https://liorn.substack.com/p/a-summary-of-my-learnings-on-how I Have No Idea What I'm Doing SubscribeSign in Read in the Substack app Open app Share this post [https] A Summary of My Learnings On How To Find Startup Ideas liorn.substack.com Copy link Twitter Facebook Email A Summary of My Learnings On How To Find Startup Ideas [https] Lior Neu-ner 9 hr ago As mentioned in my previous post, I've been searching for new startup ideas and problem areas to tackle. It's quite difficult to do, especially when you begin adding constraints to the criteria such as "Am I excited about this problem space?". The internet is filled with helpful ways to come up with startup ideas and below is the summary of what I've learned on the topic during the last few months. I'm sharing it with you in the hopes that you'll be able to point out what's missing and help me fill in any gaps. Methods Of course, a great starting point is Paul Graham's blog on how to get startup ideas. If you haven't read it before, I highly recommend reading it in its entirety. Here's a quick summary: * Build something you want i.e. solve your own problem * The next best thing to an unmet need of your own is an unmet need of someone else. * Live in the future, then build what's missing. * Turn off your "unsexy problems" filter. * Turn off your "schlep" filter i.e. your filter for tasks that are tedious or unpleasant. * Ask yourself whether in your previous job you ever found yourself saying "Why doesn't someone make x? If someone made x we'd buy it in a second." YCombinator also has great videos on the topic (one, two). Here are things I learned from their videos that weren't already in Paul Graham's blog: * Go through every job you ever had: + What are the unique skills you learned? + What seemed broken? + What did you develop in-house? * Look for things that have changed in the world recently e.g. new technological changes, new regulations, new problems in the world. * Brainstorm with friends. Putting it into Practice Some of the above points are fairly straightforward to put into practice e.g. notice what problems you have, speak to people you know about what problems they have, attend meet-ups and events. However, a framework I found very helpful is one described to me by Gary Lin from Airwork. A few months ago they needed to pivot to a new idea and so they implemented a standard "divergent convergent" design-thinking approach to coming up with an idea: Essentially what they did is spend an entire week coming up with as many ideas as possible (i.e diverging). They did this by brainstorming and writing down every idea they had, no matter bad it seemed. They brainstormed on the themes mentioned above as well as some additional ones, such as "What are emerging markets that are small right now but will be big in 5 years?" and "The X for Y model" e.g. Uber but for Y. They then spent the next two weeks after the brainstorm reducing their list by evaluating their ideas and eventually landing on Airwork. Ch-ch-changes One of the topics mentioned above is "what's changed recently" or "why now?" (Garry Tran also has a nice video on this). I've listed out some topics to brainstorm around below, but I'd love to hear your input on what can be added to this list: Technological Changes: * Open AI's GPT-3 and Codex * AI Image Generation / Dall-E * Improvements in AI classification + recommendation algorithms * ML algorithms that can run on smartphones * Web3 / Crypto / Digital Money / New Economic Models from Crypto * Wearables and accumulation of health data e.g. Apple Watch heart data, Continuous glucose monitors Macro-economic changes: * Shift to remote work (or hybrid) * Shift to remote everything - e.g. people more open to doing video calls, cohort-based courses, remote doctors etc. * Inflation, economic uncertainty, layoffs + hiring freezes * War Regulatory changes (I found this one the most difficult): * Data privacy laws getting stricter. * Climate change: Increased government spending and regulation. * Various countries around the world adopting remote-work friendly policies. Conclusion I hope you've found this useful. I'd love to hear from you if there's anything I've missed, or if you have any other tips or advice. Thanks for reading I Have No Idea What I'm Doing! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. [ ]Subscribe Comment Share Share this post [https] A Summary of My Learnings On How To Find Startup Ideas liorn.substack.com Copy link Twitter Facebook Email --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 likes 2 Comments [https] [ ] Create your profile [ ] Your name[ ]Your bio[ ] [ ][ ] Subscribe to the newsletter 0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit) Skip for now Save & Post Comment Only paid subscribers can comment on this post Already a paid subscriber? Sign in Check your email For your security, we need to re-authenticate you. Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in. Karan W 3 hr agoLiked by Lior Neu-ner Nice post, I suspect most unsexy businesses will be auto [https] filtered out by this framework so perhaps there needs to be a 4th section on opportunities/ arbitrage or something similar Expand full comment ReplyCollapse Allan Mertner 5 hr agoLiked by Lior Neu-ner It might be useful to consider How your own circumstances being something to the table. Is there something you are [https] particularly good at? Is there something about where you live or work that could be used to your advantage? Etc Expand full comment ReplyCollapse TopNewCommunity No posts Ready for more? [ ]Subscribe (c) 2022 Lior Neu-ner Privacy [?] Terms [?] Collection notice Publish on Substack Get the app Substack is the home for great writing This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts