Recipes for Finding Startup Problems

Founders usually start with an idea, which is wrong. The best place to start a startup is with a burning problem that many people have. But how do you find a problem like this? There are reliable ways to find one, even if you have never worked in any industry before and are just starting to build your career.

YC has listed 7 recipes for finding startup ideas, and we translated them into startup problem recipes. They will not work for everyone, but they are definitely a better approach than focusing on tarpit ideas or waiting for inspiration.

Recipe 1: What You Are Good At

Start with what you already have in skills and knowledge. This can be related to your studies, side projects, the tools you use obsessively, or the communities you are part of. This is a good place to start, since you already have an advantage and know more than an outsider would.

The question to ask yourself is, what do you know that most people don’t? Try to find what is broken or clunky (best in the space you are already immersed in or interested in) and fix it. What do people in these spaces solve manually that could exist as a product?

For this recipe, you don’t need previous professional experience, but you do need familiarity with the space and the sensitivity to notice what is broken in it.

Recipe 2: Think About What People Wish Existed

Common advice founders get is to look for problems that frustrate them, but this advice is flawed, as it does not guarantee that enough people have that problem and would pay for the solution. It is better to look for problems many people have from the get go.

What do you hear people complain about? What would they pay for immediately just to solve a problem? The key here is not to get caught up in tarpit ideas that are obvious problems that seem easy, but are actually very hard to solve. It is best to look at lists of problems already mapped by relevant sources like a16z, Startup Commons, and YC. We collect and update these sources regularly on our RFS page.

Recipe 3: What You Would Work on for 10 Years

What is something you would enjoy working on, even if it took a very long time, was very hard to do, and led nowhere?

This is an especially useful recipe for young founders without deep professional experience. Something that pulls you in and interests you is usually something you learn a lot about and, in the long run, understand what is broken within it.

It is important to note that passion alone is not enough, and it may not lead to a startup idea. The best way to use this recipe is to identify a space you want to work in, then identify viable problems within it.

Recipe 4: Something a Recent Change Made Possible

As society and technology progress, old problems get new solutions. This happens when a new technology becomes cheap enough to use at scale, or when a platform opens an API or a regulation shifts. People usually miss these opportunities because they are too busy adapting to a change instead of thinking about what it unlocks.

If you are at the edge of technology and following a field you are genuinely interested in, you are positioned to see these shifts.

Recipe 5: Variants of What Is Already Working

A way to find problems worth solving is to look at companies that have been successful recently and ask whether the same approach could work for a different market or at a different layer.

A warning here: ideas like this come from a format, so it is important to validate them as soon as possible to confirm that there really is a burning problem to solve in the new space. If you come up with an idea this way, be skeptical of it by default. First, you need to understand whether there is a real problem people are suffering from, or just an analogy you find exciting.

Recipe 6: Talk to People Doing Interesting Things

A good way to identify relevant problems you want to work on is by talking to people in industries that interest you. This can be done both offline (e.g., through events) or online (e.g., on Reddit). The question for them should not be what product they wish existed, but what frustrates them or slows them down, or what they wish were automated.

People are much better at talking about problems than solutions, which works in your favor. In these conversations, your goal is to listen for patterns. If more people mention the same frustration, that is a good cue to investigate further.

This recipe is especially effective for people who are building things and running operations, as they tend to have a sharper instinct for what is worth solving, rather than a minor inconvenience.

Recipe 7: Industry Everyone Is Putting Up With

Some industries are old, hard to innovate in, and generally broken. It is clear that the processes are outdated, the products are poor, and people accept them because there are no better alternatives.

A disclaimer here is that it is much harder to fix a broken industry than it looks from the outside. If you are going to try this recipe, stick to industries where you actually understand what is going on under the surface.

Conclusion

You do not need industry experience to find a good problem.

More than half of European unicorn founders had no prior experience in the sector in which they built their companies, according to Episode 1 Ventures' research. What these founders had was a genuine interest, proximity to the problem, and the willingness to pay attention.

The founders who find the most interesting problems are not the ones with the most experience, but those who picked something they care about, got close enough to feel where it is broken, and did the research to understand whether enough people would pay for the solution.

Finding a problem is the beginning, and these recipes are starting points. Only through customer interviews and thorough validation can you actually know whether the problem is real, if enough people have it, and whether it is worth building a company around.

More about this topic in How to Get Startup Ideas by Jared Friedman

If you want to get feedback on your startup idea, apply for Garaža Office Hours.