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Find startup ideas by noticing problems in your own work and life, see the ones your mind filters out, and tell a real idea from one that only sounds plausible.
Good startup ideas rarely come out of a brainstorm. They start as problems the founder already had and stopped noticing.
Ideas you sit down and think up tend to sound reasonable and have nobody who needs them now. The ideas that work usually start somewhere less tidy: a chore at your job, a field changing faster than the people in it, an industry your peers find dull, or a task so tedious that nobody wants to touch it. This course shows you where to look, and how to get past the habits that hide the best candidates from you.
It draws on Paul Graham's essays on where startup ideas come from, and ends with the signs that separate a real idea from a plausible one, and with a week of noticing on your own work.
"The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself." — Paul Graham
Aspiring founders: have been waiting for a brilliant idea and want a reliable way to find real ones.
Operators and builders: sit close to real problems every day and want to know which ones could carry a company.
Early-stage teams: have a list of ideas and need a sharper test for which ones are real.
This course is part of the academy's invite-only offering.
Access is granted by the academy after you join.