"The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they're something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing." Paul Graham on how to get startup ideas:
@ycombinator Decentralized compute is one of those ideas, obvious only in hindsight.
@ycombinator Building something you actually want keeps you going through the inevitable rough patches. External motivation can be hard to find when things get hard.
@ycombinator don't forget that the best startups should also have a seamless customer support experience ;)) from beginning to end. way too many chatgpt wrappers nowadays with a broken product + terrible support. ideas are important but so is execution.
@ycombinator Is it about fulfilling a personal need, or anticipating an overlooked collective one? Perhaps both are essential for true impact.
@ycombinator Step 1: Have a problem Step 2: Solve it Step 3: Convince the world it’s a problem too Steve Jobs ideology ☝️
@ycombinator Most technical founders have the same problems, so markets get saturated by them following this advice. Plenty of people in other fields aren’t learning to code, the smarter move is to partner with them and solve their problems, imo
Yeah or just make cool stuff. Calculate the market size by identifying the ideal customer, multiply it by what you'll be charging. Figure out the risks of doing it, which is usually what drives people away, but you're passionate so those are challenges to you. Then, just post everywhere. Make cool stuff. Do cool stuff. Don't do it for anybody else but yourself. Use investment as an accelerator, not a crutch.
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@ycombinator As a founder learning to understand what drives me sometimes, at @ycombinator learning just what you are saying here has inspired me to keep pressing on. Also, for those founders who have not taken the @startupschool you are missing out on some incredible insight and tools!🧰
@ycombinator 3 Important Lessons I Learned from Steve Jobs: 1. Build what you desperately want, not what customers or investors want. 2. Treat your startup like a maze, not a highway. 3. Be dangerously curious.
@ycombinator This is literally the best advice anyone can give and anyone can receive in the startup space.
@ycombinator The first part of this has always felt so obvious
@ycombinator Yes yes and yes! And we’re doing it! 🙌
@ycombinator A lot of people don’t have the patience to build the tools they want.
@ycombinator relating to this so much lately fr
@ycombinator To get into YC faster, should I ship one banger or 100 mid projects?
@ycombinator Honestly it feels extremely motivating to solve your own problems with the product you are building. That is 100% why I am building EdenLM edenlm.com It would have solved so many pains at my previous business.
@ycombinator Every founder should ask themselves if what they are building checks these boxes…
@ycombinator Great criteria for building something awesome.
@ycombinator Exactly this. I only started @postwithzap because I was drowning in the content grind myself. Building something I wanted first made it way easier to see what was actually worth doing.
@ycombinator Passion, capability, and uniqueness key ingredients for successful startups.
@ycombinator That's exactly how I got to where I am. Just trying to survive in the world with the problems I'm trying to fix. academia.edu/143458213/The_…
@ycombinator So basically: scratch your own itch, but make it contagious
@ycombinator Nice cool I am from Africa Nigeria and I have started a startup but no support
@ycombinator Exactly! I ship what I use; my peers follow. Small market but it’s fine.
@ycombinator One reason I am moving on is I cannot not have this app I am building on my phone
@ycombinator Dream big: a startup where we bring back Tamagotchis but for cryptocurrency
@ycombinator My best products came from scratching my own itch. Solving your own problems means you already have at least one customer.