I disagree that a startup should commonly start with an "idea". Start with an unmet need people are willing to pay for. Or take an existing category with a lot of bad products and make a truly better one that improves every aspect of the experience. Often, you'll see many startups working on the same "idea". Something like Google is truly rare (a genuinely innovative approach to search).
Building a product for which people are willing to pay to meet an unmet need is an idea. As is building a good product in an existing category that contains only bad products. Just plug in the unmet need or existing category and you have the kind of ideas that sama talked about in the lecture.
True, it is an idea. I guess I was responding to the order in the slide deck. I'd rather have (1) more specific, "market need". I think going idea -> product might be misunderstood by younger folk. The whole point of doing idea -> product super fast is to validate the market.
