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How to Get Startup Ideas

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#61

Post by jcampbell1 »

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…

This idea strikes me squarely in the category of "Yeah, maybe I could see using something like that."

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#62

Post by pizza_boy »

tarr11 wrote: post #30
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…

Since everyone is on the 3D thing ... What about a Kinko's for 3D printing?

Check out ponoko (http://www.ponoko.com/).

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#63

Post by jQueryIsAwesome »

groby_b wrote: post #59
jQueryIsAwesome wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 restauran…

I was referring to the part where you said women would get offended; it haves nothing to do with the actual effectiveness of the approach (asking them).

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#64

Post by 6ren »

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…

  The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in
  trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
  unreasonable man.   George Bernard Shaw
Most people are reasonable; most founders are unreasonable.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#66

Post by javajosh »

byoung2 wrote: post #58
flipside wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Apropos of nothing, but a few times in my life I've actually gone to the theater to see a movie I knew nothing about. Nothing about the plot, the cast, etc. No trailer. It's a distinct experience, and sometimes highly pleasant. (I say "Heat" this way. Which was cool because the whole beginning of the movie is that long sequence with DeNiro stealing the ambulance, but I had no idea what the movie was, not even genre, and it was fun to try to figure out what was going on :)

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#68

Post by outworlder »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #31

Getting advice from an essay by PG is like reading a description of a stock market strategy - by the time you read and assimilate it, everyone else has too, and that particular inefficiency has been eliminated. There will now be a lot more HN readers keeping diaries of all the things that they noticed were inefficient in their day, and they will come up with good, competing startup ideas. However, the founder that is…

Not necessarily.

Reading and understanding are only one step. Actually assimilating and putting the advice to practical use is another step entirely.

This is why there are so many "obvious" articles that we do not apply. For instance, the blog posts and articles advocating exercise and a good night's sleep.

And yet, here I am, posting on HN at 1:20 AM.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#69

Post by shadowsun7 »

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…

Honestly, though, this idea seems to fall squarely into the 'yeah, I could see myself using that. Maybe' category.

This isn't a huge pain point.

Re: How to Get Startup Ideas

#70

Post by ComputerGuru »

I actually gave a TEDx talk on this topic, my conclusion (similar to PGs, but more succinctly summed up in 10 words) was any time you find yourself saying "this is stupid, there has to be a better way..." BINGO! you've got a startup topic. Just actually keep track of it, and you'll find it happens more often than you realize.

The talk, should anyone actually want to listen to me talk for 20 minutes: http://youtu.be/bPwgkf1aZ9I

(the guy controlling the projector had a hard time with the remote, the background slides keep going out of order :(

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