The best startup ideas come from solving real problems you have yourself, not from deliberately trying to think of startup ideas. Successful founders live at the leading edge of rapidly changing fields and build what's missing in their own lives, which naturally leads to organic ideas that few others recognize as valuable. The key is to become the kind of person who has good ideas by immersing yourself in a changing domain, then building what seems interesting rather than consciously searching for billion-dollar opportunities.

• •The most common startup mistake is solving problems that don't exist, which happens when founders try to think up startup ideas instead of discovering them organically
• •Good startup ideas typically serve a small number of people who want something desperately (narrow and deep) rather than many people who are mildly interested (broad and shallow)
• •The best way to get startup ideas is to 'live in the future and build what's missing' by becoming an expert at the leading edge of a rapidly changing field
• •Made-up or 'sitcom' startup ideas sound plausible but are dangerous because they fool founders into working on things nobody actually wants
• •Successful startups like Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all began by solving problems the founders themselves had

Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, YC, Y Combinator, Viaweb, Altair, Harvard, Airbnb, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Mark Zuckerberg, Drew Houston, Dropbox, Robert Pirsig, Paul Buchheit, Marc Andreessen, Stripe, Jeff Bezos, Steve Wozniak, Hewlett-Packard, Hotmail, Rajat Suri, E la Carte, Sam Altman, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia