Founder Institute’s view on ideation

Today, I listened to a video lecture from The Founder Institute called “Hoy Shit, My Idea Sucks” (by Adeo Ressi) related to startup ideation and vision. I found the content very helpful and confirming most of my personal viewpoints on the subject matter. He also bashed Germany for copycatting which I personally found quite funny and absolutely ok (being a German myself and trying to do better ;-). Find some of the key items summarized below:

5 steps to a good idea:

1. start small with passion
2. launch a project to investigate
3. take a quite time to reflect
4. build a board of friends to critique
5. expand the core vision

7 keys:

1. keep it SIMPLE. limit the steps to revenue.
2. pursue ONE revenue stream. add one market, too.
3. know YOUR customer. be very clear about who the person is.
4. articulate WHAT you are making.
5. avoid SMALL markets.
6. have a SECRET SAUCE. (different, interesting)
7. It must be NEW or BETTER (disruptive/blue ocean, incremental)

Specifics – detailed market concepts:

• facebook is the new consumer internet (vc’s think like that)
• the blue ocean dilemma (hard, risky)
• marketplacs start with the demand side (demand side is your customer)
• slippery slope to services
• arbitrage businesses are hard (very few make money)
• be careful against large advertising budgets
• consider virtuous cycles (my comp X is developing DEFINED OFFERING to help TARGET AUDIENCE SOLVE PROBLEM WITH SECRET SAUCE)

Listen, don’t argue!

Source: http://www.udemy.com/u/founderinstitute/