How to find start-up ideas • Hacker News Board

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#11

Post by Benjo » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 6:04 PM UTC

I like the framing of any annoyance as a potential startup idea. It implies that one either has the basis for an idea or are generally content anyway. In which case, why would one need a startup?

May work better in theory than in practice.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#12

Post by pcarmichael » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 6:17 PM UTC

p4bl0 wrote: post #2

I don't really understand this need for "finding startup ideas". In my mind, it's good idea that lead to start-up and I can't see myself thinking "I want to launch my start-up but I don't have any idea of what to do". Is there actually some people thinking this way (want startup -> need idea) ?

Definitely. I would classify myself as someone who desires the challenge, autonomy, and opportunity for growth of a startup, but I have a difficult time identifying viable ideas. I feel like I'm a creative problem solver, but not a creative problem identifier.

I am an engineer at heart - I love to build all kinds of things, from software to electronics, etc. If you give me an idea, I can run with it and prototype it without difficulty.

However, if you ask me to generate viable ideas from scratch it is as if I have writer's block. I've been working to improve by ingesting anything I can get my hands on - be it this post, talks (such as Tom Kelley's 'How to be an innovator for life' re: thinking like a traveler), books (such as 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' and 'The Long Tail'), reading HN and PG's essays, and so forth.

I don't think finding viable ideas will ever be as intuitive to me as it is to some, but perhaps with practice and hard work I will start to recognize some opportunities.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#13

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 6:48 PM UTC

icey wrote: post #6

Would people who can't find startup ideas be interested in paying for a service that provides a stream of ideas along with basic market research? I don't know what the exact mechanism would be (subscription of some sort most likely, with an additional "Pay to remove this idea from all the listings" fee).

I'm inclined to believe that the ability to identify an opportunity is a necessary hurdle. If someone can't get that far on their own, it's not very likely that they'll will have the drive to pursue the idea very far.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#14

Post by jeromec » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 7:11 PM UTC

icey wrote: post #6

Would people who can't find startup ideas be interested in paying for a service that provides a stream of ideas along with basic market research? I don't know what the exact mechanism would be (subscription of some sort most likely, with an additional "Pay to remove this idea from all the listings" fee).

It would depend on the quality of the ideas. If you could list ideas with clear potential and which you backed up by research that might be something, especially if you did preliminary market validation by speaking with potential customers. I'd probably even pay for it. I'm an entrepreneur (and have a growing list of ideas), but there are things I'll never think of because I'm simply unaware the problem exists. For example, I often see semi-trucks for grocery stores or supplying other retail businesses and I wonder if the Internet can make some process in that system more efficient. I'm pretty sure there is, but I have no idea where a pain point might be because I've never been on the inside of that process. That's just one example, but there are tons of internal business processes that I'm simply unaware of because I'm not exposed to them. As a result most of my ideas are consumer focused which I can relate to, and this is a fun (e.g. facebook, myspace), but crowded and fickle market segment for Internet startups. Going after b2b is less sexy, but can be quite profitable, and in some cases I think easier to implement and gain traction.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#15

Post by gchakrab » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 7:47 PM UTC

WebApps.StackExchange.com is a great place to find market needs and ideas.

So many needs I didn't even realize were problems

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#16

Post by loganfrederick » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 7:51 PM UTC

p4bl0 wrote: post #2

I don't really understand this need for "finding startup ideas". In my mind, it's good idea that lead to start-up and I can't see myself thinking "I want to launch my start-up but I don't have any idea of what to do". Is there actually some people thinking this way (want startup -> need idea) ?

Lots of well-known examples. In Jim Collin's Built to Last, he mentions how many large companies were started by founders without a specific idea, just a solid team (Hewlett-Packard being a major example).

I do realize the book gets some criticism for lack of scientific rigor or the performance of companies involved, but the example is still worth mentioning.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#17

Post by DirtyAndy » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 8:12 PM UTC

icey wrote: post #6

Would people who can't find startup ideas be interested in paying for a service that provides a stream of ideas along with basic market research? I don't know what the exact mechanism would be (subscription of some sort most likely, with an additional "Pay to remove this idea from all the listings" fee).

People have been buying established businesses and improving them and profiting for a very long time, so whilst the "entrepreneurial spirit" doesn't sort of feel right with buying ideas, it is certainly a viable idea.

Delivering a basic upvoting type system for ideas would probably be interesting to a lot of people. Getting good ideas out of people (especially for free) could be difficult, and finding a way of getting only positive feedback (comments etc) on ideas also difficult (working on the assumption that you want ideas from the public rather than just from an internal team), but solving difficult problems is what it is all about!

I've passed on a lot of ideas that I have had because I don't believe they could make enough money to be viable for me (I live in an expensive country etc) but having an income of a couple of grand a month might appeal to a lot of people in other situations and those ideas could be useful for them.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#18

Post by messel » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 9:36 PM UTC

pcarmichael wrote: post #12

p4bl0 wrote: post #2

I don't really understand this need for "finding startup ideas". In my mind, it's good idea that lead to start-up and I can't see myself thinking "I want to launch my start-up but I don't have any idea of what to do". Is there actually some people thinking this way (want startup -> need idea) ?

Definitely. I would classify myself as someone who desires the challenge, autonomy, and opportunity for growth of a startup, but I have a difficult time identifying viable ideas. I feel like I'm a creative problem solver , but not a creative problem identifier . I am an engineer at heart - I love to build all kinds of things, from software to electronics, etc. If you give me an idea, I can run with it and prototype i…

Howdy Philip, maybe I can be of help.

I find that ideas that really grab me can hit just about any time of day or night, but only if I'm open to them. When I'm idea light, it's because I discard ideas as low value without giving them a proper shake or playing with them (hashing out a design).

My poor cofounder get's rained on by my ideas when they're flowing, At this point I'm pretty confident he auto forwards them to his junk box :D.

Talking with folks about their needs can help trigger your creative side as well. Helping other folks can inspire us to experiment in ways helping ourselves can't.

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#19

Post by p4bl0 » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 9:44 PM UTC

pcarmichael wrote: post #12

p4bl0 wrote: post #2

I don't really understand this need for "finding startup ideas". In my mind, it's good idea that lead to start-up and I can't see myself thinking "I want to launch my start-up but I don't have any idea of what to do". Is there actually some people thinking this way (want startup -> need idea) ?

Definitely. I would classify myself as someone who desires the challenge, autonomy, and opportunity for growth of a startup, but I have a difficult time identifying viable ideas. I feel like I'm a creative problem solver , but not a creative problem identifier . I am an engineer at heart - I love to build all kinds of things, from software to electronics, etc. If you give me an idea, I can run with it and prototype i…

Okay everyone thanks for your answers. (I'm only replying here for convenience).

Re: How to find start-up ideas

#20

Post by mahmud » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 9:50 PM UTC

pavs wrote: post #9

icey wrote: post #6

Would people who can't find startup ideas be interested in paying for a service that provides a stream of ideas along with basic market research? I don't know what the exact mechanism would be (subscription of some sort most likely, with an additional "Pay to remove this idea from all the listings" fee).

No. I think ideas are a dime a dozen. I used to have a huge list of ideas, they are worth nothing because they never saw the day of light.

I have gone a little step further and actually implemented them. Then no one came.

My new pet is heavily quantitatively researched. Had my first 5 users before I even mocked it up. I just sent them something I made in mockingbird for their review, and they don't seem to be involved in software development (they're all academics/artists and are giddy about the experience :-)