How to Find Your Next Startup Idea: Lessons from Y Combinator

Success in startups starts with the right idea. Y Combinator has funded hundreds of billion-dollar companies. Here's what we learned about finding great startup ideas.

The Common Mistakes

Many founders start with AI or new tech and look for problems to solve. This is backwards. Start with a real problem first.

Some ideas look perfect but never work. We call these "tar pit ideas." The classic example: apps for planning nights out with friends. These ideas trap founders because they seem simple but have hidden problems.

What Makes a Good Startup Idea?

Here are the key questions to ask:

1. Do you have founder-market fit? You need the right skills and experience for your idea.
2. Is the market big? Look for markets worth billions now, or small markets that grow fast.
3. Does it solve a real problem? Take Brex. Before them, startups couldn't get credit cards. That's a real problem.
4. Do you want this product? Do your friends want it? If not, talk to potential users.
5. Did something change to make this possible now? New tech or rules often create opportunities.

Three Surprising Signs of Good Ideas

1. Ideas that seem hard to start
2. Ideas in boring spaces
3. Ideas with existing competition

Dropbox proves the third point. When it launched, 20 other companies offered cloud storage. But Drew Houston saw they all had bad interfaces. He made file syncing automatic. That changed everything.

How to Generate Ideas

The best ideas come naturally through experience. But if you need ideas now, try these methods:

1. Start with what you know best
2. Fix problems you've seen at work
3. Build things you wish existed
4. Watch for recent changes in the world
5. Talk to people about their problems

The A2B team found their idea by talking to truck drivers at truck stops. They knew nothing about trucking. But they kept asking questions until they found a real problem to solve.

The Final Test

You can't know if an idea will work until you try it. If you think you have a good idea, build it. Launch it. Let real users tell you if it solves their problem.