Hello - I've been invited to some universities lately to talk to students about Y Combinator and the question "how do I come up with a good startup idea?" comes up every time. In this essay, I've attempted to write a guide for people with the same question. One thing I'll point out from the onset is that there are many paths to starting a startup and this one is not the only one (and probably not even be the best). While providing a possible path - my primary goal was to destroy some commonly held myths about "the right way" to start a startup. Even more specifically the idea that you need a "great idea" at the beginning. Happy to hear your thoughts and questions on the subject.
Hi Michael. I appreciate your candidness and openness to accept counterpoints. How would you evaluate a startup that’s only a couple weeks old, however close to shipping a prototype but probably won’t have time to get users by Sunday ( YC deadline ). It’s an idea that could generate a billion jobs and hence we feel it’s better to get YC support than try to grow it slower with a revenue model. Should we apply anyways or wait to get traction and apply late?
In my experience, the answer is almost always “just apply” - there’s no harm in it and answering the questions can be helpful to consider various aspects of your idea in more detail.
True. It’s just going to physically hurt if the hurried demo doesn’t do the idea justice. Won’t be fair to the scope and scale of the idea. I guess just apply is the answer regardless. Thanks!
Thanks Michael! For teams that start out this way, what is your advice for iterating on this initial seed of an idea and finding product-market fit (and making sure that you find an idea you can be passionate about for the long haul)?
Get the MVP in the hands of users early and try to learn from them how to make something that they want. Be open to the idea that while you might have figured out a good problem to work on - your solution is just a hypothesis to be tested and refined over time.
What do you do if a decent amount of people use your MVP, but then churn out and don't respond to requests for feedback? Essentially, they don't really care about the problem or solution, they were mostly just curious. Scrap it and start again? From my experience and what I hear from friends, this seems very common.
Unrelated: In a previous talk, Brian Chesky mentioned writing down the core values of Airbnb before they had hired a single employee - do you think (other) startups should follow this example in the early days and consider the future culture of the company?
