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Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#41

Post by asnyc »

I faced this problem, and face it on a regular basis. I get just too many ideas, I used to note them down, and the list grows bigger and bigger. The only way to resolve the issue is knowing that finding ideas is easy, but execution is king. You need to work out and analyze their potential. You need to sit down, brood over every idea and look at every angle - problem you are solving - target market (size, barriers to entry) - competitors - do you have a team which can solve this problem efficiently etc. etc.

This will definitely prune your list of ideas.

Next, you will need to discuss the chosen few ideas with prospective customers, and see if they "really" need this, are ready for this. You will need to develop prototypes, get some early customers, see how they like it.

Basically, start executing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#42

Post by mariushn »

Thriptic wrote: post #21
thisisxavier wrote: post #4

Don't want to hijack the thread, but even more basically, how do you get startup ideas? I've read what PG has to say and others, but nothing is clicking.

Find a domain expert and ask them to walk you through their day or shadow them. Also, ask them what sucks. I could literally throw ten ideas at you right now of fixable things of various complexity in my domain (academic bioengineering). Another strategy is to look for large problems in your industry that have been solved and then try to find analogous problems in other industries where the same or a similar solution…

> I could literally throw ten ideas at you right now of fixable things of various complexity in my domain (academic bioengineering).

Let us have it! And please add your email in profile

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#44

Post by saran945 »

for mass/consumer market - the idea must be usable to me before I expect others to use it, making money is not easy thing due to long waiting time. recently hybrid platforms (digital + physical) got good success than purely digital one's. I think, passionately working on by 'watching' what customers do with the product is key to success. Usually people have passion in the idea stage, deciding based on hype is always leads to failure. mass market is a marathon race, luck plays critical role.

for enterprise - may be able to make money earlier than consumer market. I think reading "startup" books provides good insights, process to follow.

for niche: domain knowledge, few early customer are critical for success. may be able to reach customers easily, may not be able to scale.

Generally, speed and assumptions decide fate for any idea. particularly "assumptions" are the #1 enemy of every idea/startup.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#45

Post by DoodleBuggy »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #11

I used Steve Blank's formula he described in "The Startup Owner's Manual". Steve is a legend and the process works. I spent 12 months working on a variety of startup ideas, testing them in the market, pivoting and moving on to the next one. Eventually we found one that got traction (paying customers). Two years later, we just closed $13M in series A funding and have dozens of happy customers. http://markets.businessi…

Congratulations, love to hear stories like this.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#46

Post by DoodleBuggy »

thisisxavier wrote: post #4

Don't want to hijack the thread, but even more basically, how do you get startup ideas? I've read what PG has to say and others, but nothing is clicking.

> how do you get startup ideas?

One fairly effective way is to focus on problems, nuisances, frustrations, or pain points. What do people/groups/companies dislike, hate, etc? What can be improved on? What wastes resources that could be made more efficient? Someone will usually pay for something that solves a problem.

You don't necessarily need an original idea, often it's just a matter of doing the same thing others are already doing, but better, or cheaper, or differently. Many people get stuck on coming up with some unique idea, when in reality most businesses are not doing anything particularly unique at all.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#47

Post by DoodleBuggy »

Thriptic wrote: post #21
thisisxavier wrote: post #4

Don't want to hijack the thread, but even more basically, how do you get startup ideas? I've read what PG has to say and others, but nothing is clicking.

Find a domain expert and ask them to walk you through their day or shadow them. Also, ask them what sucks. I could literally throw ten ideas at you right now of fixable things of various complexity in my domain (academic bioengineering). Another strategy is to look for large problems in your industry that have been solved and then try to find analogous problems in other industries where the same or a similar solution…

This is good advice and applies to virtually every industry.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide between startup ideas?

#48

Post by danieltillett »

drewrv wrote: post #9

People don't like to say it because they're afraid of sounding lazy, but you should do whichever is easier. Is building one of them going to be easier than the other? Is marketing/selling one of them going to be easier? Does one of the ideas require raising money? Building a sustainable business is hard enough in and of itself. If you can avoid having to woo investors, or dealing with Chinese factories, or months lon…

You cab rephrase easier to more probable and feel a lot better.
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