What are the best ways to think of ideas for a startup?

Idea is as big as your understanding

Even if someone gave you a billion dollar idea, you still won’t be able to make a dime out of it without the proper understanding of the domain of your idea (no I don’t mean your age, I mean your KNOWLEDGE).

On the contrary, you can make billions of dollar out of the trash right outside your house.

Let’s say you got Lucky

Even if you get lucky, your idea kicks off with investors and they decided to fund you (super-rare, especially now when investors have finally understood that it is not the degree but the team that makes a successful company), you are still doomed to fail while your investor’s money will just wash away.

Why exactly startups fail even with great funding?

Majorly because you end up using too many resources and creating too many dependencies (on people, tools, agencies, software, conditions, etc.) to compensate for your in-experience.

To be straight, if you can’t understand your client you can’t sell your product/service.

To be precise, it will happen in this order, These things will kill you:

1. Time
   When you face a challenge, you will experiment with new strategies, to learn what works and don’t.
   You will learn behavior of your target audience which you wouldn’t have read in a book.
   This obviously will take time to evaluate.
2. Money
   In case, you decide to skip the hard work you will plan to hire someone with relevant experience and significant achievements.
   Nothing comes for free, the salary is directly proportional to the achievements and experience.
3. Compromises
   In the load of all the expenses you will have to make compromises in terms of quality of resources, quality of delivery, management tools, expense on growth, etc.
   These compromises will directly reflect on business and you will start loosing clients.

Hence a dead end.

Wait don’t loose hope just yet, you still take away a life time experience and the biggest learning of life: “Never Give up”.

Let’s begin the journey

Coming back to the original question:
“How to find an idea for a startup”

Here is what you need to do:

1. Understand yourself better
   Make a list of all the qualities and weaknesses that you have.
   It will help you in streamlining your choices, “How” you will find out below.
2. Idea is like your perfect partner, it is around you but you don’t realize
1. Say no to compromises (Potential Idea):
   In a day-to-day life don’t ever-ever say
   “Dude, can’t help it. It is just the way it is.”
   If there is anything that makes you uncomfortable or that it could be optimized, that becomes a potential idea.
1. It could be while you are reading paper
2. Researching on a subject
3. Coding
4. Painting
5. Playing
6. Partying
7. Traveling
8. Even sleeping, ideas are everywhere,
2. Be aware of your surrounding (Potential Idea):
   Just keep your eyes and ears open. Even if you don’t recognize a problem, people around you might.
   
   You would often hear you your friends, colleagues, acquaintances cribbing about problems,well that is your JACKPOT.
   
   Just find the common problem in all conversation and that is your potential idea.
   
   Who knows you might go for a walk, see a dog poop and blink ! your idea bulb shines.

Have you found your idea?

No, not quite yet. You have potential idea but is it worth your time?

Getting Serious!
Filtering the right idea.

“It is like soccer, not necessary that every-time you kick, you will score”

Finding idea is just the first half part. Here is how you find out if you can really handle it.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How deeply do you understand the domain?
• Have you been a client to any such service/ product? How was the experience?
• Have you heard anyone having same trouble as you?
• MOST IMPORTANT: Would you enjoy doing it? Would you work for free?

If the answers are YES!, well congrats STAGE 1 : CLEARED

STAGE 2: Can you monetize it?

Nothing makes sense if your balance sheet doesn’t make sense!!

Many good startups have dies because they could not get their customer to pay.

• Collect data:
  Find out who are your target audiences and what are the ways to reach them.
• Market Research:
  Interact with your potential customers and see how many people actually feel the problem you are trying to solve,
• Decide your price:
  Calculate the market and evaluate the paying capacity of the potential customers,
• Ask would they pay for solution:
  Discuss the solution with the target audience and take feedback,
• Lastly, evaluate what all will you need:
  Here your Strength and weakness calculation will help you in deciding what do you need to prepare the most in,

WHAT? Did you think it is a overnight success?

Well sorry to disappoint you, it take lot of mettle to be an entrepreneur. Even with all this you have not even completed 1% of the requirement to make your startup super successful.

You have just prepared your bag to climb the Mount Everest, the journey is yet to begin.

Be prepared!!

• To fail,
• To fall,
• To be Mocked,
• To be called crazy,
• To see ups and downs,
• To see real faces of people around you,

AND

• To rise up again,
• To be persistent,
• To love something,
• To make a new family,
• To have the most beautiful feeling in the world

YES, YOU CAN DEFINITELY DO IT!!

Colonel Sanders, founder of KFC, did it at an age of 65.

Tanmay Bakshi, hired by google for $1.25 B per annum, did it at an age of 13.

There is no right age, There is no right time, There is no tomorrow !!

If you want to do something, do it NOW.

Hope it has helped you. Apologies if the tone was harsh, but needed to be. There are 90% dreams (start-ups) shattering and we need to stop that.
Only meant in good intention.