Must startup ideas be revolutionary or just solving a simple problem?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8417645

by kitneoh • 12 years ago

8 9 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

davismwfl• 12 years ago

I think they can be both. If you think about it, there are a lot of very good and valuable startups that are not necessarily new ideas.

Stripe is one of my favorite startups with a valuable solution and we use them for our client sites and our own products. To me though they didn't do something that hadn't been done before, what they did do was take a pain in the ass problem and made it stupid easy to solve. I am sure they have some amazing technology especially on the fraud side, likely something that could be called revolutionary, but in the end they started by solving a problem that wasn't new, just painful for everyone.

BTW -- not trying to take anything away from Stripe, but other players were already in the market with payment API's before they started. So in that since they aren't revolutionary in my opinion.

kitneoh4• 12 years ago

Thats true, the startup that I'm working on is Jellybean and I am considering on applying for YC W15. When I rethink Jellybean's idea and comparing with some of the YC startup batch it feels pretty intimidating especially when you have awesome ideas and technology and people.

Thanks a lot for replying, really helped me to think further on the meaning of idea itself.

coryl• 12 years ago

There's no such thing as a revolutionary startup idea.

Ideas become revolutionary only in retrospect, when the product or service becomes so good that it becomes obvious that this is how it should have been done. You may be associating the term "revolutionary" with solving a difficult problem, like nuclear fission or biotech. Obviously the more difficult the problem, the bigger the payout. Scale seems to matter, because we wouldn't call marginal products revolutionary.

A successful startup is one that solves a problem, and (eventually) makes money.

kitneoh4• 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure the word "revolutionary" is overrated. As I observe today's world; most ideas are either copied or slight improvement then scale to make money. The idea of revolutionary itself has become a blur and I totally agree with you that there isn't a revolutionary idea anymore.

geoffsanders• 12 years ago

Solve a problem simply, and it could be revolutionary.

Solve a simple problem, and it will not be.

jaoued• 12 years ago

Revolutionary meaning a competitive technology edge that is very hard to copy. However, I believe it has first to solve a business problem that hurts people - who will want to use your product/service as they will find value in it, so much value that they are willing to pay and become your customers. All the best with your YC application.

kitneoh4• 12 years ago

I've always been a social technology person; anything that allows people to communicate better or find information faster; hopefully the startup i'm creating is able to create such value for users and thanks!! though I think chances for entering YC is slim but its worth a shot :)

jtfairbank• 12 years ago

I find I think on two levels in my startup: the big picture "billion dollar" vision that I sell to VCs and others looking 10 years out, and the "where we are now" shorter term product vision that I discuss with my team. I try to use the "solving a simple problem" portion to validate that the big picture problem does exist and is valuable, and that my company has the capability to solve it.

In the end its all about creating value for other people, and then convincing them to pay you a part of that value for your product or services. So problem solving is what pays the bills. But big vision is what gets people excited.

kitneoh4• 12 years ago

At the very end, it all comes down to whether the product we create will bring value to consumers or users, whether should they even exist. Imagine a world where there isn't a single problem at all.

Must startup ideas be revolutionary or just solving a simple problem?

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