How to Get Startup Ideas

#1

Post by davidkolodny » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:25 AM UTC

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#2

Post by nikeshm » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:13 AM UTC

This might be a little off-topic, but I haven't seen many "Request for Startups, 2021 edition" posted on HN this year. For instance, last year there was a large discussion of Elad Gil's ideas (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21969774&p=2) and a similarly substantial discussion of Daniel Gross's ideas (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22076787). Did I just miss this year's posts? I'd appreciate links to relevant threads/blog posts.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#3

Post by rfrey » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:22 AM UTC

1. See the future and build what it needs

2. Do something that exists 10x better

3. Scratch your own itch

Maybe I'm just feeling cranky, but this feels pretty shallow to me. Mostly it seems like filler to pump their portfolio companies.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#4

Post by davidkolodny » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:44 AM UTC

nikeshm wrote: post #2

This might be a little off-topic, but I haven't seen many "Request for Startups, 2021 edition" posted on HN this year. For instance, last year there was a large discussion of Elad Gil's ideas ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21969774&p=2 ) and a similarly substantial discussion of Daniel Gross's ideas ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22076787 ). Did I just miss this year's posts? I'd appreciate links to r…

Not off-topic! Agreed. I'm one of the Wilbur Labs Co-Founders – in the article it mentions that ecomm, employment, insurance, and mobile on-demand are a few of the industries where we are boosting investments as a result of new long-term trends. We're going to put together a more robust list of opportunities in the next few months.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#5

Post by rexreed » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:47 AM UTC

1. Solve a real problem.

2. In lieu of that, find someone else's money to burn

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#6

Post by davidkolodny » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:51 AM UTC

rexreed wrote: post #5

1. Solve a real problem. 2. In lieu of that, find someone else's money to burn

Haha! This is the way. Solving a real problem is the only way to build a lasting business.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#7

Post by xwdv » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:56 AM UTC

How to really get good startup ideas: steal them, and do it better.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#8

Post by jacob_rezi » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 3:57 AM UTC

Any information on Wilbur Labs? Seems like an interesting company

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#9

Post by davidkolodny » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

jacob_rezi wrote: post #8

Any information on Wilbur Labs? Seems like an interesting company

Hey Jacob, we're a startup studio. If you boil it down, everything we do falls in two buckets: starting new companies and supporting the portfolio. For new companies, we start a few companies per year when an idea is in our strike zone and meets our thesis. This post, at a high-level, hits on what that strike-zone is. We won't start a business unless we are uniquely positioned to solve a big, growing problem.

For existing companies in the portfolio, we provide funding, shared resources, and operational support.

We shared more on what a startup studio is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26004021

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#10

Post by gumby » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 4:23 AM UTC

Not to pick on these people specifically, but when they wrote, “technology companies, including VacationRenter, Vitabox, Joblist, Barkbus” I literally laughed out loud. I mean sure, there’s a lot of advanced technology involved in a dog groomer being in a van but it’s all the responsibility of the van manufacturer.

The word “technology” has been completely inflated out of any meaninful description at this point, in part because of its magical cargo-cult aura to a lot of people and in part because what was high tech and novel is often now commodity table stakes these days.