

Ask HN: How do you come up with a good startup idea? - mrlase

I've been trying to unravel the process of coming up with an idea for a startup for a couple of weeks now but to no luck. Sure I have some ideas, but they're not targetted enough for my first startup.<p>I've read Paul Graham's essays and have lurked around here a little for the past few months as well. Technology wise, I'm ready to go. Coding it wouldn't be the hard part, that'd just take time.<p>Ive tried coming up with organic ideas but they don't seem to be quite good enough yet. Ive tried actively thinking up ideas but thy just isn't working.<p>Does anyone have advice for finding a startup idea?
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RiderOfGiraffes
You've lurked for the past few months? Have you read these:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1974726> \- 6 days ago, 27 comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1750877> \- 71 days ago, 35 comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1916801> \- 25 days ago, 32 comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1870456> \- 38 days ago, 1 comment

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1796372> \- 57 days ago, entire blog
post.

You're asking the same question that's been asked a dozen times. Have you read
the previous replies?

Try reading these:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1996830>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1994998>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1360665>

If you're serious about a startup then one thing you'll need is hard work,
lots of time, and dedication. Start by showing some of those qualities. Read
the above advice, find more, then summarise it properly. ON the way, ask
yourself what you're finding annoying, awkward, tedious or painful.

There's your idea - solve that problem.

~~~
mrlase
Really not sure how I missed these.. I wish I could search YC. Thanks for
those links, taking a look through them now.

~~~
dreur
<http://searchyc.com>

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dholowiski
Another suggestion, which is something I have done- take your best idea that
you have right now, no matter how bad it is, and start building it. Don't
spend much money on it. It might turn out to be a great idea, but more likely
that project will spin off more 'great' ideas than you have time to pursue.

Start doing something, even if it's stupid, and the ideas will start flowing n

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minalecs
this is best idea, but I would suggest do something in an area you either have
a lot of knowledge in or are passionate in. Because you will that find its
very hard and difficult, and will probably not get an easy win.. so you have
to be passionate about whatever it is you start doing, and just keep going.
Keep reading about other startups, and try to form connections and ask
yourself what is the next step .. not just what is hot now.

~~~
dholowiski
Agreed- if it's not that great an idea but it's super fun to build, you're
more likely to stick it out until a better idea comes to you.

And double agreed with your second Point- don't do something just because
everyone else is. Just because everyone else is doing mobile local group
buying checkins doesn't mean you shouldn't build that text to speech WordPress
plugin you've been dreaming about (shameless castmyblog plug).

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david_shaw
Thanks to another HN comment, I recently purchased the book _Where Good Ideas
Come From: The Natural History of Innovation_ in order to answer just such a
question. I'll leave that recommendation there, but I will admit that I
haven't yet had a chance to crack the book--been too busy on my December
project. I figure that's a pretty good excuse though, so I'm letting myself
off the hook for awhile.

The most common and useful answer I've ever gotten for this type of a question
is to simply find the smallest possible problem that you could solve, and
solve it. I _personally_ find it easiest to solve a problem from which _I_ am
suffering. This has a couple nice advantages, primarily that I can usually
tell if I solved the problem sufficiently or not, and also if it flops, at
least I've saved myself some trouble.

I launched <http://sleepyti.me> on November 8th because _I personally_ always
wake up tired. I didn't really expect much out of it, but I'm averaging about
10k visitors per day and between $15-$20 in Adsense revenue per day. Maybe not
"successful startup" money, but for a free webapp that only took me a few days
to write up (and only costs $20/month to host on Linode, along with all my
other sites/shells), I consider it a pretty big success.

I don't think that there's a secret that can foster brilliant, successful
ideas, otherwise we'd all use it and be billionaires. For me anyway, it's just
the tried and true combination of persistence and solving problems.

Good luck!

~~~
mrlase
I'm looking up that book on Amazon in another tab now. I took a look at
sleepyti.me and actually found it very useful as I also have a tough time with
being tired in the morning. Maybe that'll help me get up at 6:00 AM if I
follow its advice! Totally sharing your site on FB.

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dholowiski
Well, I havent had any successes yet, but here is how I come up with mist of
my ideas- by mis-understanding an existing product or service, and thinking,
wow that's a great idea. When I finally realize how the product works, i think
"my way was better". This isn't something you can just make happen, but
reading about as many great ideas as possible helps.

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malandrew
Focus on a real problem. Especially problems for which people are willing to
pay to solve. Design a solution for real people and not just yourself.

Solutions that create markets are very rare and are best tackled once you know
how to create a solution to a real problem first.

