Ask HN: How do I convert a list of startup ideas into a single, strong vision? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I convert a list of startup ideas into a single, strong vision?

8 pointsventureawaits5 comments

Hi HN, I'm the CEO of a small startup in the midwest (this is a throwaway account)

I'm in the process of quitting my moderately successful company to start anew. I made the choice once I realized that 1) I'm no longer learning new stuff every day by having to meet new challenges and 2) my current startup has created a great brand but is catering to a small market: After six years in business, it will not grow much further without a large change in product strategy. I would rather put it under different management than bet the company on satisfying my urge to start from square one.

For my next startup, I'm currently looking at the ebook space or doing something having to do with daily deals, following the groupon craze but for a different market segment. I also have an urge to go into the app space, developing games or this idea of an awesome social weight-loss app I have.

My general problem is that I generate too many business ideas: I have a list of 50 or so put together during the last two months. I'm passionate about each of them for a day or two and I need to convert that day-long enthusiasm into a long-term passion.

My current idea of solving this problem is to let it sort itself out. I'm betting that I'm in the middle of a process that will end up with me churning my ideas down to one single vision. But here's the question: is there any way I can hedge this bet? Have you been in a similar situation and/or have any suggestions on how to put the process on fast-track?

I'm grateful for any suggestions, including "shut the fuck up and stay with your current company, dimwit", if that's your sentiment.

Apologies for quoting PG yet again, but "always produce" really is what I do to find my way through my ever-changing ideas:

Sometimes jumping from one sort of work to another is a sign of energy, and sometimes it's a sign of laziness. Are you dropping out, or boldly carving a new path? You often can't tell yourself. Plenty of people who will later do great things seem to be disappointments early on, when they're trying to find their niche.

Is there some test you can use to keep yourself honest? One is to try to do a good job at whatever you're doing, even if you don't like it. Then at least you'll know you're not using dissatisfaction as an excuse for being lazy. Perhaps more importantly, you'll get into the habit of doing things well.

Another test you can use is: always produce. For example, if you have a day job you don't take seriously because you plan to be a novelist, are you producing? Are you writing pages of fiction, however bad? As long as you're producing, you'll know you're not merely using the hazy vision of the grand novel you plan to write one day as an opiate. The view of it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing.

"Always produce" is also a heuristic for finding the work you love. If you subject yourself to that constraint, it will automatically push you away from things you think you're supposed to work on, toward things you actually like. "Always produce" will discover your life's work the way water, with the aid of gravity, finds the hole in your roof.

http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

This is great advice, thank you. It aligns very closely with my own ethics, but worded in a different way and very clearly put. "Walk the talk" seems to be another fair abbreviation of the concept.

Currently working on my first startup (40-50 hours per week, along with a 9-5); One of the biggest takeaways Ive learned in the last 12 weeks is the importance of building an idea iteration framework. I made a conscience decision to develop an outline while building this product (from coding, to team development, communications, marketing etc) so that I can plug essentially any future idea into this framework quickly, and easily so I can have a "product" coded and ready for releae in about a month.

I dont have my notes with me but essentially, any current code can be modified to fit any new idea (login/billing/graphics/hosting/backups etc) with a few database table changes, any new code that needs to be written for a future idea will only pertain to the idea itself.

Any future ideas we may have, the only part I need to code up is the business logic to implement the idea, which depending on the complexity can be implemented in 3-6 weeks with little hassle. I would suggest getting a framework detailed out, keep good notes, and just plugin your ideas one by one.

I'd start by really looking at that list and start scratching off the bad ones. You can probably get down to about 5 or 6 in a few minutes. Then get down a shitty first draft of each one and figure out which one people seem to like the most.

The single best advice I can give you is to do what you know best.

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