[Hrothgar15]

Today I read an article with the headline "How to Pick the Right Idea for Your Startup." That right there epitomizes exactly what is wrong with startup culture.

Don't have an idea? Don't have a startup.

Ideally, problems could be solved and ideas implemented without the need to form a company, get funding, or turn a profit. Those are simply (often optional) measures that must be taken to help realize the end goal.

[pg]

Don't have an idea? Don't have a startup.

I disagree with that. Some of the better startups we've funded changed their idea completely during YC.

It's the founders that matter, not the idea. So I'd say instead: if you're not the right sort of person to start a startup, don't start a startup. But of course that is a complicated matter to decide because (a) people often don't know if they are the right sort of person and (b) people change.

[jsdalton]

So, why not recruit small teams of awesome founders -- comprised of the right kind of people -- and "assign" them ideas?

[pg]

We already do, kind of. We know that a significant fraction of the groups we accept will change their idea, and that we can contribute as much of their new idea as necessary.

Sometimes we even tell people when we accept them that we'll accept them if they do something different. Greplin was one of those.

[Joakal]

Reddit is a more well known example. Do you know what the original idea by the founders was?

[pg]

Ordering fast food on cell phones.

[prawn]

"How to Pick the Right Idea for Your Startup."

For some people, the issue may not be that they don't have an idea, but they have a few and need to choose the right one to push forward.