**Common mistakes:** - Waiting for a "brilliant" idea - Jumping into the first idea without critical thought - Starting with a solution instead of a problem - Believing startup ideas are hard to find **Evaluate your idea on four criteria**, take the average of the scores: 1. Potential market size 2. Founder/market fit 3. Certainty of solving a big problem 4. Having a new, important insight **Positive signs for good ideas:** - Making something you personally want - Recently became possible due to changes - Successful similar companies exist **Generating ideas organically:** - Learn to notice good ideas - Become an expert in a valuable field - Work at the forefront of an industry or at a startup **Seven recipes for generating ideas** (in order of effectiveness): 1. Start with your team's unique strengths 2. Think of things you wish someone would build for you 3. Consider long-term passions (with caution) 4. Look for recent changes enabling new possibilities 5. Find new variants of recent successful companies 6. Crowdsource ideas by talking to people 7. Look for broken industries to disrupt **Best practices:** - Allow ideas to morph over time - Start with a problem, not a solution - Think critically about ideas for a few weeks - Be open to ideas with existing competitors