Find startup ideas by solving your own problems, listening to customer complaints in online communities (Reddit, Twitter), analyzing competitor reviews, exploring emerging technologies, or working in an industry to spot inefficiencies. Best ideas come from personal pain points you deeply understand.
Most founders overthink ideation. Best approach: (1) Solve your own problem—Airbnb founders needed rent money, Dropbox founder kept forgetting USB drive. Deep understanding beats market research. (2) Listen where people complain—Reddit, Twitter, Quora, customer reviews of existing products. Pain points = opportunities. (3) Work in an industry—Stripe founders were developers frustrated with payments. Domain expertise reveals inefficiencies outsiders miss. (4) Explore emerging tech—AI, blockchain, VR create new possibilities. Early movers have edge. (5) Copy but improve—Take successful Western model, adapt to India (Ola copied Uber, Zomato copied Yelp). (6) Unbundle complex products—Superhuman unbundled Gmail's speed, Notion unbundled productivity tools. (7) B2B from consumer trends—Remote work boom created Zoom, async communication created Loom. What NOT to do: Brainstorm in isolation, pick "hot" markets you don't understand, copy competitors exactly, chase trends without conviction. Validation required: Talk to 10+ potential customers before building, confirm they'll pay (not just "interesting idea"), ensure market size is sufficient (TAM analysis). Paul Graham advice: "Make something people want" not "make what you think will make money." Passion and problem understanding matter more than market size initially.
Stripe: Patrick Collison was frustrated by payment APIs while building previous startup. Solved own problem, now worth $95 billion.
Calendly: Tope Awotona hated scheduling meeting back-and-forth emails. Built simple solution, $3B valuation.
Zerodha: Nithin Kamath's father was stock trader. Saw high brokerage fees hurting small traders. Built discount brokerage.
Solve real problems you understand deeply. Trends attract competitors, fade quickly. Boring problems (payments, scheduling) build billion-dollar companies.
Quality over quantity. Thoroughly validate 2-3 ideas vs superficially exploring 20. Deep customer conversations reveal truth.
Yes, but find technical co-founder or learn no-code tools. Non-technical founders often understand customers better. Airbnb founders were designers.
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How to validate a startup idea?
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How to validate a startup idea before building?
Validate startup ideas by: (1) Talking to 50+ potential customers about the problem, (2) Testing wil...
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