Ideas don’t have much street cred in the tech world. Execution, not inspiration, is what creates great companies. And it’s true; execution beats the idea 99 times out of 100. Yet even seasonded Entrepreneurs in Residence are usually looking for a “good opportunity” — no small component of which is the idea. The idea is what drives the passion, and from the passion all else follows. But finding the right one can be hard.

This idea-less-ness is a stage I’ve been flitting in and out of for the last couple of years (my current project is here), and I think it’s particularly overwhelming for young people first getting interested in the tech world. However, I’ve discovered two classes of ideas to avoid during this period, and, having found them, I think I’m much further along the road to creating a real business.

Magic Carpets

The first class is “magic carpet ideas”. These are the ideas that have huge and proven demand, but, unfortunately, are impossible. At a larger scale, you might call them pipe dreams. Naturally the inherent infeasibility of these ideas tends to prevent them from reaching the light of day, but nevertheless they appear from time to time.

Even though most of these ideas get killed off before they hit the market, an ambitious young wantrepreneur can delude themself for quite some time (I know because I have). And that is time that could be spent working on a real idea — or at least engaging in a more satisfying fantasy. So what should you do to avoid this mess? Research. Of course it’s best to tackle ideas in areas that you know something about to begin with, but the bottom line is look into the details. Don’t waste time choosing names or making logos — figure out how exactly what your company sells, how it makes it, and (eventually) who buys it.

Pyramids

The second category of ideas to avoid is “pyramid ideas”. And I don’t mean the Madoff variety (though they also have some drawbacks), but the sort that took 20 years and 200,000 men to build. These are the ideas that are, in fact, possible, but are way too big for a young bootstrapper to manage. I, for example, at one time hoped to create a new web browser. Anyone who has ever attended a business plan competition will agree that other examples are anything but lacking.

This class of idea is especially alluring as most VCs want to invest in home runs, not singles, which makes you want to start slugging as hard as you can.¹ And, even worse, examples of successful pyramid builders dominate the news. Nevertheless, in my experience it is very easy to be “working” on a large, overwhelming project while accomplishing very little. Chipping away at a smaller, more manageable project is a far surer path to tangible results.

So Which Ideas Are Good?

I’ve given you two types of ideas to avoid, but of course there are infinitely many wrong ways to do something. The good beginner ideas are ones that you’re passionate about and that you can really, truly do (like, start working on it this afternoon). These two goals seem even more important to me than demand and profitability for the first couple of projects. After all, if you successfully complete a project and it turns out you’re only scratching your own itch, the worst case scenario is you learned something and you don’t have an itch anymore.²