How to Come up with Good Startup Ideas Trip Adler Co-founder and CEO, Scribd Founders Institute Presentation May 19, 2009 The Process of Startup Ideation The Scribd Story (SS) The Trip Method (TM) Idea A Nowigo - a ridesharing service Lesson: Just because you have an idea, it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea Idea A-B Nowigo - transportation search engine + ridesharing service Lesson: Work on something that has potential to be huge Idea C Hulist - Craigslist for colleges Lesson: Work on something that has a built-in mechanism for getting huge fast Idea D Moobub - Spam-your-friends Lesson: If you try it and it doesn’t work - and this causes you to lose confidence in the idea - then stop working on it Idea E 1-800-ASK-TRIP - A call center for everything Lesson: This idea is awesome! Idea F Almost Twitter - Rate-yourhappiness Lesson: Bounce your ideas off smart and creative people; get them involved in the creative process Idea G (Scribd Beginning) A way for academics to publish online more easily “The YouTube for academic publishing” Idea G-H A way for academics, creative writers, or anyone to publish online more easily “The YouTube for all kinds of writing” Idea G-H-I A way for academics, creative writers, or anyone to publish online more easily by uploading documents sitting on their hard drive and displaying them in a web browser “The YouTube for documents” Idea G-H-I-J A way for academics, creative writers, or anyone to publish online more easily by uploading documents sitting on their hard drive and displaying them in a web browser, and drive traffic to them from Google, social sites, the Scribd community, etc. “The YouTube for documents” Idea G-H-I-J-K-L-M-…. (Scribd Today) Many more major ideas along the way: iPaper, groups, API, mobile reading, ads in documents, Scribd Store, etc. A social publishing company that aims to liberate the written word by democratizing the publishing process for everyday people The Trip Method of Startup Ideation The basic idea: A startup is not just one idea, but a series of ideas put together What this means Just come up with an idea and start working on it Constantly keep pushing yourself to come up with new ideas If you come up with a better idea - And it fits into the original, then merge - And it’s totally different, then switch (okay early on, much harder later) The TM: Basic Principles Push yourself to be creative Usually two hour bursts once a week Stop everything to ‘be creative’ Move your best idea forward 90 hours per week Building it, researching it, promoting it, etc. Trust your instincts and don’t worry about others’ opinions Always evaluate, combine concepts, and re-evaluate If your gut tells you an idea is good, then it’s good Trip Method Unit (TMU) Idea B is better Idea A Idea B Idea B is good and related to idea A Idea B is bad Idea B Idea A-B Putting the TMUs together: Path to Success Quality of idea Success! F-G-I F-G F A-D Time A B E C J H = TMU Getting Started Think of something you need/want Think of something others need/want Figure out what’s broken and how can you fix it Find out what’s working for other companies and apply it in a new way Invent a new technology and figure out how to apply it Think of a marketing/growth strategy and then fit a product into it How to Evaluate an Idea What other people think (probably better if they don’t like it, but not always) User data; reaction by the user / customer Success of similar ideas Sounds different / weird / radical Potential to change direction / leaves options open Has a way to get big fast Potential to be something huge / game changing Something you have the resources / knowledge / expertise to build Your gut feeling - what matters the most - needs to be developed through TM More Ideation Lessons Having a great idea is often about connecting the dots Creative ideas often form from intersection of two people’s thinking If any idea seems too good to be true to you, then get started It’s often about simple innovations - taking existing elements and repackaging them Don’t pay too much attention to what’s trendy, but learn from what’s working for others More Ideation Lessons Being a good founder is a learned skill - through trial and error Commitment is good but always challenge your current ideas Hard work + creativity + TM = Success Thanks Trip Adler [email protected] www.twitter.com/tripadler