A classic Jet Set Zero brainstorming session.

Today we’re delving into the foundation of every startup – the idea.  Every company no matter how big, expansive or powerful was at one point a simple shiny dream.  Polishing what is in many ways the seed that your organization will grow from can made a tremendous amount of difference in every stage of development.  In addition getting your idea down pat helps with what is the hardest stage of development, the jump from idea to company.

In some ways coming up with an idea is the easiest part of the whole process (an umbrella that conveniently doubles as a shirt for easy storage, a moon-based bar that only serves micro brewed beer, a car that is powered by hope) however coming up with an idea that you (and other people) can take risks for, sell to other people as legitimate, and eventually make into a successful venture is actually much harder.  There is no science to divining this idea, but a good rule of thumb is that ideas in a field or area you’re more familiar with than other people are ones you’re more likely to have a natural advantage in.  If you’re a software engineer and have an idea for a world changing pizza, I would be more cautious about pursing it than say, the next killer app.

After you’ve found that idea through your choice method of inspiration (reading, research, working your job, drugs, group discussion, vision quests, sensory depravation, fasting, etc) there is a simple three step process you should work through to make sure you’ve got a winner.

Passion

The first step in the process is simple.  Ask yourself “How passionate am I about this idea?”  If you hesitate for even a moment or respond with anything other than “THE WORLD WILL BURN TO ASH AND GLASS BEFORE I LET THIS IDEA FAIL” then its time to return to the idea picking part of the process. Think about all the crazy things you’ve done to  make a meeting on time, or get a date with some girl (or guy) you thought was amazing, or close a deal.  Now think about doing something harder, all the time, without any limit on how long its going to last.  Boy, whatever you’re working for sure must be awesome, right?  That’s the point here.  Discarding the fractional percentage of startups that are so lucky their founders would have had their pockets stuffed full of winning scratchers by the wind had they not entered into their industry of choice and you’re left with a simple reality.  A startup is hard, brutal, and is made up of hard work, incremental progress, long days, long nights, debt, fear, anxiety and hard work.  If all this sounds grim, its because it is.  If successful companies where easy to build then no one would have a boss and world would quickly run of out champagne, gold, and A380s.  To summarize, see the second sentence of this section.

Realism

Step two, realism.  If you’ve made this far with your idea then congratulations! You’re clearly insane.  Assuming you are a functional member of society then this is an insanity that you’ll need to take on and run a startup, if you’re not then I’m just glad my address isn’t published on this blog.  Honestly it takes a literal mad man to take on the seemingly insurmountable odds of a startup, however sometimes crazy is exactly what you need to get things done.

The point of this second step is to take a look past your passion and see how your idea fits in with the rest of the world.  Simply put, is there any possible way you could make this work?  If you need factories in both South America and Asia, probably not.  If Microsoft, Google, and/or Apple already sell some form of your product, probably not.  If you’ve never met someone that has ever needed what you’re trying to create, then once again, probably not.  Realism isn’t about shying away from challenges, its about understanding the limitations of physical reality.  We started a production company without a shred of experience, but at this point I feel as though it did more good than harm.  We learned a lot of lessons the hard way, but we still thought through the process end-to-end and made sure we never hit a point where the path forward included clearly impossible steps.  There is no simple formula for this step, its just a matter of balancing your insane zeal with common sense.  My best advice here is to get someone smarter than you that you trust to give you honest feedback and get them to challenge you on the idea. If you can’t come up with a solution to the problems of production, management, distribution, etc that they propose then maybe its time to take a step back from the idea.  There is a difference between overcoming your fear of skydiving and overcoming your fear of skydiving sans parachute.  People may call you insane for both acts, but only one actually has a chance of success.

Refinement

So, somehow you’ve made it this far.  You have an idea that you are not only passionate about, but you can defend as well. Congratulations again! You are two thirds of the way to the starting line of a nearly endless race somewhere between you and everyone for 3 generations is running.  The next step is to pour over your idea and find a way to refine it down to the key element that makes is so worthy of attention and resources.  Work on your elevator pitch.  The more clearly and succinctly that you can convey not only the value of your idea but the factors that allow you to succeed in its execution, the better off you are. As soon as you can win over friends and strangers alike with your confident and well constructed pitch(without simply making things up) then you’re on to a whole new phase of the startup.

We’re only just scratching the surface of what this whole process entails, but hopefully you have a better idea of how this step works.  Come back next week as we talk about the all important business plan and why most of what you’ve been told about it is totally wrong.