The Brainstorm Trap
Most people try to come up with startup ideas by brainstorming. Mike Maples says that is exactly backward.
Maples: What you do to come up with great startup ideas is you live in the future and you notice what's missing.
Live in the future. Notice what is missing. If everything were already built, you would be living in the present.
The way you come up with great ideas is you live in the future and notice what's missing.
The Andreessen Example
Marc Andreessen did not build Mosaic because he spotted a market for browsers. He built it because he wanted a better internet for himself and his team.
His intuition about what to build was strong because he was building the thing he personally needed.
William Gibson was right. The future is already here. It is just not evenly distributed.
Andreessen didn't build Mosaic because he saw a market for browsers. He was building the thing he wanted that was missing.
The Validity Test
When founders pitch Maples, he asks one question: 'Is this from the future?'
Some say: 'Mental health is a huge problem. In the future it needs to be solved.' Maples says that is not what he is asking.
He wants to know what part of the future they have been living in. Without that experience, their opinion is irrelevant.
If you're living in the future, there will be unbuilt, missing things. If it was all built, it wouldn't be the future.
Follow Someone Who Visits the Future
Maddie Hall started at Zenith with a laser tag idea and other duds. Then she became Sam Altman's chief of staff for a year.
Altman visits the future multiple times a day through conversations with founders. Hall absorbed that exposure.
She saw Microsoft was about to spend a lot of money on carbon removal. She saw the genetic engineering technology was good enough. She married the inflections with the need — and off she went.
She married the inflections with the need — and off she went. Not brainstorming. Living in the future.