How to Get Startup Ideas
Title: How to Get Startup Ideas URL Source: https://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html Markdown Content: Image 1: How to Get Startup Ideas November 2012 The way to get startup ideas is not to try to thi
How to Get Startup Ideas
The danger of an idea like this is that when you run it by your friends with pets, they don't say "I would never use this." They say "Yeah, maybe I could see using something like that." Even when the startup launches, it will sound plausible to a lot of people. They don't want to use it
Hook: This is about ideas that sound nice, but nobody actually wants.
Analogy: Imagine you build a new toy.
You show it to kids.
They do not say, “I want to play now!”
They say, “Some other kid might like it.”
That sounds like a “yes,” but it is not.
It is a polite “no.”
Now imagine you ask many kids.
Each kid says, “Maybe someone else.”
No kid grabs the toy.
So you have a toy with zero players.
Tiny steps (what is happening):
- Your friends can picture the idea in their heads.
- But they do not feel a strong need today.
- They guess “others” might want it.
- When everyone says that, nobody uses it.
So what?: This helps you build things people truly want, right now.