Summary of Jared Friedman's questions regarding evaluating startup ideas

How_to_Get_and_Evaluate_Startup_Ideas.md

How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas.

Notes from Jared Friedman's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th8JoIan4dg&t=1460s

Note: please watch and "like" the video. I've transcribed these notes to make it easy to use Jared's advice to evaluate your own startup ideas.

Questions regarding the four most common mistakes founders make with startup ideas:

1. Are you solving a real problem, or are you a "solution in search of a problem" (SISP)?
2. Are you working on a "tar pit" idea? (Widespread problem, plausible solution, but with a tricky structural problem. Example: app for making weekend plans.) Suggestion: first google the idea to understand how other people have failed before.
3. Have you evaluated your idea thoroughly?
4. Are you waiting for the perfect idea?

How to know if your idea is good. 10 key questions to ask about any startup idea:

1. Do you have founder market fit?
2. How big is the market?
3. How acute is this problem? (Ex. Brex: credit cards for startups.)
4. Do you have competition? (Ex. Dropbox was not the first, but had a key insight.)
5. Do you want this product?
6. Did this recently become possible or necessary? (Ex. Checkr for background checks.)
7. Are there good proxies for this business? (Ex. Rappi: launching a Doordash like service in Latin America)
8. Is this an idea you would like to work on for years? (Note: you might grow to love an idea if it is successful.)
9. Is this a scalable business?
10. Is this a good "idea space"? (Ex. software for hospitals or data analytics.)

3 things that make your startup idea good:

1. Is it hard to get started?
2. Is it in a "boring" space?
3. Are there existing competitors?