How to Get Startup Ideas
by Paul Graham · read the original
PG's guide to where real startup ideas come from: notice problems instead of brainstorming ideas, prefer problems you have yourself, dig wells not craters, disable schlep blindness, and live in the future so the missing pieces become obvious.
- 1
Notice, Don't Think
Don't think up ideas. Notice problems, ideally your own. The best ideas are things founders want, can build, and that few others see as worth doing.
- 2
Made-Up Ideas and the Sitcom Trap
Made-up ideas fail slowly because people say 'maybe' instead of 'no'. Lukewarm interest multiplied across the whole world is still zero users.
- 3
Wells Beat Craters
Dig a well, not a crater. A small group that needs you desperately beats a huge group that thinks you're mildly neat.
- 4
Problems You Have Yourself
Your own problems are the only ones you're certain are real. Solving one gives you a guaranteed first user: you.
- 5
Live in the Future
Get to the leading edge of something that's changing fast. From there, good startup ideas look like obvious gaps, not visions.
- 6
Schlep Blindness and the Unsexy Filter
Your brain hides valuable ideas behind dread and boredom. Turn those filters off: the schleppy, unsexy problems are underpriced because everyone flinches.
- 7
Organic Ideas, and Recipes When You Need Them
Organic beats manufactured, but if you must search: use your expertise, watch dying industries, serve ignored users, and treat competition as proof of demand.
- 8
Question the Status Quo, Cross Domains
Broken things feel normal to insiders. Cross into unfamiliar domains, question defaults everyone tolerates, and the tolerated problems become visible.