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You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

blog.eladgil.com

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Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#21

Post by sursani »

justinmares wrote: post #20
rradu wrote: post #11

Problem is that it's hard to drop a steady job and be motivated about an idea you know isn't very good. You need to have an idea that you can believe has a chance of being successful.

I also think there are too many cases where people just drop everything and go with an idea that is doomed to fail. It seems like there is competing advice between "do your homework" posts and "go for it!" posts.

It's definitely risky to do something like this. You have to be that sure and believe in yourself that you can pull it off. I am trying to do the same exact thing... move from a regular, steady job to starting my own thing. Thus far I have been working on it on the side but at some point I want to make a full switch to working on my company full time and support myself + family.

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#23

Post by eladgil »

revorad wrote: post #18
eladgil wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. To be honest I didn't want to name specific markets as I didn't want to create too much interest in areas where friends of mine are working. I didnt want to add attention and make it more crowded. :)

Haha that made me chuckle. "It is all about execution. Even if you have a great idea - 5 other people will have it at the same time." Just quoting a blog post...

Yup, GroupOn out executed everyone and is winning. But their getting a high profile has also hurt them by creating 1001 competitors.

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#24

Post by jayliew »

scotch_drinker wrote: post #14
rradu wrote: post #11

Problem is that it's hard to drop a steady job and be motivated about an idea you know isn't very good. You need to have an idea that you can believe has a chance of being successful.

Conversely, dropping a steady job for a crappy idea might be just the kind of motivation you might need to become successful. Full disclosure: I'm trying to convince myself of this every single morning.

Burn the boats: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/06/andreessen-media-burn-boats...

disclosure: I burned my boat

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#25

Post by ericmsimons »

Hmm...I agree to disagree. I think the best companies start with an idea. It may not be a product idea, but a goal (ie: let's bridge the gap between technology and social = facebook).

The best products aren't slapped together using existing solutions. They are built from the ground up to solve a problem. If your company is building a solution to solve a specific problem, you are a great company.

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#26

Post by ericmsimons »

jayliew wrote: post #24
scotch_drinker wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, dropping a steady job for a crappy idea might be just the kind of motivation you might need to become successful. Full disclosure: I'm trying to convince myself of this every single morning.

Burn the boats: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/06/andreessen-media-burn-boats... disclosure: I burned my boat

"disclosure: I burned my boat"

made me laugh :) I burned mine too!

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#27

Post by jacquesm »

You don't even need an idea at all. All you need is to find a crossroads where two fields intersect and that has not been discovered by anybody else. Those crossroads are discovered, not invented and every time a new field is made by someone with a new idea a thousand new crossroads instantly spring up.

Remember when 'on the internet' was the only thing changed in all those patent applications compared to what was going on before then? Suddenly appending 'on the internet' to something made it worth investigating. New fields open up all the time, if you're observing new findings in popular science it's very hard to not see opportunities enough for several lifetimes to scroll by in a single sitting of reading. Whether they're worth pursuing is another thing but the opportunities are there for the taking, no need to have a good idea or any at all to get off the ground.

Another way to start a great company that is pretty effective is to take an idea that already exists and simply do a better job of it.

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#28

Post by jayliew »

ericmsimons wrote: post #26
jayliew wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Burn the boats: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/06/andreessen-media-burn-boats... disclosure: I burned my boat

"disclosure: I burned my boat" made me laugh :) I burned mine too!

I'd drop you an email to say hi but your HN profile is empty :)

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#29

Post by ericmsimons »

jayliew wrote: post #28
ericmsimons wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"disclosure: I burned my boat" made me laugh :) I burned mine too!

I'd drop you an email to say hi but your HN profile is empty :)

ericsimons@es40.net - thanks for reminding me to update that!

Re: You Dont Need a Good Idea To Start a Great Company

#30

Post by rwhitman »

rradu wrote: post #11

Problem is that it's hard to drop a steady job and be motivated about an idea you know isn't very good. You need to have an idea that you can believe has a chance of being successful.

Agreed. I can't imagine many people are going to be willing to stake much effort on an idea they aren't excited about.

An exciting idea doesn't have to be a good idea. A lot of dumb ideas seem like good ideas until you're half way through executing on them.

Whether or not having a good idea is critical to a good startup, that can be debated. But few people can muster up motivation to take risks on ideas that don't excite them...

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