Finding the Best Startup Ideas

In the last week, I’ve met a couple of people who want to embark on the startup journey. But all of them express very similar concerns.?

How do I find a good idea?

How do I know what to commit too??

How do I find ideas that are not hyper saturated??

These are all completely valid problems that I myself had been grappling with for the last 6 years.?

But the last year has completely changed the way I look at this.?

Here are my thoughts on finding startup ideas.

1. Stop Overthinking, Start Building

Many people, myself included, spend ages trying to find the “perfect” idea. We hope to wake up one day shouting “Eureka!” as we stumble upon the billion-dollar concept. While it can happen, waiting for it is unproductive.

Instead I’d argue that proper idea exploration happens through building.

Even if you have doubts or face competition, start talking to potential customers and build a minimum viable product (MVP) to convey your idea.

Find a way to pretotype it. Go from idea to validation in a week.?

Don’t waste time creating a full-fledged product.

Get feedback, make adjustments, do it again.?

Do this enough, and like a scratch pad, potential billion-dollar ideas will start to reveal themselves.

For more on how to pretotype, you can check out the book by Alberto Savaio for a deep dive or my article here:?

Pretotyping: A Way to Test Product Market Fit Quickly

Daivik Goel

·

Jun 23

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2. “Hair on Fire” Problems Exist. You’re Just Looking in the Wrong Places

A year ago, as a new grad in software development, my ideas naturally centered around those domains. However, these areas can be challenging for startups:

• The college student market is difficult because they rarely pay for services.
• The software development space is hyper-competitive and often saturated.

This led me to believe that “hair on fire” problems (urgent issues people desperately need solved) didn’t exist anymore. I was wrong?—?I just wasn’t looking in the right places.

Did you know cargo theft costs the US $15–30 billion annually? A significant portion is due to identity fraud, often caused by outdated systems for matching carriers and drivers.?

While you’re pondering how to build an LLM for restaurant recommendations, thousands of trucking brokers could save millions with a simple Chrome extension to verify email addresses against Department of Transportation records.

“Hair on fire” problems are out there; you just need to broaden your search.

3. Rethinking Founder-Market Fit and Passion

We often hear that founders need to be passionate about their startup’s domain and have relevant experience. While these can be beneficial, I think their importance is sometimes overstated.

Most people are never passionate about the area they are starting off in. It is only after they dive deep into the problems and get an understanding that they start to develop it. After seeing success in that field. Not having that to begin with doesn’t necessarily mean you are doomed.?

What’s often mistaken as “passion” is more accurately a “unique insight” crucial for business success. Passion for a problem space can indeed lead to these insights, but it isn’t the only path to discovering them.

• It can stem from a deep-seated passion for an industry
• It might result from years of hands-on experience
• It could involve actively engaging with a community to gain a profound understanding of its challenges

Any of these paths can lead to valuable insights that form the foundation of your startup thesis.

Don’t dismiss domains you’re unfamiliar with. Instead, develop a framework for talking to people and extracting valuable insights.?

You might be surprised how quickly you can develop enough working knowledge to bring value to prospective customers.

Takeaway

For all the time we spend on ideation, it’s just the tip of the iceberg in the startup journey. Building a startup might begin with an idea, but it quickly becomes a game of learning and adapting.

Soon enough, you realize that your initial idea was more of a theme that evolves as you build around it. So, if there’s one takeaway, it’s this: don’t spend too much time in idea hell.?

Think of a couple, do basic validation, and then commit to one. Use it as a springboard to start the process of learning and iterating.

See where it takes you and where it ultimately ends up.?

The journey might surprise you.

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08/22 - Basecamp Demo Day - Register

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08/21 - August Tech Rooftop Mixer (Hosted by Andrew Yeung) - Register

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Check out this Podcast Episode!

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Tom Alterman is currently Head of Product at Asana, for Revenue and Monetization.

I had a great time going through what motivates Tom to pursue different opportunities, how Asana is able to retain its values within its products and employees as well as his views on what traits make up a great product manager.

Thanks for reading,

Daivik Goel