How to Get Startup Ideas
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want to start a startup?
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要创业吗？
Get funded by Y Combinator .
获得 Y Combinator 的资助。
</td > November 2012 The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas.
</td> 2012 年 11 月 获得创业创意的方法不是尝试去思考创业创意。
It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself.
就是要找问题，最好是你自己有问题。
The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they're something the founders themselves want, that they themselves
最好的创业想法往往具有三个共同点：它们是创始人自己想要的东西，是他们自己的东西
can build, and that few others realize are worth doing.
可以建造，而且很少有人意识到值得这样做。
Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all began this way.
微软、苹果、雅虎、谷歌和 Facebook 都是这样开始的。
Problems Why is it so important to work on a problem you have?
问题 为什么解决你遇到的问题如此重要？
Among other things, it ensures the problem really exists.
除此之外，它确保问题确实存在。
It sounds obvious to say you should only work on problems that exist.
听起来很明显，你应该只解决现有的问题。
And yet by far the most common mistake startups make is to solve problems no one has.
然而，到目前为止，初创公司最常犯的错误是解决没人解决的问题。
I made it myself.
我自己做的。
In 1995 I started a company to put art galleries
1995年我创办了一家公司，经营美术馆
online.
在线。
But galleries didn't want to be online.
但画廊不想上网。
It's not how the art business works.
这不是艺术行业的运作方式。
So why did I spend 6 months working on this stupid idea?
那么为什么我要花 6 个月的时间来研究这个愚蠢的想法呢？
Because I didn't pay attention to users.
因为我没有关注用户。
I invented a model of the world that didn't correspond to reality, and worked from that.
我发明了一个与现实不相符的世界模型，并以此为基础进行工作。
I didn't notice my model was wrong until I tried to convince users to pay for what we'd built.
直到我试图说服用户为我们构建的产品付费之前，我没有注意到我的模型是错误的。
Even then I took embarrassingly long to catch on.
即便如此，我还是花了很长时间才明白。
I was attached to my model of the
我依附于我的模型
world, and I'd spent a lot of time on the software.
我在这个软件上花了很多时间。
They had to want it!
他们必须想要它！
Why do so many founders build things no one wants?
为什么这么多创始人创造了没人想要的东西？
Because they begin by trying to think of startup ideas.
因为他们首先尝试思考创业想法。
That m.o.
那个妈妈
is doubly dangerous: it doesn't merely yield few good ideas; it yields bad ideas that sound plausible enough to fool you into working on them.
这是双重危险的：它不仅产生很少的好主意；而且它会产生听起来很合理的糟糕想法，足以欺骗你去实施它们。
At YC we call these "made-up" or "sitcom" startup ideas.
在 YC，我们将这些称为“虚构”或“情景喜剧”的创业创意。
Imagine one of the characters on a TV show was starting a startup.
想象一下电视节目中的一个角色正在创办一家初创公司。
The
的
writers would have to invent something for it to do.
作家必须发明一些东西来让它发挥作用。
But coming up with good startup ideas is hard.
但想出好的创业想法是很困难的。
It's not something you can do for the asking.
这不是你可以为所欲为的事情。
So (unless they got amazingly lucky) the writers would come up with an idea that sounded plausible, but was actually bad.
因此（除非他们非常幸运）编剧们会想出一个听起来似乎合理但实际上很糟糕的想法。
For example, a social network for pet owners.
例如，宠物主人的社交网络。
It doesn't sound obviously mistaken.
听起来并没有明显的错误。
Millions of people have pets.
数百万人养宠物。
Often they care a lot about their pets and spend a lot of money on them.
他们通常非常关心自己的宠物，并在它们身上花很多钱。
Surely
当然
many of these people would like a site where they could talk to other pet owners.
其中许多人希望有一个可以与其他宠物主人交谈的网站。
Not all of them perhaps, but if just 2 or 3 percent were regular visitors, you could have millions of users.
也许不是全部，但如果只有 2% 或 3% 是常客，您就可以拥有数百万用户。
You could serve them targeted offers, and maybe charge for premium features.
您可以为他们提供有针对性的优惠，并且可能对高级功能收费。
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