I want to start a startup, but have no ideas. What should I do?

Start out simply. What sorts of things are you doing in your day job? What technologies do you use in your day-to-day work? At a more conceptual level, what sorts of problems does your work attempt to solve for its customers? From there, ask yourself what other problems could be solved for the customers? Were any potentially profitable ones overlooked? What other existing technologies that you are not presently working with can be used to solve those same problems more cost effectively? Looking at the technology set, what other related problems can you solve that either no business is currently working on or that you could solve cheaper/better/faster, etc?

The intent behind this questioning is the important thing. In an evolutionary context, the work you're doing is like an organism that is adapted to some degree to its business niche. You may be able to strike out on your own by making a business 'better adapted' to the same economic niche through changes in the technology/skills used. Alternately, you may be able to find a niche that better supports the toolkit you presently have to work with. This is the simplest way to generate innovation but it will likely not produce results that are the best for your overall happiness.

For that, you'll have to determine what kind of niche can support you financially and which you personally are well suited for. From there, it's a matter of figuring out what adaptations in your personal skill and technology set are necessary to transition you over to that niche from your existing job.

Break out of the loop by exploring lots of areas of interest, sooner or later something will grab you and once you have found your passion, you will be unstoppable.

Respectfully, this doesn't make any sense to me at all. Being beholden to a BigCo gives you more opportunity to develop ideas than having control over a sales and delivery pipeline?

So, no. But I think you have a kernel of a valid caveat there, which is that as long as you're bringing money in that isn't coming from your product, you're going to be distracted. My proposed solution for that --- one that's working well for us --- is to get to a point where you can simply hire people to do one or the other. Hard to argue that a full-time product person is "distracted" because his paycheck is coming from a consulting practice instead of a VC fund.

This is also why I recommended starting a two-person company, and not simply becoming a freelancer. Freelancers do get sucked into "temporary W2" consulting hell.

The problem that most people (including myself) have is that they jump at the first halfway decent idea they come across.

Don't do that!

Sit down with a piece of blank piece of paper (metaphorically - you'll want to use a text editor) and start writing down ideas. Make them crazy. Zero negative feedback. Get the creative juices flowing.

What do people pay for?

Services. Information. Money saving. Social opportunities. Access to money.

So, let me get the list going for you with some bizzare / useless ideas, based off of one random concept - "sneakers".

* software to manage collections of high end sneakers * software / service that lets you design and produce your own custom sneaker * social networking for fans of sneakers * sneakers that verbally encourage you to take the stairs * sneakers with GPS that issue you different reminders at different locations ("you're in the lobby of the office, on the way out - don't forget to pick up chicken on the way home")

All idiot ideas. But maybe buried in there you come up with "software that lets small shoe stores manage their inventory", or something.

The point is this: until you've generated 100 ideas, you'd be foolish to leap at the first one.

...and the second point is this: once you've generated 100 ideas, you'll be more practiced and fluid, and you'll find it easier to generate the next 100.

Run the ideas past a few friends, and ask them each to pick 10 that are interesting.

Chances are, there'll be a point of overlap. And maybe it's even something that was already tugging at you.

It's an interesting exercise.

Go do it.

stop dreaming about killer ideas. start looking for problems. If you find a problem that's big enough and people are willing to pay for a solution, you can start bootstrapping.

Joining a startup should be a good experience for you. You'd find out whether you'd really enjoy startup life or not.