The idea is to have a structured way to think about big ideas. This will be focused on scalable startup ideas, there are many other kinds of businesses or ideas but this tool is not for them.
Publishing here so have a change history and improve from suggestions from the community and share the work - nothing propietary in how to eval ideas, and usually not in the idea itself either.
- Find a large problem or a vision that will be motivating to founders over time and changes.[1][2]
- Apply a technology (or other hack) for a unique way to get there. This is the scalable advantage which creates a moat and becomes harder and harder to copy or compete with.
- Use profit to prove the problem is valuable and allow continuance. Faster profitability with less investment increases autonomy in operating. Profit is loose in the sense that current revenue with future profit is powerful, as oppossed to a small business in which everything must generate profit right away, or a research project or hobby which can make sales in the future.
[1] Founder market fit is well described by Chris Dixon and the importance of it described by Jason Crawford.
[2] PG recommends it be a hard problem which makes it harder for (large) competitors to follow and creates defensibility.
- It's a large problem
- You have a unique solution
- There is a positive tailwind
- You see a path which is quick and self-reliant
- The team is strong
- The type of business matches team and is appealing:
- Hard tech - this will likely have a longer research incubation period, involve Prof.s, papers, or Ph.D.s.
- Dev tools - This is likely to mean APIs with extensive documentation and language support, open source plays a large role in the space.
- B2B - longer sales cycle, marketing will tend to be more logical and show a clear ROI
- Consumer - marketing, sales, customer service, and luck would likely play large roles.