

Startup ideas - rokhayakebe
http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

======
chrischen
Every time someone says something about ideas being less important than
execution I feel like he/she is oversimplifying it (I'm not saying the author
of the post is missing the point though) and someone out there is missing the
_idea_.

Initial, untested ideas are worthless. The list of 998 ideas are probably all
things they just came up with on the spot, unexposed to the effects of
evolution.

But let's say we took this idea, "Prepackaged school supplies based on the
lists from the school districts," tested it. The test would have to consist of
some sort of execution. Now we let's say we found out that no one gives a shit
about school supplies and don't buy it anyways. Well now we amend our original
idea. We have a new idea, it's still an idea. We executed to determine what
works and what doesn't. This new idea is worth slightly more. After many, many
iterations, we'll still have an idea in the end. If it is carefully documented
and proven with a history of execution. This idea _is_ worth something, and I
_would_ buy it. The idea, _only after execution_ has value because the
execution is factual proof.

Therefore, ideas _can_ be worth something and _can_ be sold. In fact, the
_idea_ , plan, knowledge, whatever you call it, is what's worth something in
the end. What's worthless is an untested idea, because it is grounded only in
imagination.

Also every time you execute an idea, it becomes exposed. It loses it's value
because it is free (unless you patent it, but that's just some artificial
thing we invented to force value into ideas after they are exposed). But the
idea, before anyone else knows about it, and in the instant it is executed,
has value.

Of course this means that more important than any single idea is in the
ability of the person to come up with innovative ideas. We can all follow the
model of evolution and improve our ideas, but who can iterate faster, and
predict more accurately what works (guiding evolution), will ultimately
dominate.

Execution is simply how well you predict what works, and how well you don't
lie to yourself. In this sense execution may be more important than any single
idea, but an idea can still have value.

~~~
ardit33
The way you are saying it, is implying that all executions are equal. They are
not.

(think of the biggest companies you know, and their idea was not original at
all, just the execution was different. (better).

Before Google there were a myriad of other search engines. Before Facebook
there was Friendster (should be classical case study for poor execution),
Myspace etc).

From what I can say it seems that idea doesn't matter (i.e. doesn't have to be
original at all), as long as the execution is good/better than everybody's
else.

Sure, Friendster validated the 'social networks' idea, but it was ultimately
FB that gave a really good execution to that idea.

So the difference between a 100mil, to a 10bill company, is simply execution.

You can say execution is a multiplier of an idea, and if the idea is stupid,
it doesn't matter. But that doesn't make idea the most important thing. Most
ideas are not that great/original anyways. You can be a mom and pop burger
shop, (easy), or you can be mcdonalds (not that easy), even if the idea is the
same (sell burgers), it is the execution and scale of operation that wins at
the end.

~~~
chrischen
> Execution is simply how well you predict what works, and how well you don't
> lie to yourself.

I never meant to imply that execution is always equal.

The idea doesn't have to be original, but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter.
You can't be completely ignorant and go ahead with your flying horse idea. But
your incompetency at realizing your idea sucks is essentially bad execution.

The flying horse idea is horrible, but it won't matter only because you'll
realize immediately after executing that it's a shitty idea. So in that sense
you'll amend your _flying horse idea_ and try something better like a flying
car instead. But after that iteration it's a new idea.

Google and Facebook certainly weren't original, but they are also completely
different from when they started. The idea itself is trivialized in the long
term, but only if you are capable of logically iterating and filtering out bad
ideas.

I think you should try to grasp my definition of what is an idea and what is
execution in relation to an idea. Comparing execution to an idea is like
comparing apples and oranges.

My main point is that idea and execution are two different things that are
part of the same process.

I agree that executing ability of the people running the company is more
important than any _individual_ idea.

------
coffeemug
Sure it's easy to come up with ideas, but it's much harder to come up with
ideas that are good. If this list was vetted, I have a feeling it would be
significantly shorter.

For example, #2: "Incubator site providing office space, hosting, etc. for
startups that are seed funded." Unless you franchise it, this isn't scalable
at all. It's _an_ idea, perhaps even a business idea, but it's not a _startup_
idea.

Or, #9: "Herbal Flavored Gum. MMM...rosemary." I don't know much about the
flavored gum industry, but I would imagine their margins are razor thin. It's
not really a _startup_ idea as there is no innovation here, and no opportunity
to improve the margins (well, may be there is an opportunity, but it's not at
all evident from the description).

Coming up with this list in such a fashion is definitely an interesting
exercise and I applaud Seth for doing it, but the quality of the ideas is a
bit underwhelming. Perhaps if they had to elaborate a bit on the descriptions
and do some basic analysis, it would be a lot more interesting.

~~~
Tichy
Recently some startups started selling customized sweets. You could mix your
own flavor in a web interface and then order the gums, build on demand. (I
only know startups for chocolate, cereals and coffee doing this atm).

~~~
dgordon
You Bar (<http://www.youbars.com/>) does something like this for nutrition
bars. People with food allergies will be particularly interested.

------
psawaya

       Rent-a-wife – a woman who cleans, cooks, does laundry, 
       picks up dry cleaning, mail, etc but without the emotional 
       relationship.
    

Really?

~~~
whatusername
There's an Australian business - <http://www.hireahubby.com.au/> \- where you
can hire a "hubby" to do all the handyman jobs around the house...

~~~
mahmud
I have seen those and I thought they were like "College Painters/Haulers"
(i.e. hire a student who needs the money) meaning the "Hubbie" here implies a
working family man, as opposed to a "lousy bachelor who might squander your
money on booze".

------
agbell
+1 for Church issued credit card with automatic 10% for religious tithing

~~~
gfodor
11%, 10 for tithing and 1 for "service fee."

So evil it could possibly work.

------
richardburton
I find it a bit odd when people come to meetups for techies with an idea for a
web-app that they can't share. I know a guy who's got an idea for a project-
management app that sounds pretty cool. It's an extremely crowded area but I
still think he's got a shot.

Rather than keeping this idea to himself, I think he should tell everyone
about it. Let his ideas spread. Let people adjust to his new take on project
management. If 1,000 tech- or business-savvy people are aware of his concept
and speak to other people like that on a regular basis then he already has a
test-bed of people to launch his product into. At the moment I believe only a
handful of people are aware of the product and whilst he's toiling away on the
code, no one is being primed to buy.

------
marcofloriano
# Tutorial videos for technological skills (word processing, internet
applications, email) for people who don't know how to navigate technology but
need it. #

Very usefull for me ... work on that right now.

~~~
smiler
What's the first video - how to watch a tutorial video?

------
niyazpk
We never ran out of ideas in the first place.

We don't need 999 startup ideas. All we need is 999 startup founders.

------
daemin
Just goes to show that the startup idea isn't worth a thing, but that it's all
in the execution.

~~~
nearestneighbor
Depends on the idea. The _average_ startup idea is indeed junk.

~~~
prabodh
DropBox was an age old idea....The execution is what made its glory

------
cmalabs
For a bit of context, this was the product of an brainstorming exercise set by
seth godin to his students during his "six month mba program". You probably
should read anymore into these ideas than that.

------
chubbard
"Create the double snuggie."

Turn the snuggie up to 11!

------
gsmaverick
4\. A website that you can submit your design and work with vendors to
manufacture your own clothes line.

Cafepress.com. Poorly researched list.

~~~
Dav3xor
My mom had a business were she took a sketch from a (couture) designer, and
made patterns for production. There's all sorts of value added there you can
exploit (designing a pattern that someone can actually wear is a learned skill
that not many people have...)

Not a bad idea at all, but already exists.

------
FreeRadical
Some of these already exist :/

------
lionshare
This is an ugly post. really. For the people who are working on things right
now, those who care about execution, you can help them by not shouting it in
order to appear as a smart gut.

