Ideas & Opportunity

Should I solve a problem I personally have, or chase a bigger market?

A starting point

Start with a problem you personally have or deeply understand. Founders who live the problem move faster, ask better questions, and can smell a fake insight because they are the customer. You can grow into a bigger market later, but a firsthand problem is your unfair head start on day one.

Go deeper

Watch

▶️ Video
Free Beginner

How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas

On YC Startup Library by Jared Friedman (Y Combinator) ~50 min

Why we picked it

A YC partner turns 'how do I get an idea' into a concrete checklist you can run today, plus the traps (tarpit ideas) that sink beginners. It's the practical companion to Paul Graham's essay, with a repeatable framework for judging an idea's strength.

  • Evaluate ideas on the problem: how many people have it, how often, and how badly.
  • Watch out for 'tarpit ideas' that feel exciting but have quietly killed hundreds of startups.
  • The best sources are your own expertise, things you personally wish existed, and noticing recent changes.
Open ycombinator.com →

Read

✍️ Essay
Free Beginner

How to Get Startup Ideas

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~20 min read

Why we picked it

The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for judging whether your idea is a real problem or a solution in search of one.

  • Live in the future and build what's missing.
  • The best ideas look like bad ideas at first (schleps and hard-to-explain).
  • Start with problems you have, in a domain you actually know.
Open paulgraham.com →
📄 Article
Free Beginner

Organic Startup Ideas

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~5 min read

Why we picked it

A short, pointed essay on why the best ideas grow organically out of the founder's own life and knowledge, the essence of founder-market fit. It's the case for building where you already have an unfair edge instead of chasing a market you'd have to learn from scratch.

  • The most fertile ideas are ones you have firsthand because of who you are and what you do.
  • Organic ideas come with built-in founder-market fit, you're already the customer.
  • Forced, non-organic ideas feel plausible but lack the edge to win.
Open paulgraham.com →

People also ask

I want to start a startup but I don't have an idea. Where do I even begin? Stop hunting for a billion-dollar idea and start collecting problems. The best ideas come from noticing things that annoy you or people around you ... Beginner 3 resources → How do I come up with startup ideas that aren't just 'Uber for X'? Don't sit in a room brainstorming ideas on purpose; that's how you get derivative junk. Ideas that matter show up organically as a byproduct of liv... Beginner 3 resources → How do I know if my idea is a real problem or just a 'nice to have'? A real problem is frequent, painful, and expensive enough that people are already hacking together ugly workarounds for it. If nobody has spent tim... Beginner 3 resources → I have too many ideas. How do I pick which one to actually work on? Filter on three things: is it a problem you understand, is the pain real and frequent, and can you reach the people who have it. Then break the tie... Intermediate 3 resources → What makes an Indian startup idea work when the market is so price-sensitive? In India, a great idea usually means being dramatically better, not marginally better; the switch has to be so obvious that people change behaviour... Intermediate 3 resources → How do I know if my idea is any good? Judge it on the problem, not the solution: is it a real, frequent, painful problem for a reachable group of people, and are you unusually well-plac... Beginner 4 resources →