Does PG change his mind about finding startup's idea? | Hacker News Reader

Does PG change his mind about finding startup's idea?

4 pointsangelohuang2 comments

From this 1st article in 2005 and 2nd article in 2012, it seems PG has different idea about a startup's idea.

http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html (What Customers Want) So if you're developing technology for money, you're probably not going to be developing it for people like you.

http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html (Self) 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.

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I'm working on one of those ideas that nobody realizes are worth doing. All my friends say I lost it. It's also something I can build myself (although it's quite the undertaking, I've been at it for over a year full-time) and it's obviously something I would want to have. I hope to have it released in two or three months.

Thing is, I have zero doubt in my mind that once people have it - they will ask how they lived without it, or better yet, why didn't they think of it.

Or I'm wrong. Either way I love the journey. I wish I had a co-founder, but of all the people I have access to, no one has the vision to see what I see.

I've experienced the same "nobody has the vision" thing quite a few times myself, just to go on and see others do it and be quite successful.

I've learned to not say "nobody has the vision", instead I say "I must not have explained it in a way that made it obvious and compelling".

Rather than putting the burden on them to see things your way, keep tweaking your pitch until you're seeing it there's.

There was an interesting experience I had while in an incubator where somebody asked a friend about his company, and he went into a long buzzword filled description of what he was building. The guy who asked was fazed, and didn't understand it. I stepped in and said "the do x,y,z making it better for a,b,c", and the guy got it.

We kept saying we'd do a pitch day where we'd listen to other people pitch our businesses, that way you hear what others are taking away, and you may get better insight into how people are understanding what you're doing, and what THEY think is important about it, rather than what you think is important.

Just thought I'd share that and maybe you could benefit by tweaking your discussions with your friends.

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