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How to Get Startup Ideas

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#51

Post by bri3d »

groby_b wrote: post #46

[16] is a rather cynical view of women in sororities. Maybe it's actually true for American colleges - I have no experience there. I doubt it is. At it's core, it seems to be saying "Ask women what they need, then build it for them". Start with that attitude, and women will have no interest in your product - because you begin by assuming they're incapable of building the things they need themselves.

What percentage of people know how to build software they want themselves?

I suspect it's a relatively low number - hence developers making comparatively quite decent salaries and software companies having an excellent potential for massive returns.

I don't really see this point as sexist or anti-sorority (although it's true sororities are heavily stereotyped in the US, in my experience) - I think this question would be equally applicable as "find stylish young people in a bar and ask them what they'd want or need to advance socially with a wide audience online."

The idea is that sororities self-select for people who are interested in being social, and that women in sororities are often trendsetters and hence excellent marketing targets.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#52

Post by AndrewKemendo »

These principals apply equally within large organizations too. So once your startup is humming and a few years, even decades old, you now have an HR department and a law firm who works solely on your suits, remember these things.

The difference however is that instead of a new and massive muscle movement, it will be refining and pruning the tree to make things more efficient, cost effective and empowering.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#53

Post by jQueryIsAwesome »

GregBuchholz wrote: post #25

Free startup idea for the day. 3D design software for the masses. It seems to cover lots of the bases in the article. I feel the need for this right now (just this weekend I wanted to print out a plastic part to fix the broken piece on my lawn mower). 3D printing seems to be an up-and-coming area. The hardware for this is still being perfected, but the software seems further behind. There are lots of competitors maki…

Nobody uses MS-paint to actually solving a problem of theirs, its prevalence is only because is the free bitmap editor that it comes pre-installed in Windows; you actually hace to learn Photoshop, Fireworks or other software to be able to solve decently your problem.

Furthermore I think SketchUp[0] is already a solution for this kind of problem, is extremely easy to use; trought I have to admit that it could improve with some tools specifically for photogammetry and 3D printing.

[0] http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/index.html

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#55

Post by bri3d »

nlh wrote: post #12

This is a spectacular essay. PG is dead-on correct here. In fact, one of the strongest reactions I had while reading it just now was "Shhh Paul, you're giving away the secret!" :) And this doesn't just apply to tech startups... The business I currently run (an exotic car rental company) started out precisely as described -- it was an idea I had to solve a problem I was facing (I wanted to rent a super-fancy car to dr…

Wow - I love your service!

This is a perfect example of a sustainable niche business, and one of the reasons I love this particular PG essay more than most. I find that a lot of PG essays (especially his recent "growth") exhibit an obvious VC / Silicon Valley bias, but this one is globally applicable to everything from an exotics rental company to a rapidly-growing IPO-targeted hot startup.

Both your business and the PG essay also triggered "why has nobody written/created this in such a simple way before?" thought processes, which in my mind is another good indicator that the concept behind both is quite sound.

Had I known prior to my current trip to NYC, I'd probably be a customer right now - as it stands a Phantom for the day tomorrow is really appealing but I'm not sure I want to drop the cash :)

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#56

Post by [deleted] »

nlh wrote: post #12

This is a spectacular essay. PG is dead-on correct here. In fact, one of the strongest reactions I had while reading it just now was "Shhh Paul, you're giving away the secret!" :) And this doesn't just apply to tech startups... The business I currently run (an exotic car rental company) started out precisely as described -- it was an idea I had to solve a problem I was facing (I wanted to rent a super-fancy car to dr…

[deleted]

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#57

Post by jQueryIsAwesome »

groby_b wrote: post #46

[16] is a rather cynical view of women in sororities. Maybe it's actually true for American colleges - I have no experience there. I doubt it is. At it's core, it seems to be saying "Ask women what they need, then build it for them". Start with that attitude, and women will have no interest in your product - because you begin by assuming they're incapable of building the things they need themselves.

Lets not ask the doctors what they want; maybe they will get offended because we think they can't build themselves.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#58

Post by byoung2 »

flipside wrote: post #37
javajosh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have four questions I'd like to ask you about your startup: 1. Does it help people address their fears? For example, are they afraid of not being heard? Or missing the next great movie? 2. Does it help people feel loved? For example, giving them an opportunity to warn people away from bad movies, or to offer unique insights? 3. Does it help people create or curate beauty? Movie ratings themselves are not very beaut…

Thanks for the questions. 1. A big reason more people don't rate movies is because it's unclear how or if it actually helps others (my vote doesn't matter syndrome) or themselves (black box recommendations). 2. Validation is a big motivator, seeing that others agree with you or trust your judgement is huge. 3. Funny you should mention curating beauty, individuals will be able to share and discover based on people tha…

I'm an avid moviegoer (50+ theatrical releases a year) and I completely ignore movie reviews (and it's getting this way with Yelp reviews too) because they lack context. What I mean by this is that a thumbs up/down or star rating is useless unless I have some background on the person giving the rating. For example, for someone to give Prometheus 2 stars when they haven't seen any of the Alien movies is different from an avid fan. I'd like to see a list of other movies/genres the reviewer rated, and maybe some basic demographic info before I listen to their opinion. Not sure if you have that worked into your idea yet...

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#59

Post by groby_b »

jQueryIsAwesome wrote: post #57
groby_b wrote: post #46

[16] is a rather cynical view of women in sororities. Maybe it's actually true for American colleges - I have no experience there. I doubt it is. At it's core, it seems to be saying "Ask women what they need, then build it for them". Start with that attitude, and women will have no interest in your product - because you begin by assuming they're incapable of building the things they need themselves.

Lets not ask the doctors what they want; maybe they will get offended because we think they can't build themselves.

Do you really think "work for hire" is a great way to generate startup ideas? This is exactly what pg is pitching there.

The advice also goes strictly against what pg himself is advising in the same article: The place to start looking for ideas is things you need. There must be things you need. [14]

But let's look at the one example that pg gives in the article: Rajat Suri didn't offer to write any software restaurants might need - he learned what they needed, and then struck out on his own.

If anybody had suggested he should just work as free IT for restaurants, that would sound kind of ridiculous, no?

But please, try out his advice, see how it works for you.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#60

Post by tomhoward »

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…

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 to mind.
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