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What are some good places to come up with future start up ideas? How important is it that the CEO come up with the idea themselves?

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Mike Magolnick

CEO, Social, Digital, Critical Marketing, Strategy

Start up ideas cannot be fabricated like that. The best start ups ideas come from the "why" and solve a problem that the person is passionate about. It's not just coming up with an idea, it's about whether the idea is solving a problem along with its acceptance and sustainability.

As far as being the CEO, it doesn't matter what the person calls him/her self. Plenty of "founders" or "visionaries" hire or partner with a qualified CEO to run their business once viability is determined.

Answered over 11 years ago

Jeff Solomon

5x founder, Velocify (sold for $128M), Amplify.la

There really isnt much more to say than what Paul Graham did in this essay http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

However, I will add this. As it relates to the CEO coming up with the idea, its a big bonus when founders/ceo are solving their own problem. Its obviously much easier to make a product decision when you can be certain at least one user agrees with it wholeheartedly. That said, Ive build 3 successful (and 1 utter fail) where I was not in fact solving my own problem. In fact I'm working on a new project where I'm not directly the user. But I've come to realize if you are not directly solving your own problems then two things that are essential in building a business:

1) you must become good at extrapolating the needs of users.

2) you must at least be building products that you deeply understand and empathize with.

Answered over 11 years ago