea I had to solve a problem I was facing
(I wanted to rent a super-fancy car to drive across the country. Nobody in NYC
offered that service). The business started as a fun side-project - a toy. I
figured it would be a hobby business - something I could do in my spare time
while I figured out what business I "really" wanted to start. I built it
myself - did the deliveries, threw a website together, learned SEO, etc.

And sure enough, I was surprised by how much other folks also wanted this
service. So when I went live - the calls kept coming. That was 8.5 years ago,
and the business now employs over 20 people and is about to open in its 3rd
city.

So take PG's words to heart - they're some of the best I've read.

~~~
zalew
> The business I currently run (an exotic car rental company)

wow, it sounds like an awesome business. drop a link so I can take a look at
those babies.

//edit: got it <http://www.gothamdreamcars.com/our-fleet.htm> holy crap, nice
collection (although I was hoping for some more diversity and vintages :)).

If you don't mind me asking, I was always curious: who is the common clientele
for these kind of services? People who own such cars at home and want
something similar while travelling?

~~~
nlh
Thanks! The answer I generally give to "who are your clients?" is "yes" --
it's so across the board that even I was surprised. The median client really
varies on location -- in NY it's typically a guy heading out to the Hamptons
or Jersey Shore for the weekend of fun, but it's also women looking for a fun
gift, celebrities looking for better service (though, somewhat surprisingly,
celebrities more frequently rent what we call "luxury" cars -- BMWs, Mercedes,
Range Rover, vs what we call "exotic" cars -- Ferraris and Lamborghinis), and,
yes, folks who own them at home and like to try something similar-but-
different while on the road.

~~~
kirubakaran
I'm trying to make a reservation but Ferrari F430 Spider seems to be "sold
out" even if I pick a date months from now. Can you please help?

~~~
nlh
Shoot me an email (see my profile) and I'll do my best to assist!

------
paulsutter
After 20 years of entrepreneurship, of struggles and successes, of spending
man years of that time thinking about startup ideas, and having learned so
many lessons the hard way, I can say the following:

pg's essays are so true and correct that I could practically cry.

If enough people read these essays (especially this and the recent "growth"
essay), it could materially boost the economy.

~~~
flipside
Reading essays like this drives me crazy.

No, it's not because pg is wrong or I disagree with anything he's saying, it's
because everything resonates with my startup (Tinj.co, interactive movie
ratings) but after 1000+ pitches I still can't succinctly articulate how I
know this.

I could probably make a checklist for the criteria of great startup ideas
(seems like a toy: check, personal problem: check, inspiration from other
fields: check, etc) but I have a hard time imagining that to be persuasive. I
guess all we can do is push on towards a beta and let traction speak for
itself.

Truly disruptive ideas are difficult to communicate because most people do not
have the mental framework to truly grasp them. I guess that's just the
catch-22 of disruptive ideas.

~~~
javajosh
I have four questions I'd like to ask you about your startup:

1\. Does it help people address their fears? For example, are they afraid of
not being heard? Or missing the next great movie?

2\. Does it help people feel loved? For example, giving them an opportunity to
warn people away from bad movies, or to offer unique insights?

3\. Does it help people create or curate beauty? Movie ratings themselves are
not very beautiful, but perhaps the personal curation piece is important to
some.

4\. Does it help people to eliminate ugliness?

...and I wrote this before checking your site. After seeing it, I have this
sinking feeling that you are not really serious about your startup, as the
homepage makes absolutely no attempt to describe what it is. Cold sign-ups are
very 2004. honestly if I had checked first I wouldn't have bothered replying,
but since it's already written, here you go. Hope it helps.

~~~
flipside
Thanks for the questions.

1\. A big reason more people don't rate movies is because it's unclear how or
if it actually helps others (my vote doesn't matter syndrome) or themselves
(black box recommendations).

2\. Validation is a big motivator, seeing that others agree with you or trust
your judgement is huge.

3\. Funny you should mention curating beauty, individuals will be able to
share and discover based on people that share the same taste in "beauty" in
the context of movies.

4\. Reading tons of reviews or trying to decide if 79% on RottenTomatoes or a
3.8 stars from something else means you'll actually enjoy a movie is a painful
(or ugly) experience to most people I've talked with.

I assure you, @javajosh, we are taking this very seriously as a startup. The
launchrock signup page is not the primary way we're finding beta testers, it's
merely sufficient before we start a closed beta.

Getting back to the bigger picture though, we're really building a system to
efficiently share opinions and see what other people think.

~~~
byoung2
I'm an avid moviegoer (50+ theatrical releases a year) and I completely ignore
movie reviews (and it's getting this way with Yelp reviews too) because they
lack context. What I mean by this is that a thumbs up/down or star rating is
useless unless I have some background on the person giving the rating. For
example, for someone to give Prometheus 2 stars when they haven't seen any of
the Alien movies is different from an avid fan. I'd like to see a list of
other movies/genres the reviewer rated, and maybe some basic demographic info
before I listen to their opinion. Not sure if you have that worked into your
idea yet...

~~~
javajosh
Apropos of nothing, but a few times in my life I've actually gone to the
theater to see a movie _I knew nothing about_. Nothing about the plot, the
cast, etc. No trailer. It's a distinct experience, and sometimes highly
pleasant. (I say "Heat" this way. Which was cool because the whole beginning
of the movie is that long sequence with DeNiro stealing the ambulance, but I
had _no idea_ what the movie was, not even genre, and it was fun to try to
figure out what was going on :)

~~~
damian2000
Agreed - that is an awesome experience - its happened a few times to me - Cape
Fear, Training Day & The Fugitive - all great movies.

------
F_J_H
Having exited earlier this year from the start up I co-founded, I've been
thinking a lot about this lately as I weigh up what to do next. We arrived at
our start-up idea 10 years ago in much the way pg says you should, which was
more by accident and serendipity more than anything else. So, I can vouch for
the veracity of his advice.

I came across the following quote by William S. Burroughs recently:

 _Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek
happiness for itself seek victory without war._

Replace "Happiness" with "a start-up idea", and I think you get what pg is
getting at:

 _A Start-up idea is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who
seek a start-up idea for itself seek victory without war._

I also came across a great post on the relationship between serendipity and
success, and is it well worth the read:
[http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/10/when_success_is_born_out_of_...](http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/10/when_success_is_born_out_of_serendipity.html)

I especially enjoyed this bit:

 _Our mind abhors these serendipitous explanations, and searches for
convenient patterns instead. Ask for the keys to career success and you'll get
logical explanations, recommendations, pathways and approaches. Then ask
someone how he or she became successful and suddenly it becomes a story of
serendipitous encounters, unexpected changes in plans, and random
consequences. It does not make sense to ignore this basic fact about success
any longer._

~~~
gfodor
With regard to serendipity, I like to point to the fact that you cannot win a
game of chance if you are not playing.

~~~
F_J_H
100% agree - thank you.

Similar to the advice you read on "creating your own luck", you need to put
yourself in situations where "serendipity" can happen more easily. In other
words, if you want to become an actor, move to L.A. If you want to work in
Finance, hang out in Wall Street, etc. There are of course no guarantees, and
of course you can become an actor without living in L.A., and a financial
analyst without being on wall street.

If you walk through a bad neighborhood by yourself late at night with a George
Costanza like wallet bulging in your back pocket, you increase your chances of
being mugged. It won't happen every time, but you are certainly "tempting
fate".

So, "walk" in "neighborhoods" where you tempt fate in your favor. Go to
meetups. Volunteer at organizations where people are trying to solve important
problems. Ask people you find interesting to go for a coffee. Socialize with
small business owners. Contribute to open source projects.

There is an interesting Forbes article on "The Four Essential Personality
Traits Of Every Entrepreneur", one of which is "Luck-Dominant":

"...luck-dominant founders—which make up more than 25% of founders in the
authors’ studies—are men and women whose _positivity and intellectual
curiosity create circumstances where a positive outcome is more likely._ In
other words, “they’re lucky by attitude, not by fate.”

(link to article: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/10/11/the-
fo...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/10/11/the-four-
essential-personality-traits-of-every-entrepreneur/))

------
ryan
I love the concept of living in the future. I recently read the biography of
Dan Raymer, a well-known aerospace designer, which was appropriately titled
'Living in the Future'[1]. This is because for most of his career he had been
working on secret aircraft designs that the rest of the worldn't see for 20
years. Truly living in the future.

There's also the excellent quote attributed to William Gibson[2] "The future
is already here – it's just not evenly distributed". That's probably the
biggest reason I live in silicon valley - there is a disproportionate amount
of 'future' distributed here.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Living-Future-Education-Adventures-
Adv...](http://www.amazon.com/Living-Future-Education-Adventures-
Advanced/dp/0972239723) [2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson>

------
dps
I was struck by the Bucheit/Pirsig conjecture "Live in the future, then build
what's missing." and the following paragraph regarding ideas that come out of
folks experience at college. Pg encourages those readers who are still
studying to take classes unrelated to their CS major so that they may see more
problems worth solving, but what struck e about this paragraph was how much,
for me, college was like living in the future. In the late nineties, I lived
in an environment where every single member of my social circle had an always-
on 10 Mbit connection to the Internet and spent inordinate amounts of time
communicating via email, IM etc. It seems like no coincidence that so many
successful Internet companies were born out of students of that era. I doubt
that today's students encounter the future of much at all in their dorm rooms.
Perhaps universities should be working hard to make sure that campus living is
more like living in the future than setting up mobile app development courses,
incubators etc etc.

------
Swizec
"For example, a social network for pet owners. It doesn't sound obviously
mistaken. Millions of people have pets."

I once worked on a social network for dog owners. Not pet owners, dog owners.
And not actually dog owners, but their dogs. A place for people to have a
social network of ... dogs.

But all the features made it an interesting enough project. The guy even came
up with enough money to pay the web agency I was working at for the
development - yes, outsourcing core product to an agency.

It took a year for the project to go from "I need devs" to "Build this". By
then I had already given my notice at the agency with the dream of launching a
cool startup.

I don't know that the dog social network ever launched.

~~~
gfodor
Having heard this idea from multiple relatives over the years, I have to
imagine that the trap of building the dog social network that everybody likes
the idea but nobody would actually use has cost the economy several basis
points of GDP.

------
YuriNiyazov
Getting advice from an essay by PG is like reading a description of a stock
market strategy - by the time you read and assimilate it, everyone else has
too, and that particular inefficiency has been eliminated.

There will now be a lot more HN readers keeping diaries of all the things that
they noticed were inefficient in their day, and they will come up with good,
competing startup ideas. However, the founder that is likely to be the most
successful was the one that started doing this long before this essay came
out. Which is actually the point of a large part of the essay, the one that
talks about being "the right type of person".

~~~
pg
Except unlike stock market investing, startups are not a zero sum game.

~~~
hiddenstage
Stock market investing isn't a zero sum game anymore than VC investing or even
Y Combinator.

Edit: OK, YC adds much more hands on value to businesses, but the investment
aspect is exactly the same as it would be if you bought shares over the
market.

~~~
ivankirigin
options & futures are zero sum in the sense that any money gained is lost by
someone else, correct?

~~~
hiddenstage
Ehhh you get into meta when it comes to options and futures, but I would argue
they still aren't zero sum. I mean, you could argue almost everything money
wise can be looked at as zero sum.

If a VC buys a 10% stake in company ABC for $1 million the trade looks like:

VC: -$1,000,000, +10% equity (worth $1,000,000)

Net = $0

ABC: +$1,000,000, -10% equity (worth $1,000,000)

Net = $0

Now let's say ABC doubles their valuation. Now the trade looks like:

VC: -$1,000,000, +10% equity (worth $2,000,000)

Net = +$1,000,000

ABC: +$1,000,000, -10% equity (worth $2,000,000)

Net = -$1,000,000

Obviously the $1,000,000 helped ABC double their valuation, which means that
the transaction was not zero sum. Same could be said about all investments and
to a lesser extent, options and futures. You can't ignore the context of the
trades such as using put options to hedge a long position, for example.

------
jfdimark
As usual, an excellent and well articulated essay from pg.

Just a couple of thoughts on the paragraph about finding non-organic ideas.

If you're a developer and in need of an idea, I couldn't recommend highly
enough to attend industry conferences (in any industry). Over the day or two
you are there, you will hear speakers tell you the problems they face, hear
which are the repeat questions asked from the audience, and have a chance to
talk with delegates about their biggest problems and why they are attending
(what are they trying to find out). I rarely leave a conference without
several obvious pain points facing the industry jotted down. If one of them
inspires you, sounds interesting, feels familiar etc. then that could be your
start-up idea. Most of these could be 'eaten by software' I'm sure, so they
would be ripe for a developer to tackle. You could even find your domain-
specific co-founder there too - 2 birds, 1 stone!

Another place to look (and possibly cheaper and involving no travel) would be
sites like twitter, quora, linkedin etc. where large numbers of users can ask
each other questions or complain about some pain they have. You could look for
trends and see if that sparks any interest.

------
ChuckMcM
Noticing is key for me. I have zillions of startup ideas from mundane to
crazy, they are all outgrowths of noticing either something missing or someone
frustrated or being frustrated myself and wanting something, or to do
something, and not being able to.

Strangely (or perhaps not) getting married made me better at noticing. I could
sit in a room and watch TV because there was 'nothing else to do' when my wife
sat in the exact same room she saw all sorts of things that needed doing. And
when she pointed them out they became obvious to me too. Perhaps I'm an
inveterate slacker but those things were deeply camouflaged against the patina
of knik-knacks that couldn't hide from her. Oh there is the radio that needs
the knob glued to work again, that corner needs a light fixture. The top
speakers are covered in dust, the board games have started tumbling out of the
AV cabinet and are threatening the dog cushion.

I had invested way too much time as a youth trying not to see things I didn't
have time to do or want to do, that I perfected my non-vision vision. She
helped switch that off which made my marriage better (fewer arguments) and
suddenly seeing things that could be better but weren't yet. One of those
'benched' (sort of ideas was a computer system for teaching computer science.
The Raspberry Pi helps wonderfully in that regard. So sometimes even when I
don't make progress things get better :-).

------
cs702
FWIW, it's not just pg who has pursued one of those "sitcom" ideas that seem
good (but really are not) before pivoting to make a different product that
solves a real problem.

Before Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen built and tried to sell a hardware
product (!) called the Traf-O-Data. The device processed raw data from roadway
traffic counters and printed out human-readable reports for traffic engineers.
Luckily for the two budding entrepreneurs, they were unable to close the first
sale, leading them subsequently to pivot into making Basic interpreters for
microcomputers.[1]

\--

[1] <http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/story.php?ii=45>

------
Lucadg
The social network for pets is actually not such a bad idea. I've got friends
who build one in a niche: \- only in italian \- only for one race of dog and
it so many users I could not believe it. It's kind of funny and depressing
reading them: they write in the first person as it was the dog talking. Stuff
like "hello my friends, today my master gave me a bath". Wow... :) (I won't
link it, as they seem to be very jealous of the idea).

On "A particularly promising way to be unusual is to be young", I'd like to
add another way to be unusual: "A particularly promising way to be unusual is
to be travel" I mean travel a lot, not short holiday breaks of course. Stuff
like go to live 3 months in Mexico, 6 months in Bali and so on. I did all this
for what, 10 years, and I have more ideas than I can chew. I'm not that good
in executing thought.

And one last thing. Pick your most "status quo" friend. You know, those guys
who are absolutely convinced nothing will ever change and nothing ever changed
and everything is normal as it is, today. They live in the present. Run your
ideas on them. If they go "naa...who needs that?" you may have a good idea.

It happened to me a few years back when I had already started an online
reservation business in Prague and decided to try the same in Riga, Latvia.
This "status quo" friend had already told me Prague would not work "nobody
will trust a website to reserve an apartment". When we went to Riga he told me
"naaaa...who would come to Riga, this is like the Soviet Union and it's far".
It worked, immediately.

I mean zero investments, html websites and stuff like that. Really low tech.

Thinking about it now, with low cost flights coming in from all over Europe
and no passport requirements, he admits I was right. But I am sure that if I
present him with another idea he would still go: "nnaaa...who would..". Good,
time to build it!

You need a friend like that.

~~~
nicholassmith
I was joking with some friends when Ignite100 started up again this year I was
going to apply with "It's going to be a social network, but for pets!" as it
was a funny idea over beers. Couple of months on I feel like I should have had
a go at it, people love their pets, Facebook frowns on pets profiles but loves
people using their open graph and associated tools, so there's a dynamic
there.

------
hiddenstage
Twitter was built so people would be able to blog via SMS. That was the idea;
that was the problem they were setting out to solve. That's not what made them
big.

They inadvertently solved the need of microblogging. No need to maintain
blogs; no need to write long posts. Just a simple, short way to keep people
informed with what you are doing. But that's not what made them big either.

What made them big is celebrities took to it and used it as their main form of
communication with their fans. That's why I made an account a few years back
and I'd venture to say over half of the active users did the exact same.
Twitter has since evolved past that, at least for me, but it was definitely
the initial reason for the boom. Would they have been successful without that?
Probably not.

So is Twitter a good idea? I don't know. I really don't know.

~~~
emmett
Twitter was obviously a great idea, but it wasn't an obviously great idea.

Just because no one (including the Twitter guys) could see the direction it
would grow in doesn't mean that it wasn't a great place to start. In
retrospect, clearly it was.

~~~
hiddenstage
I guess I don't think there is a 100% correlation between success and a great
idea. I think that luck can be just as big a factor in success as the idea,
especially in the mass consumer space.

If celebrities didn't take to Twitter I very much doubt they would have
hundreds of millions of users now. You could argue the idea is what drove
celebrities to use the service, but did it? If another service came out before
or around the same time that celebrities used instead, would we say "Twitter
is obviously a great idea that just didn't catch on?"

~~~
brc
I think the thing that is being overlooked with Twitter and celebrities, is
that it's yet another case of cutting out the middle-man that the internet
does so well.

Delivery of celebrity gossip, information, photos to fans is big business. It
was also gate-kept by an industry who decided who was cool and who was not.

Celebrities quickly worked out they could by-pass this channel and go direct
to their fans. The broadcast and print media no longer were the gatekeepers,
and the celebrities could build their own direct channel to their fans.

Now celebrities make money just by having a direct link to their fans and have
an incredibly effective marketing channel. And now they often accept money for
posting something on twitter.

I think it's one of those examples where the media-replacement is coming in
along an axis that nobody expected.

The future of media is less in the masthead but more in the individually
branded producer. To achieve this requires a lightweight direct channel. Which
twitter has achieved without really setting out to.

------
jamesjyu
Many huge businesses have been built by solving seemingly mundane problems.
The thing is, many of these mundane problems turn out to be big looming issues
that represent huge inefficiencies in an industry. Businesses are willing to
pay lots of money to solve these problems, especially if it makes them more
efficient or profitable.

This spurs on a thought that I've had about the position of entrepreneurship
and human society. The cohort of startups are all hard at work solving
problems that consumers or businesses run into. It's like the human collective
organism that is constantly evolving to become better, stronger, and faster.

Startups are the seeds of the experiments that could become a business that
makes a huge impact to the organism. Imagine how much more efficient the world
is with Google, for example!

If all businesses and founders were to take pg's advice here, the practical
(and important) problems in society would be solved at a much more dramatic
rate.

------
tarice
_> So if you're a CS major and you want to start a startup, instead of taking
a class on entrepreneurship you're better off taking a class on, say,
genetics. Or better still, go work for a biotech company. CS majors normally
get summer jobs at computer hardware or software companies. But if you want to
find startup ideas, you might do better to get a summer job in some unrelated
field._

 _THIS_. The field of CS has so many people in it, it's difficult to find an
idea that somebody hasn't already implemented in 4+ languages.

If you branch out into other fields, you become infinitely more valuable to
said fields, plus the problems in other, not-as-programming-saavy fields
become readily apparent.

I know it's been repeated elsewhere, but as a chemical engineer I feel
obligated to spread the word.

------
mattmaroon
I don't think I'd define Facebook or Google as something "few others realize
are worth doing". Facebook launched around the same time as a score of social
networks, so lots of people realized it was worth doing. People also realized
search engines were worth doing (Google was probably not even among the first
20 launched) they just didn't realize Yahoo was beatable. Or how lucrative
they could be.

------
nadam
"For example, a social network for pet owners. It doesn't sound obviously
mistaken."

It is not obvious so much that actually there are several social networks for
pet owners with apparently hunderds of thousands (registered) users. There is
one even in Hungary where I live (only 10million people live in Hungary), but
here are some english sites also:

[http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworks/tp/pet-
social-n...](http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworks/tp/pet-social-
networks.htm)

Yes probably this is not a huge market, but some people make some money off of
this.

So, yes, it is totally not obvious what startup ideas are good or bad.

~~~
chmike
PG's analysis has a bias for Dropbox or Facebook like ideas which are true
startups and VC's dream. Of course there is plenty of room between idea for
startups and idea for minimum viable businesses.

------
iamwil
Reading this was like a punch in the gut, in the same way that Family Guy
comedy hits you right there just by stating what's plainly in sight. I saw all
the mistakes, things I've discovered, and hard lessons I've learned along the
way phrased and frame in a clear way--so much so I don't know whether to laugh
or cry.

~~~
panayi
It was a punch in the stomach. Only wish I could talk to my 2-3 years younger
self.

------
kokey
The comment about the social network for pet owners made me think of this,
which actually turns out to be quite a good idea I think:

[http://abovethecrowd.com/2012/11/13/our-most-recent-
marketpl...](http://abovethecrowd.com/2012/11/13/our-most-recent-marketplace-
investment-dogvacay-from-los-angeles/)

"DogVacay is an online marketplace that links dog owners with passionate dog
care providers who open up their own home as an alternative to the traditional
cage-oriented kennel."

~~~
ajju
I am a huge fan, advocate, and frequent user and host on DogVacay - actually
we are hosting a dog right now.

DogVacay is not a social network for pet owners, nor do they seem to want to
be one, thankfully. DogVacay is really good at one thing - finding me dog
owners who can take care of my dog better than a random professional kennel
(and usually for less money). They are a marketplace disrupting the unsexy
kennel business by taking advantage of the subtle facts that almost no dog
owner likes kennels, most of them would trust another dog owner more than one,
and that many dog owners (and even people without pets) and their dogs would
actually enjoy hosting someone else's pet for a few days. I don't even do it
for the money.

------
j45
One thing I believe is that if something is revolutionary, it's going to be
revolutionary without you having to say it.

This essay made me feel a little unsettled. It described things I find myself
doing (solve small problems and let them grow) for the sake of solving
problems, which hasn't been popular with all the people working on being
revolutionaries in my life.

After I read Startup = Growth, I felt I read the YCombinator Manifesto, and so
much clarity packed into an essay where most others replace one set of
confusing concepts with their own.

Together, I think this essay speaks to something bigger that I've believed in.
You are the only, and most important start you'll ever work on. learning to
learn, recognize, focus on and solve the right kinds of problems is what will
make all of the difference.

After reading this essay, I get why YC focuses so much on a person's tenacity.

I could apply with any of my ideas that mostly live in the future, are useful,
functional, valuable, and most of all, simple and obvious. I didn't know if I
could belong in an accelerator, but, just for the personal mentoring alone for
becoming a better creator of what's missing in the future, I'd do it to just
be around the conversations.

------
Spectral
Right now I'm currently 21 years old and I've had quite a few organic ideas
pop up before which I took the time to brainstorm a little about, sometimes
even creating a little website for them. I've shown to many of my friends my
aspiring entrepreneur-ish spirit and many of them support my ideas, but I'm
still at a standstill over here. I personally feel that the main problem I'm
going through is that the college I chose to go to is subpar, to the level
where it does not produce many people with "dreams." Everyone around me are
just lazy people who like to party, so unless I spend all day trying to go to
other campuses to talk to people, I find that I rarely get to experience an
intelligent conversation about tech, career goals, and whatnot. Has anyone
ever encountered this and have any advice for me? I go to Cal Poly Pomona and
have many smart friends (from highschool) but they go to schools like UC Berk,
UCI, UCLA, etc.

------
codyZ
What is the difference between a "problem" or an "inconvenience" that is
worthy for a startup to tackle? Alot of startups seem to have trouble
deciphering that- sometimes spending immense efforts of time and money on a
'problem' that really is frivolous at best.

...On the other hand, I suppose for some ideas you would never know unless you
tried to execute it...

------
matteodepalo
I'm wondering if the reasoning that you should build a startup based on your
own needs is applicable to ideas that have already been solved abroad and will
not be imported in your country for some time. We don't live all in the
Silicon Valley and people feel the same needs all over the world. Let's take
the Stripe example. I live in Italy and I would use their product right now.
Too bad they are not here and will not be here for quite a long time I
foresee. Is it a good idea to create a startup that solves this need NOW for
Europe? PayMill thought it was. The same for Netflix; in Italy (and most of
Europe) we don't have a single decent service for renting movies online.
Sometimes I feel I should build a service like Netflix here, but what if
Netflix comes here 1 year later? It would probably crush my service.

~~~
melvinmt
Yes and no.

While cloning a service in a different geographical area may be profitable and
successful on the short term, it's never going to be a Facebook or a Google on
a global scale. It's like opening up an Italian restaurant in a small little
town that doesn't have an Olive Garden yet.

If that's the kind of business you want to be in that's fine, but it's not the
high-growth kind of startup that many of us are trying to build.

It's "just" a cash cow.

~~~
matteodepalo
I tend to feel this way as well about clones, however your example IMHO
doesn't really catch the problem. If the Italian restaurant is very good and
aimed at a selective audience it can win against a big brand that aims at
everyone. Of course they can only win if they don't try to clone an Olive
Garden. The problem here is not making something small to beat a giant
competitor, it's to build something exactly like a service you know to be very
very good for the purpose of having it now. Indiegogo is a good example for
this; they are like Kickstarter and offer a very good service to Europe.
Considering Kickstarted wont be here for a long time I think they caught a
good opportunity.

------
vlokshin
Couldn't agree any more.

Ideas should stem from problems. The "problem" with only solving problems for
yourself, however, is that you may not be hitting a real market. The tech
niche isn't exactly the norm (it's the .1%).

Lean methodologies behind testing problems and market needs are definitely
making it better, but it's still extremely time -consuming, can get costly,
and can lead to nothing (which is still better than building a product that
doesn't go anywhere).

Landing pages, blog posts, setting controls & changes, analyzing the results
and transferring those to actual needs and potential customers.

It's a mess.

If only there was something to solve this "problem" of figuring out which
problem-solvers are market viable and which aren't quickly and affordably
(without the massive learning curve).

My team and I just may have to give tackling this one a try :)

------
saturdayplace
I'd recently come to the same conclusion that programming is a fantastic
secondary skill. Having some other domain expertise - combined with the
ability to make your own tools - seems to be the best way to find problems
that people are willing to pay money to solve.

------
lewisflude
I've been trying to work out what problems I have right now that I'd like to
solve, and I really can't think of any that excite me, tech or otherwise.

I eagerly await for a problem to come into my life to which the solution is
only a few weekends of Ruby away.

~~~
Swizec
I have plenty. I am eagerly awaiting market opportunities.

------
codewright
Pretty strong parallels here with his article about "schlep blindness".

Specifically: " Drew Houston realizes he's forgotten his USB stick and thinks
"I really need to make my files live online." Lots of people heard about the
Altair. Lots forgot USB sticks. The reason those stimuli caused those founders
to start companies was that their experiences had prepared them to notice the
opportunities they represented."

Also the section about "wells" and attacking a problem at least some people
care deeply about, instead of a shallow 'hole' is one that has just allowed me
to clarify and refine some of my thoughts and ideas about where I'm at right
now.

This was a massive help.

Thanks for the great article pg.

------
ComputerGuru
I actually gave a TEDx talk on this topic, my conclusion (similar to PGs, but
more succinctly summed up in 10 words) was any time you find yourself saying
"this is stupid, there has to be a better way..." BINGO! you've got a startup
topic. Just actually keep track of it, and you'll find it happens more often
than you realize.

The talk, should anyone actually want to listen to me talk for 20 minutes:
<http://youtu.be/bPwgkf1aZ9I>

(the guy controlling the projector had a hard time with the remote, the
background slides keep going out of order :(

~~~
iamwil
btw, Thomas Edison didn't invent the lightbulb. Lightbulbs were around. He
improved on it. Actually, his lab assistants did most of the work. And
speaking of necessity is the mother of all inventions, Thomas Edison's
phonograph invention (again, it was his lab assistants) came before he applied
it to a need. It took him a while to figure out to apply it to the music
industry.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Thanks for listening. I debated using the TE example beforehand, I am ashamed
to say that I gave that speech knowing he wasn't the real inventor. I needed
to connect to my audience, this was in another country and TE is one of the
few inventors on their knowing.

------
GregBuchholz
Free startup idea for the day. 3D design software for the masses. It seems to
cover lots of the bases in the article. I feel the need for this right now
(just this weekend I wanted to print out a plastic part to fix the broken
piece on my lawn mower). 3D printing seems to be an up-and-coming area. The
hardware for this is still being perfected, but the software seems further
behind. There are lots of competitors making 3D modeling software, ranging
from FOSS to the ultra-expensive enterprise-y, but they all seem to have a
very steep learning curve. Most people who are going to own 3D printers aren't
going to want to dedicate their live to learning the intricacies of 3D CAD.
Ideally, I'd think the software would be based on photogammetry [1], which
would allow you to take pictures of an object you want to copy, but allowing
you to make tweaks (i.e. extend the portion that is missing because it broke
off, etc). Think of the MS-Paint for 3D objects. I think it covers the unsexy
and schlep aspects, since it seems doable, but would take a lot of tedious
work. It seems like it could start out very focused at first, and expand from
there.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogrammetry>

~~~
tarr11
Since everyone is on the 3D thing ... What about a Kinko's for 3D printing?

~~~
GregBuchholz
<http://www.shapeways.com/> probably the closest to the Kinko's of 3D
printing.

------
is74
My method for generating startup ideas is notice the things that I hate. For
example, I hate shaving, and would kill for a device that I can stick my face
into and become clean-shaven one minute later. I also hate choosing the shower
temperature -- I want the shower learn the temperatures I like. I also hate
not knowing the definition of terms in government websites. I can't stand
passwords. Etc. This feeling is my indicator of a good potential startup idea.

------
larrys
I'm curious about this statement that appears at the bottom (and I've see this
before obviously):

"Thanks to Sam Altman, Mike Arrington, Paul Buchheit, John Collison, Patrick
Collison, Garry Tan, and Harj Taggar for _reading drafts of this_ , and Marc
Andreessen, Joe Gebbia, Reid Hoffman, Shel Kaphan, Mike Moritz and Kevin
Systrom for answering my questions about startup history."

(my emphasis)

To what extent do these individual contribute and/or suggest corrections of an
essay like this?

------
avk
> "This is an instance of a more general rule: focus on users, not
> competitors. The most important information about competitors is what you
> learn via users anyway."

I found this to be the strongest way of saying don't obsess about your
competition. Focusing on users will probably help address other issues as well
(i.e. working on the wrong problem, building the wrong thing, not making as
much of an impact as you could be, etc).

~~~
josephlord
And I would agree with both of you but you do need to be better at something
for someone than your competitors. You don't need to be better at everything
or everyone but there needs to be a reason to use you rather than your
competitor for at least a subset of people..

------
zio99
I'm curious: where would Pinterest be on this graph? If Microsoft was for a
few 1000 users, and if the best ideas are "organic," would Pinterest be
bookmarking naturally "evolved" or did it pivot to a website for curation,
sharing with like-minded individuals more recently [1]? It seems to me what's
more important is tackling an emerging field (like Microsoft did) than a
declining one (which some "organic" companies may do if they are too late into
the game). Also, what do you guys think? Do the "sitcom ideas" have it easier
with raising money, and finding their niche after?

[1] Read Ben's email here: [http://spectralight.com/myblog/2012/11/09/the-
secret-is-expo...](http://spectralight.com/myblog/2012/11/09/the-secret-is-
exposed-on-pinterests-secret-boards/)

------
olalonde
On the more practical side, write down any idea you have no matter how crazy
they sound or where you are (use your smartphone's Notes app). It will quickly
become an habit and you'll soon find yourself with dozens of ideas.
Eventually, the hard part will begin: choosing the right one.

Another good trick is to write down those ideas on your blog at a fixed
interval. This has two side effects: it forces you to either execute on an
idea or let it go and it gets you feedback from your visitors. Here's my most
recent idea dump: [http://syskall.com/some-crazy-and-not-so-crazy-startup-
and-p...](http://syskall.com/some-crazy-and-not-so-crazy-startup-and-
proje/index.html/)

------
bernardom
If the we assume the hypothesis is true (that exposure to real-life business
problems generates the best startup ideas), wouldn't it follow that management
consultants have tons of great business ideas? I mean, if I want to maximize
my exposure to "seeing the same problem crop up over and over in similar
industries," that's how I'd go about doing it.

Are there good examples of "former consultants who decided to start a company
building the tools they used to make for every new client?" RJMetrics is the
only one that comes to mind.

(This is not a loaded question; I was one and am in that place now. My
potential cofounders and I are engineers but not developers; that's a barrier
but not insurmountable)

------
lifebeyondfife
This has given me a little shot of confidence. I've just finished my first
mini-site with potential revenue stream. From the few places I've marketed it
thus far, not many have really "got" what problem I'm trying to solve. But
it's a problem I genuinely have and am thrilled to have a solution to it. I
just need to find the others who'd like to drink from the well.

(Well idea: as I've gotten older I no longer care to keep up on all music
related media and there are too many bands I like releasing music I don't want
to miss. I've made a service that allows you to keep track of releases from
your favourite artists chronologically so you don't miss out on any.)

~~~
animal
This sounds like something I'd be interested in. Link?

~~~
lifebeyondfife
Cheers, currently working on some write-ups for my blog about how I - as a
pure desktop/server developer - found my first web project.
<http://whatsnewmusic.com/>

------
sidcool
"Live in the future, then build what's missing."

This hit home run.

------
vadimoss
An online Art Gallery in 1995 is not a bad but rather a premature idea for
that epoche. It's a norm for the Art to be a decade or so behind the
technology world. No wonder Google launched this idea with Google Art Project
in 2011, which is more appropriate as far as timing concerned. How about the
lost art gallery? <http://galleryoflostart.com> @PG - you are just ahead of
the crowd. Timing and luck are two ingredients of the same origin. Good timing
is essentially luck:) On the other hand hard working is a guarantee of success
if the "good timing" component presents.

~~~
nicholas73
Try reading "The 15 Million Dollar Stuffed Shark"... basically the art market
is smoke and mirrors. The dealers actually don't want a website, as that would
reduce their mystique and commoditize their wares. A small local dealer might
be convinced to sell online, but as one shop owner said to me on this: "don't
bother".

------
panabee
another suggestion for sourcing ideas is to identify weaknesses in popular
products then build something where that weakness becomes a strength (e.g.,
browsing in smartphones => iphone, search in portals => google).

re the unsexy filter, success can create sexiness. nike sells shoes. amazon
sells books. salesforce sells enterprise software. yet these are all
considered cool, sexy companies for the most part. if you build something
people love, you can make it sexy. worry less about if something is sexy
today, and worry more about building something people will love tomorrow.
sexiness will follow.

------
lubujackson
Good essay. My trick is to realize that humans simply cannot produce ideas,
they can only refine them (whether or not that is true doesn't really matter).
By thinking that, the only option you have is to LISTEN for ideas and spend
all your time trying to whittle down what you hear to something that has a
nugget of interest. And then if you worry that idea in your head 4 times as
long as a normal person would, you are bound to get to an interesting place
with it. I'd recommend that even if you don't want to make a startup because
it makes the world a more interesting place to be.

------
chewxy
Choose something many people like a little vs Choose something few people like
a lot.

Sounds like start with a niche. Which is great advice.

I like how in this essay pg managed to balance the idea of building something
you really want (but may have a market size of 1) vs a problem that everyone
has but is only a small itch-to-scratch problem

I ran and failed a number of startups for a number of reasons, and I think
this essay resonated the most with me as the idea fountain never stops.
Choosing the ideas were in fact the difficult parts, and I know a few months
down the track, I'd be reading it again.

------
napoleond
pg drew a graph explaining "the well" after Startup School:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4685655>

------
joeag
If you're not sure if there is a pain you are solving, try the Nail it Then
Scale it cold call test. Cold call 10 target customers and briefly describe
what you think their pain is and how your solution eliminates it. Usually you
will have to leave a voicemail. If you don't get at least 50% return calls,
you haven't identified a pain bad enough to support "a 2 person startup that
nobody has ever heard of with a rudimentary solution" - which is what you will
be!

------
barce
tl;dr Work on what you think is cool.

Are you all applying for YCombinator? There's so much effusive praise for
Paul. ;)

He mentions 3 basic factors: the founders want it, they can build it, and it
goes un-noticed.

"Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all began this way."

I agree with this premise, and he backs up the 1st point really well.

The 2nd point isn't really worth arguing. Ya, you've got to have product.

What was disconcerting to me was that he went after the pet websites. It made
me laugh a bit.

As someone who used to work for Dogster.com and Catster.com which were both
successful niche websites that were profitable and sold to "Say Media," I'd
have to say no to this:

'The danger of an idea like this is that when you run it by your friends with
pets, they don't say "I would never use this." ...Sum that reaction across the
entire population, and you have zero users.'

Zero users is simply false. Dogster.com still has the kind of usage that isn't
the home run Paul is looking for in his investments, but it is sustainable.

The 3rd point about not-noticing has two excpetions: Hegel and PayPal. Let's
stick to the second. Elon Musk noticed it from the very start as a competitor
running what was then also a payment system known as X.com. I think when he
added his startup DNA into the mix, although it led to an employee revolt and
his ouster, it made PayPal stronger. This is where Hegel comes in: the
dialectic of history is a pattern that can be seen everywhere, even in
startups, but that's another blog post.

------
Geee
Observe everything and learn new things. This leads to (problems ∩ solutions)
= ideas. Sooner or later you'll have more great ideas than you'll ever have
time to execute.

------
damian2000
Great read. I don't think PG addressed this in his essay, but I was wondering
about the fear some startups have - whether their idea may be easily rolled
into the product of an existing encumbent.

E.g. I read below someone's startup idea is for a new type of movie rating
system ("because 5 stars just isn't good enough anymore") - but couldn't this
be easily wiped out if an encumbent like IMDB just rolled the idea directly
into their rating system.

------
AndrewKemendo
These principals apply equally within large organizations too. So once your
startup is humming and a few years, even decades old, you now have an HR
department and a law firm who works solely on your suits, remember these
things.

The difference however is that instead of a new and massive muscle movement,
it will be refining and pruning the tree to make things more efficient, cost
effective and empowering.

------
graeme
Only tangentially on topic, but I imagine someone here knows the answer: is
there currently an Airbnb for cars?

AirBnb lets you monetize your spare housing capacity for rent.

Congested cities are full of cars with spare capacity that isn't being
monetized. I'm not the only one that's noticed this. Someone will eventually
try to use smartphones + ridesharing to use this spare capacity.

Is anyone doing it at present?

~~~
18pfsmt
I know of two, but I can't think of either name right now. One of them
presented at TC Disrupt in NYC back in, I think, 2010.

~~~
portman
GetAround

------
mgummelt
I really want someone to do [16] and report back.

~~~
polyfractal
Having worked "IT" for my fraternity, I can say that this would be about as
mundane as most business software is. Accounting, scheduling, keeping minutes
of meetings, database of contacts.

------
brianpan
> [4] This gets harder as you get older. While the space of ideas doesn't have
> dangerous local maxima, the space of careers does. There are fairly high
> walls between most of the paths people take through life, and the older you
> get, the higher the walls become.

Ain't that the truth. This footnote stung a bit. Take advantage of the
flexibility of youth!

------
selvan
Generate ideas to solve a problem. If you have 'n' ideas to solve a problem,
it is n x 1 complexity.

Issue with using ideas as your problem is that you have to find actual problem
first, then solution next. 'm' ideas as your problem and another 'n' ideas for
each problem, it is m x n complexity.

Use lean principles to find a solution to a problem that you understood well.

------
jonnycowboy
I'm surprised a great source of ideas hasn't been mentions: Google search
suggestions. For example, try typing "build android apps" (don't hit Enter).
Hundreds/thousands are looking for how to make apps with: no programming
experience, or easily or with another language eg: python). Good market to be
in!

------
skdoo
1\. Thinks "I really need X... why doesn't it exist?"

2\. Domain expertise in X

3\. Thinks "I could build X!"

4\. Actually builds X

The intersection 1+2 occurs often, and 1+2+3 more recently. 2+3+4 are fun for
hacking. A PhD thesis is 1+2+3+4, but with a very limited 1. The startup I'm
at (my first) is the first time I've worked on something that strongly
intersects 1+2+3+4.

------
aufreak3
"..coming up with startup ideas is a question of seeing the obvious."

I got a wake-up call from my 5yr old that felt like this. He pointed up and
said "look". I asked him "what is it?" ... "tree!". I bit my tongue humbled.

I wish to be able to see the "trees of ideas-in-waiting" like he does and not
take the status quo for granted.

------
SeoxyS
I think it comes down simply to: don't set out to make a startup. That's the
wrong mind set. You shouldn't be creating a startup for the sake of creating a
startup. You should be setting out to solve a problem, and somehow happen to
turn that into a startup along the way.

~~~
srid68
Exactly and this is what i said in my comment in a roundabout way. You should
solve problems which interest you and not even think whether that will become
a startup. If you want to create a startup, then you should think of solving
other peoples problem and not your problem.

------
ekosz
I remember Evan Koslow talked about this idea back in 2010. It was a pretty
interesting lecture[1].

[1] -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cDAitd3nHqM#t=1095s)

------
tolos
consciousness raising:

> When searching for ideas, look in areas where you have some expertise. If
> you're a database expert, don't build a chat app for teenagers (unless
> you're also a teenager). Maybe it's a good idea, but you can't trust your
> judgment about that, so ignore it. There have to be other ideas that involve
> databases, and whose quality you can judge. Do you find it hard to come up
> with good ideas involving databases? _That's because your expertise raises
> your standards. Your ideas about chat apps are just as bad_ [emphasis mine],
> but you're giving yourself a Dunning-Kruger pass in that domain.

------
genuine
"The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas."

That is the best thing I've ever read from PG. But I would say, "Ideas lead to
action, and only action builds a startup. Ideas upon ideas lead to ideas, not
a startup."

------
wslh
" The prices of gene sequencing and 3D printing are both experiencing Moore's
Law-like declines. What new things will we be able to do in the new world
we'll have in a few years?"

An OkCupid for best genetic matching?

~~~
gopi
genepartner.com

------
mmvvaa
My brother had just sent me this link while I was finishing up reading PG's
essay: <http://www.theuselessweb.com/>. Coincidence?

~~~
okok
Oh, yeah, that's kind of like this useless document:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa>

------
timmillwood
I'm really bad at thinking of ideas, even thought about setting up a site to
crowd source ideas, but didn't want to get into all the copyright and
intellectual property issues.

------
wololo
technically, on social networks for pet owners:
<http://crunchbase.com/company/dogster> (also did catster)

~~~
astrofinch
Not sure what to make of this:
<http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=dogster>

~~~
wololo
Hmm, it's virtually identical to <http://google.com/trends/explore#q=myspace>.
Winner take all?

------
pknerd
I liked Matt Cuts way to find a problem and solve it. Worth reading

<http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/business-ideas/>

------
xkiwi
Amazing that how every essay PG written can shows you the ideas.

-You have to be a founder to found, who you are defines what you can do.

-just another founder at work

------
OafTobark
Post states Jeff Bezos couldn't hack, he graduated in EECS according to
wikipedia and a few other sources noted he was a CS major.

~~~
flyinRyan
That doesn't mean he can code.

~~~
OafTobark
Nor does it mean he can't

------
srid68
Let me first talk about the elephant in the room about finding Startup Ideas
which generate extra ordinary returns.

YC assembles a Team of the Greatest Founders after extensive validation by the
most qualified people in the planet to judge whether you have the qualities
required to build a startup. (They may miss a good team, but the probability
of them selecting a bad team is less than 10%)

YC mentors these teams ideas by making the best people in Silicon Valley
available to these teams so that they can pivot and re-work on the most
probable idea which may succeed

Expected Outcome to Founders: Conservatively 50% of YC funded Startups would
be back to the point of their starting (Zero returns for the effort invested
both for the founder as well as the investors) Some Founders may even have
negative returns in Health, Relationship and sometime financially.

Extected Outcome to YC and the World in Large: Even less than 10% hit a home
run, they have extra ordinary returns and the world becomes a better place
hopefully because of realization of new ideas.

What does this tell me, this tell me that there is no relation between Ideas
and the extra ordinary results which every founder is look towards, then why
waste time looking for a needle in a haystack.

As a startup founder who identified a big pain (Fragmentation of Operating
Systems for Applications to be developed on - It does not make financial
scence to develop the same functionality three or more times) about 2 years
back and started working on a solution to solve my own pain, i have come to
the conclusion even after solving the problem, financial success will not come
easily by just working on a Idea. But Working on this Idea made me understand
how to get success.

Just follow in the footsteps of the YC. What does YC do, it enables and guides
others start on the path of founding a startup and takes a % if you succeed.
Since the returns are extra ordinary, even if a few succeed they win.

A example: Any developer can just start doing Minimum Viable Prototype (1 to 3
months effort for a capable person) for any interesting idea for 1% non
dilutable equity return (!Don't spend any effort after MVP and don't ask for
money to do the prototype!) which others are interested in pursing for a
mythical return. This is equvalent to emulating YC and may have a better
return on effort. Of course if all the people whom you sponsor are duds, your
expected return will be zero which is also what YC is solving, If their luck
is so bad that they don't have home runs, they would have wasted their money,
where as you would have enjoyed trying to solve interesting problems even if
they have failed and in the situation your MVP becomes a Instagram. Your 1% is
10 Million dollars.

All the above are assumptions which i am planning to verify (But not a a
developer but as a Micro Angel) and hope to see what will happen.

If you earn based on Effort you are an employee, if you earn based on the
value created by your Effort you are a consultant or most of the current
startups, but if you earn based on other peoples effort willingly parted, then
you are true scaleable startup which has a higher probability of success.

If your idea can make others succeed in what ever they do, but there is a link
to return based on their success of their idea, the probability of making
extra ordinary returns becomes possible.

AirBnb succeed because it is an idea which makes others monetize their living
space. YC succeeds because YC shows the path to wealth generation for founders
even if 50% of founders fail.

Last point is about Idea about Pets which pg assumed is a bad idea. My take on
it is (I have no domain expertise on this), Pet Foods is a multi-billion
dollar business, i know there are many pet food stores selling pet food, i
also know that the pet food suppliers are multi-million dollar corporations.
If i create a simple Mobile Pet Food Cataloging/Ordering/PreOrdering system (a
3 months effort) and give it away free to these pet food stores for giving to
their customers and collate all these data and can sell the viewing of this
data to the pet food supplier, I have a just in time inventory replenishment
system. So many inefficiencies can be remove by asking the customer to
preorder pet food. You remove overstocking, managing discounts. You
effectively become the middle man between the Pet food supplier and the Pet
Food store/Customer. I am not saying that this is a good idea, but just
rejecting an idea because pets.com was a flop is not the correct way to go
about it. You should deeply think about any idea before discarding it.

A disciple of pg giving an alternative viewpoint.

~~~
gfodor
You don't deserve downvotes since you're trying to make a point here but I
would say that you shouldn't discount the notion that the idea you set out
upon was doomed to failure. People generally say ideas don't matter execution
is everything but there are just some ideas that are death traps: one of them
is the pet social network and another is the cross-platform application
development framework.

The bottom line is every developer sees the "waste" in developing the same
functionality multiple times on different platforms every time there is a
shift in the software sector. They're drawn in by the siren call of a
potentially huge productivity gain by introducing new abstractions, but it
almost always ends up in a death march and failure. You end up with bloat,
inferior performance, inferior look and feel, and least-common-denominator of
functionality. The history of computing is littered with these things and
while there are a few spots of mixed success (like Java for example, which
took more than a decade for people to realized sucked on the client but worked
well for servers) the charred remains of surely thousands of other attempts
sit on forgotten directories of hard drives everywhere.

Other ones: a better Craigslist, a drag-and-drop/novice-oriented/visual
programming tool, a replacement for PHP, basically any import/export/sync tool
between two major well-established enterprise services that do not have one
already, and how could I forget a better to-do list. That's not to say there
isn't a potential for making these things happen, but if you're going to throw
3-5 years of your life into something you probably want to avoid things that
many heros have tried and failed doing.

------
earroway
In my case 1\. Source of ideas: How to I make my everyday life simpler? 2\.
Filter criteria: Will I pay for this, if so how much?

------
speric
This essay made me purchase "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". A few
pages in and I am glad I bought it.

------
bitteralmond
Automatic upvote for a Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance quite. And
this is so spectacularly true it hurts.

------
novaleaf
from the article, pg: "Whereas the activation energy required to switch to a
new search engine is low. Which in turn is why search engines are so much
better than enterprise software."

is that last sentence a joke? if yes, i think it is too subtle, a lot of dry
sponges would soak it up.

if it's NOT a joke... ummmm... wtf?

~~~
aaronbrethorst
The cost of switching from Google Search to Bing Search (or whatever) is
typing in a different address in the address bar[1]. The cost of replacing
your multi-million dollar CRM solution is, obviously, millions of dollars.

[1] ok, not really, but you get the idea.

~~~
novaleaf
yes i agree with your statement and actually pg's entire article, it's just
the " Which in turn is why search engines are so much better than enterprise
software." which is throwing me in a loop.

maybe i'm taking it out of context, but anyway, seems i'm the only one, so
nevermind ;)

------
sown
I was going to ask about new markets but he seems to cover it: live in the
future?

Anyone else have other methods?

------
pseut
At least this essay lets me feel better about my inefficient toy projects.

------
known
In globalized world, __sell first, build later __

------
nazgulnarsil
All the sexy problems I think of are illegal to solve.

------
GoldiKam
Super awesome, Thoroughly covered post

------
alenam
pg's essays are so true and correct that I could practically cry.

------
akproxy
I was pleasantly surprised that this post by PG was not from Feb 2001.

------
michaelochurch
I think what makes startup idea generation hard is that humans suck when it
comes to low probabilities. We don't have the intuitive tools to differentiate
between 0, 0.000001, and 0.001, because we never needed them in our
evolutionary frame, but in massively multi-agent systems like markets, those
distinctions matter.

------
justplay
whatever you said pg,its true. I completely agree and should work on problem
which we are facing. We is more natural to realize where we missing to provide
solution and in what way.

@pg, why dont you upgrade your design ? You have so much money . You can hire
best designer . If you say,i can contribute my design to you .

------
groby_b
[16] is a rather cynical view of women in sororities. Maybe it's actually true
for American colleges - I have no experience there. I doubt it is.

At it's core, it seems to be saying "Ask women what they need, then build it
for them". Start with that attitude, and women will have no interest in your
product - because you _begin_ by assuming they're incapable of building the
things they need themselves.

~~~
jQueryIsAwesome
Lets not ask the doctors what they want; maybe they will get offended because
we think they can't build themselves.

~~~
groby_b
Do you really think "work for hire" is a great way to generate startup ideas?
This is _exactly_ what pg is pitching there.

The advice also goes strictly against what pg himself is advising in the same
article: _The place to start looking for ideas is things you need. There must
be things you need. [14]_

But let's look at the one example that pg gives in the article: Rajat Suri
didn't offer to write any software restaurants might need - he _learned_ what
they needed, and then struck out on his own.

If anybody had suggested he should just work as free IT for restaurants, that
would sound kind of ridiculous, no?

But please, try out his advice, see how it works for you.

~~~
jQueryIsAwesome
I was referring to the part where you said women would get offended; it haves
nothing to do with the actual effectiveness of the approach (asking them).

