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Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

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Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#1

Post by cristiioan »

What strategies can one employ to generate an innovative startup idea that outperforms existing options, similar to how Plausible created their privacy-focused and user-friendly analytics platform, which stands out from competitors like Google Analytics?

Rather than creating a copycat app, I'm interested in discovering an idea that sets itself apart in terms of quality and utility. What techniques or approaches have been effective for you in identifying unique and valuable startup concepts that can compete against established market players?

Additionally, what resources or tools would you recommend for conducting research and assessing the viability of a potential startup idea?

Re: Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#3

Post by cristiioan »

andrewfromx wrote: post #2

Read https://www.reddit.com/r/Startup_Ideas/ and post your own to get feedback there.

I'm trying to find startup ideas first, not to verify if my startup idea is worth. And I wouldn't verify it in such a way. I have read books already on the subject and this seems like a bad idea.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#4

Post by mindcrime »

cristiioan wrote: post #3
andrewfromx wrote: post #2

Read https://www.reddit.com/r/Startup_Ideas/ and post your own to get feedback there.

I'm trying to find startup ideas first, not to verify if my startup idea is worth. And I wouldn't verify it in such a way. I have read books already on the subject and this seems like a bad idea.

Those are basically the same thing in the end. Since generating "ideas" in the abstract is trivial. The interesting part is exactly figuring out if a given idea is worth anything or not.

All of that said, this topic has been beat. to. death. here on HN. Use the search box and you'll find more discussion of generating startup ideas than you can shake a stick at.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#6

Post by mtmail »

mindcrime wrote: post #4
cristiioan wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to find startup ideas first, not to verify if my startup idea is worth. And I wouldn't verify it in such a way. I have read books already on the subject and this seems like a bad idea.

Those are basically the same thing in the end. Since generating "ideas" in the abstract is trivial. The interesting part is exactly figuring out if a given idea is worth anything or not. All of that said, this topic has been beat. to. death. here on HN. Use the search box and you'll find more discussion of generating startup ideas than you can shake a stick at.

Examples

"Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23290536

"Ask HN: Idea Sunday" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262

and a couple "what would you pay $X for" threads https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ask+what+would+you+pay

Re: Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#8

Post by cristiioan »

scastiel wrote: post #7

I often go to https://www.indiehackers.com/products . Sometimes I feel inspired by new projects. Note that it’s just a way to find ideas, not one to know if this idea will work or not :)

Ok, so you find an idea this way. But guess what, it is already taken by most probably another startup/small company.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#9

Post by PaulHoule »

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s execution that is valuable. So don’t feel too in a hurry to generate ideas.

Take the Google Analytics competitor. Personally I was bothered that GA got a monopoly in the space so fast and that it took so long for real competition to come along, if it has. The interesting questions revolve around “why did GA have a moat?” and “how does a new entrant overcome that?”

Wherever there is a market leading product there is a narrative that

   * Google docs sucks
   * Microsoft excel sucks
   * Adobe creative cloud sucks
   * Facebook sucks
It is very possible to take a bite out of this kind of firm but it is not easy. Look at at Figma as a detailed case study —- it is the ability to execute that puts an idea like that on wheels.

(My current side project is something that I was thinking about 18 years ago thinking… why doesn’t this exist? But it still doesn’t, except on my server.)

Re: Ask HN: How do you come with a startup idea?

#10

Post by coreyp_1 »

Coming up with ideas is a habit. Once you start doing it, it's impossible to shut off, trust me!

1. Learn to be discontent. You aren't seeing ideas because you are content with the status quo. You need to be in the habit of thinking "this could be better".

2. There is a difference between a hobby idea and a business idea. Hobby ideas solve a problem, but you probably can't get someone to pay for it. A business idea may not be "fun", but people will pay for it. If you're lucky, you will find something that overlaps the two areas.

3. Businesses succeed because they solve a problem that people are willing to pay for the solution. Figure out how to monitize your idea before wasting time building something.

4. You must either already have, or have a plan to develop, expert or insider knowledge and connections in order to establish your business. For example, don't expect to build a tool to sell to banks to use if you don't know anything about the banking industry and don't know anyone in the banking industry.

5. A successful business requires (a) someone to build the thing, (b) someone to sell the thing, (c) someone to manage the thing. You might be all three of those. If you are only one of those things, then you need to partner with others who fulfill the other roles.

Good luck! We need more people building things!

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