Foursquare, Facebook, Founders, and Passion

A mistake that first time entrepreneurs often make is to try and identify their startup by researching gaps in various hot markets, or they try to identify something that sucks and improve it. These are both good starting points on their own, however there needs to be an additional qualifier: Is the founder passionate about the problem and the larger market area they're entering in? Are they excited to work within this market for the next 5+ years and are they naturally going to spend all their free time thinking about the problem?

I know that I've made the mistake multiple times before of stumbling upon a good idea, getting started on it, only to have it turn into more of a side project than a business. Passion around the market and problem area is something that I wouldn't participate in a business without going forward.

Great post. However, I have a question to ask - say, you're passionate about painting. Given the number of people in this world who can actually paint well are so few, your odds of succeeding are pretty good. But what if you're passionate about say, blogging? Given that everyone in this world and his mom has a blog today, what are your chances of even getting noticed? Could that be a reason why some people don't care about what they are passionate about and instead choose to pick "hot ideas" or "unsolved problems"?

I think another good example of this is pg with YC. I don't know of anyone else who has thought as much about starting companies and has such a passion for it.