Generating (any kind of) ideas is the easiest and most important part of doing a startup. If you can't do that, you shouldn't go further, but rather first learn to generate ideas yourself. Business ideas are no different than programming ideas, you just have to look for them. Talk to people, go somewhere. Start with easiest ideas - identify problems that need solutions, then think of solutions.
Beg HN: Share some ideas.
41–50 of 66 posts
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#42Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…
It doesn't work for everybody, though. For me, a job tends to completely numb my mind and kill off any creativity I have. YMMV.
What edw519 is saying here doesn't require creativity though. It's pretty much what I did in my first side business: I could see the problem customers at my day job were trying to solve by combining some products we sold, and I realized that they would happily buy a single product that did what they were trying to get done. No thought required, just implementation and marketing.
The owners of the company thought my idea was dumb, so I built it myself and sold it into a completely different market.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't work for everybody, though. For me, a job tends to completely numb my mind and kill off any creativity I have. YMMV.
What edw519 is saying here doesn't require creativity though. It's pretty much what I did in my first side business: I could see the problem customers at my day job were trying to solve by combining some products we sold, and I realized that they would happily buy a single product that did what they were trying to get done. No thought required, just implementation and marketing. The owners of the company thought my i…
That kind of thing only works for some jobs, though. I don't think it would have been applicable in any of the jobs I had so far.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd like to add a caveat to this: If you go out and get a job, do yourself a favor and live as lean as possible while working it. Save every dime you can. That cushion will make startup life significantly easier. Plus, you won't have a huge overhead draining you when you do finally make the leap. It's very easy to spend up to your income level when you start making decent money... but it's a trap! Keep your eye on th…
Can't emphasize this enough. I've talked to countless people unhappy in their career that can't get out of it because of a family and an addiction to their current lifestyle. They continued to expand their spending as their income incremented, leaving them in a risk averse position. The lesson I take from every conversation I have with these people is live simply and lean even as your income grows, and when you have…
As someone who followed this advice excessively, I have to counter it a bit. Through most of my 20s I lived in the cheapest, shittiest apartment I could find, ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food, rarely went out partying with friends, never went on a vacation, never dated, etc. This kills your network and your health. Frugal is fine, but don't be so freaking cheap that when you're 30, you hate your 20s, and need to spend 2 years fixing your life.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't emphasize this enough. I've talked to countless people unhappy in their career that can't get out of it because of a family and an addiction to their current lifestyle. They continued to expand their spending as their income incremented, leaving them in a risk averse position. The lesson I take from every conversation I have with these people is live simply and lean even as your income grows, and when you have…
As someone who followed this advice excessively, I have to counter it a bit. Through most of my 20s I lived in the cheapest, shittiest apartment I could find, ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food, rarely went out partying with friends, never went on a vacation, never dated, etc. This kills your network and your health. Frugal is fine, but don't be so freaking cheap that when you're 30, you hate…
Absolutely. Its always a balance.. I'm speaking more towards avoiding the lavish lifestyle of club bottle service, expensive cars and other luxuries. Its the expensive car payment and mortgage or rent that gets you in trouble.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't emphasize this enough. I've talked to countless people unhappy in their career that can't get out of it because of a family and an addiction to their current lifestyle. They continued to expand their spending as their income incremented, leaving them in a risk averse position. The lesson I take from every conversation I have with these people is live simply and lean even as your income grows, and when you have…
As someone who followed this advice excessively, I have to counter it a bit. Through most of my 20s I lived in the cheapest, shittiest apartment I could find, ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food, rarely went out partying with friends, never went on a vacation, never dated, etc. This kills your network and your health. Frugal is fine, but don't be so freaking cheap that when you're 30, you hate…
I'm curious the specifics that you did in the last 2 years to fix your life. Specifically, how did you transition from your frugal ways to your current living? Expand your network and improve your health? This would be very helpful to the rest of us who are going through the same thing that you have accomplished.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#47Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…
Spot on.
I just came out of college at the end of 2008. The place I work for seemed like it was going to absolutely rock but I was dead wrong. It's not a small company which I've found that I really should have started with.
I'll spare the details, but the point is that I've generated a lot of ideas while I've been working and I've moved forward and completed some of those ideas. I've seen how an industry works, good and bad. I've met some really crazy smart people and now have some good recs behind me. I've messed with several technologies that I otherwise probably wouldn't have.
If you don't have a solid idea, plan or financial path just snag a job first and work a couple of years while feeding your inner entrepreneur. You can do both for a bit.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#48I sent you an e-mail. Let me know if you're interested.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#49Google is currently using the model of try creating a service and see if it sticks with users.
If you have ideas for a lot of small web applications, why don't you try the really low risk approach of building them one at a time, polishing each one up really well, and host these applications on the web? Internet web hosting is dirt cheap and if these are all "small" applications, then you won't need a lot of resources for any of them.
After you build a small collection of services in this way, you can then start looking at cobbling them together into a single service brand like 37signals for example. Alternatively, you may find that one or several of your web properties really take off. You would then be able to let the users tell you how to evolve/grow that service (or system).
Good luck.
Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.
#50Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…
Adding to what others have said, look for an industry that either interests you or is somewhat a laggard. Get some domain experience and the ideas will flood you. There are obvious benefits to an area where the pace is slow and the practitioners are not stellar, fewer HNers to compete with. Be aware of the sales cycle though. Government has multiple crying needs, but it can take years to make a sales.