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How to Get Startup Ideas

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#121

Post by pknerd »

kyro wrote: post #11

One thing I've noticed that has generated a ton of ideas, particularly within the hospital setting I'm in, is to listen to all the questions staff members ask one another. Who's doing that? When's this happening? How do I do that? etc. They're all seemingly mundane questions that get asked on a daily basis, but they give you great insight to the daily frustrations that people have come to accept (that's why they're b…

Finding a solution is not enough. You must have a strong convincing power and ability to tackle with employees who will create obstacles for the new system.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#122

Post by Lucadg »

The social network for pets is actually not such a bad idea. I've got friends who build one in a niche: - only in italian - only for one race of dog and it so many users I could not believe it. It's kind of funny and depressing reading them: they write in the first person as it was the dog talking. Stuff like "hello my friends, today my master gave me a bath". Wow... :) (I won't link it, as they seem to be very jealous of the idea).

On "A particularly promising way to be unusual is to be young", I'd like to add another way to be unusual: "A particularly promising way to be unusual is to be travel" I mean travel a lot, not short holiday breaks of course. Stuff like go to live 3 months in Mexico, 6 months in Bali and so on. I did all this for what, 10 years, and I have more ideas than I can chew. I'm not that good in executing thought.

And one last thing. Pick your most "status quo" friend. You know, those guys who are absolutely convinced nothing will ever change and nothing ever changed and everything is normal as it is, today. They live in the present. Run your ideas on them. If they go "naa...who needs that?" you may have a good idea.

It happened to me a few years back when I had already started an online reservation business in Prague and decided to try the same in Riga, Latvia. This "status quo" friend had already told me Prague would not work "nobody will trust a website to reserve an apartment". When we went to Riga he told me "naaaa...who would come to Riga, this is like the Soviet Union and it's far". It worked, immediately.

I mean zero investments, html websites and stuff like that. Really low tech.

Thinking about it now, with low cost flights coming in from all over Europe and no passport requirements, he admits I was right. But I am sure that if I present him with another idea he would still go: "nnaaa...who would..". Good, time to build it!

You need a friend like that.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#123

Post by nicktal »

flipside wrote: post #23
paulsutter wrote: post #8

After 20 years of entrepreneurship, of struggles and successes, of spending man years of that time thinking about startup ideas, and having learned so many lessons the hard way, I can say the following: pg's essays are so true and correct that I could practically cry. If enough people read these essays (especially this and the recent "growth" essay), it could materially boost the economy.

Reading essays like this drives me crazy. No, it's not because pg is wrong or I disagree with anything he's saying, it's because everything resonates with my startup (Tinj.co, interactive movie ratings) but after 1000+ pitches I still can't succinctly articulate how I know this. I could probably make a checklist for the criteria of great startup ideas (seems like a toy: check, personal problem: check, inspiration fro…

If it makes you feel any better, I've held the opinion for years now that ratings are broken across most services on the web. Jeff Bezos even acknowledged as much in a famous essay of his on how the distribution of one-to-five star ratings settle over time. Still, every new service sticks to the binary thumbs-up/down model or five-star. I'm sure you probably know the pitfalls of each, so good luck to you. I'm hoping you'll become the Disqus of ratings for every site. The analogy holds, interestingly, in my mind: comments had no consistency along UX or reputation before Disqus came along.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#124

Post by matteodepalo »

I'm wondering if the reasoning that you should build a startup based on your own needs is applicable to ideas that have already been solved abroad and will not be imported in your country for some time. We don't live all in the Silicon Valley and people feel the same needs all over the world. Let's take the Stripe example. I live in Italy and I would use their product right now. Too bad they are not here and will not be here for quite a long time I foresee. Is it a good idea to create a startup that solves this need NOW for Europe? PayMill thought it was. The same for Netflix; in Italy (and most of Europe) we don't have a single decent service for renting movies online. Sometimes I feel I should build a service like Netflix here, but what if Netflix comes here 1 year later? It would probably crush my service.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#126

Post by precisioncoder »

flipside wrote: post #115
gfodor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal of reading movie reviews is not to see what other people think about a movie. It's to decide what movie to see. Why not just say: "Quickly and easily decide which movie to see." Simple, to the point, and yes, it's still an unsolved problem.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. I don't believe I've tried that particular wording yet.

One thing I would suggest is when you mention it, have a link ready with an email signup so people like me who are intrigued can easily sign up to get a mail when the beta releases. The name seems fairly popular at least a google search for "Tinj" or "Tinj movie reviews" didn't work. (Although the hacker news thread came up with the second search)

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#127

Post by melvinmt »

matteodepalo wrote: post #124

I'm wondering if the reasoning that you should build a startup based on your own needs is applicable to ideas that have already been solved abroad and will not be imported in your country for some time. We don't live all in the Silicon Valley and people feel the same needs all over the world. Let's take the Stripe example. I live in Italy and I would use their product right now. Too bad they are not here and will not…

Yes and no.

While cloning a service in a different geographical area may be profitable and successful on the short term, it's never going to be a Facebook or a Google on a global scale. It's like opening up an Italian restaurant in a small little town that doesn't have an Olive Garden yet.

If that's the kind of business you want to be in that's fine, but it's not the high-growth kind of startup that many of us are trying to build.

It's "just" a cash cow.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#128

Post by krichman »

flipside wrote: post #117
precisioncoder wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a good pitch actually, convinced me to take a look at your site. My wife and I always have a very hard time deciding for movies, often because rating sites are worse than useless if you don't have mainstream tastes.

Awesome! The beta should start in the next few weeks.

I also thought that was a good pitch. Please make a post or something when you have the beta open, I'd like to try it.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#129

Post by nekopa »

flipside wrote: post #98
tomhoward wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fundraising & customer acquisition are like dating; logic doesn't get you very far. The points PG makes might be valuable in convincing yourself that it's a field worth pursuing, but for convincing people to give you their attention and their cash, you need a different approach, which will usually involve some combination of: stories , charisma , status , social proof , exclusivity , to name just the first that come…

You're right, convincing others is a whole different ball game. Since I clearly suck at it, I've done my best to suck a little less each time I try. Here's hoping pg writes that essay next.

Also check out the book "The Art of Woo" Goofy title, but a very interesting book on selling ideas.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#130

Post by matteodepalo »

melvinmt wrote: post #127
matteodepalo wrote: post #124

I'm wondering if the reasoning that you should build a startup based on your own needs is applicable to ideas that have already been solved abroad and will not be imported in your country for some time. We don't live all in the Silicon Valley and people feel the same needs all over the world. Let's take the Stripe example. I live in Italy and I would use their product right now. Too bad they are not here and will not…

Yes and no. While cloning a service in a different geographical area may be profitable and successful on the short term, it's never going to be a Facebook or a Google on a global scale. It's like opening up an Italian restaurant in a small little town that doesn't have an Olive Garden yet. If that's the kind of business you want to be in that's fine, but it's not the high-growth kind of startup that many of us are tr…

I tend to feel this way as well about clones, however your example IMHO doesn't really catch the problem. If the Italian restaurant is very good and aimed at a selective audience it can win against a big brand that aims at everyone. Of course they can only win if they don't try to clone an Olive Garden. The problem here is not making something small to beat a giant competitor, it's to build something exactly like a service you know to be very very good for the purpose of having it now. Indiegogo is a good example for this; they are like Kickstarter and offer a very good service to Europe. Considering Kickstarted wont be here for a long time I think they caught a good opportunity.
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