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Comment by p4bl0 | Hacker News Reader

I don't really understand this need for "finding startup ideas". In my mind, it's good idea that lead to start-up and I can't see myself thinking "I want to launch my start-up but I don't have any idea of what to do".

Is there actually some people thinking this way (want startup -> need idea) ?

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Definitely. I would classify myself as someone who desires the challenge, autonomy, and opportunity for growth of a startup, but I have a difficult time identifying viable ideas. I feel like I'm a creative problem solver, but not a creative problem identifier.

I am an engineer at heart - I love to build all kinds of things, from software to electronics, etc. If you give me an idea, I can run with it and prototype it without difficulty.

However, if you ask me to generate viable ideas from scratch it is as if I have writer's block. I've been working to improve by ingesting anything I can get my hands on - be it this post, talks (such as Tom Kelley's 'How to be an innovator for life' re: thinking like a traveler), books (such as 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' and 'The Long Tail'), reading HN and PG's essays, and so forth.

I don't think finding viable ideas will ever be as intuitive to me as it is to some, but perhaps with practice and hard work I will start to recognize some opportunities.

Howdy Philip, maybe I can be of help.

I find that ideas that really grab me can hit just about any time of day or night, but only if I'm open to them. When I'm idea light, it's because I discard ideas as low value without giving them a proper shake or playing with them (hashing out a design).

My poor cofounder get's rained on by my ideas when they're flowing, At this point I'm pretty confident he auto forwards them to his junk box :D.

Talking with folks about their needs can help trigger your creative side as well. Helping other folks can inspire us to experiment in ways helping ourselves can't.

If you ever want to sound-off ideas against someone, get in touch. I wonder if people start auto-deleting mine too because I will think of something new most days of the week.

It's helpful to sound off ideas, because there's no guarantee we'll recognize our best. I wait till I really fall in love with an idea, as that will help drive me to implement it (I'm a pretty slow hacker).

Sure hit me up with ideas anytime at messel at gmail dot com. I'm Mark

Okay everyone thanks for your answers. (I'm only replying here for convenience).

Absolutely. If you hear the startup life glorified enough on sites like this, there's a chance you're going to want to start a startup, but you won't have an idea yet. Also, some people just naturally recognize ideas, whereas other people might have just dismissed annoyances as "the way the world is."

There are a lot of people, myself included, that want to build businesses (not necessarily just web2.0 startups) but don't have a constant stream of ideas. I don't think that makes people any less passionate or able to run successful businesses, just a difference in the way brains work.

A lot of people want to quit that day job. For some it's the flexibility that offers and for others, they just want some change.

That's the way I work. I've known for a while I wanted a startup, now I'm at the stage of taking ideas and turning them into reality. I'm always thinking of new ideas and writing them down for later, but my mode of thinking is definitely "I'm now creating a startup, lets go find ideas" and not the other way around.

By the way, Paul Graham has mentioned that Viaweb started in much the same way: a conscious search for an idea to build a business around.

Lots of well-known examples. In Jim Collin's Built to Last, he mentions how many large companies were started by founders without a specific idea, just a solid team (Hewlett-Packard being a major example).

I do realize the book gets some criticism for lack of scientific rigor or the performance of companies involved, but the example is still worth mentioning.

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