Avoid These Tempting Startup Ideas

Thinking of a new startup idea? Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the types of ideas to stay away from-what we commonly refer to as "tarpit ideas."
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Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
00:16 - Advice on pivoting - Tarpit ideas
00:38 - Tarpit definition
03:49 - Most tarpit - Consumer ideas
04:56 - Why do founders choose consumer ideas so much
06:37 - Why is it hard doing consumer stuff
07:21 - What's the bar for a startup
07:43 - Google
09:53 - Facebook
11:19 - Timing - Web 2
13:38 - Smartphone
14:21 - What is a tarpit idea?
15:45 - App to discover new things
16:34 - Why they don't work
19:37 - Recent target ideas
20:27 - Web3 - Rebuilding the world
21:38 - Theory of supply and demand
23:29 - Demand side
26:13 - Best pivots
27:49 - Closing thoughts

[@ycombinator]

What are some other examples of tarpit startup ideas?

[@bibinvmohan]

Grocery delivery, Online Education, seems to be tarpit, isn't it? Everyone wants to start one.

[@nonefvnfvnjnjnjevjenjvonej3384]

I fell into a tarpit idea and applied to YC with it but failed to get selected (correctly imo): Project management (Trello, Asana, Clickup, Basecamp) space. It seems like the breakthrough is right there around the corner, but it is actually filled with reeds and crocodiles and marshes with only tiny patches of clean water.

[@jeromeibanez2891]

No Code stuff. Anything that has notion like UI

[@mPajuhaan]

You are stuck with web3! You are looking for patterns too much and this will lead you astray. Of course, it is due to the history of excessive success.

[@benholmquist3589]

Uber for tutors on a college campus

[@MrMajani]

While it's true that consumer businesses are tougher than enterprise, one small secret YC won't admit to is that it's also much easier for a large incubator to seed an enterprise business. Just get them to sell to other YC companies and viola, they have traction immediately

[@Mimibldr]

I so agree 😂

[@diononeofyourbusiness8634]

Yes, but nothing wrong with that. That is proof that there is legitimate demand for the idea. It also gives quick and immediate product feedback.

[@MrMajani]

@@diononeofyourbusiness8634 demand from within the incubator isn't necessarily real. Could just be your fellow incubatees supporting you out of pity. But you get to show series A investors some cool growth numbers and raise money to figure out the actual business later

[@theswampthinker]

YC readily admits this - it’s one of the perks of joining YC.

[@lewisburton1852]

@FREAQU No matter how you chop it up the point of the supply of startups building pretty much the same consumer products is ridiculously high with demand being low, meanwhile, the unsexy enterprises saying "hey we have a high need for X" is overlooked because of the points they mentioned.

[@lensvana]

Great stories, thanks guys. A few thoughts from a ex-Valley grunt: - Recent grads don't even talk about targeting businesses because a) it's not sexy, b) they don't yet know what the specific industry needs are, and c) they cannot conceptualize how much money there is waiting to be deployed in the business world (there's a mountain of it) - To come up with the best business ideas, you either have to be a) crazy enough to try it without domain expertise ("you don't know how much you don't know") or have experience with the specific pain at a previous employer (video idea for you guys: how to recognize when it's time to jump ship and pitch your idea to your former employer). - If YC is truly interested in more startups like this (this is music to my ears), YC may have to pivot their brand messaging (yes). Because right now YC (from the outside looking in) seems like a post-grad program for Stanford/Ivy kids. I know that's not what it is, but ultimately every accelerator is known for their household name successes (e.g. Airbnb). So the Australian mining guy - and thousands of potential superstars like him - may see videos of all these kids running around with pitch decks and hoodies and think "nah, they wouldn't be interested because I can't promise them a 100 billion dollar sexy idea."

[@lensvana]

​@@dailydose273 Maybe that's the biggest takeaway here: YC is ripe for disruption (who has the guts to do it?) If it's an old boys club, it's only a matter of time before someone comes along and does it 10x better. Sometimes I see the stuff they fund and it looks like a scheme to inflate the valuation and offload to Softbank & co.

[@codeattack231]

​@@lensvana Technically someone already does it better if you look purely for numbers. Recently Tiger cub Hedge funds like Tiger global etc started throwing money into the vc territory and so far they are doing amazingly (ofc I know about Tigers' FTX fiasco but that doesn't mean in general they disrupted the vc industry like no other). In 2021 they did like a deal a day or something like that with insane returns. YC can't compare. Their strategy is simply give founders money without the all the advice bs that comes along with VCs. If you need advice, sure, they will cover your consulting bills from bain or some startup-specific consultancies but if you are doing fine on your own, we won't be pushing the hoodie, bean bag narrative of SV onto you. Ultimately the only thing founders need from VCs is money. If they have problems, they can always buy the advice.

[@lensvana]

@@codeattack231 That's awesome, the more options for entrepreneurs - the better. I always associated Tiger with very large rounds, but it's great that now we have Tiger Seeds emerging. As you said, it's really about the money (akin to oxygen when you're starting out). For tech founders that just want to build great products - without the summer camp beanbag experience in the Bay Area.

[@Yan34452]

@@codeattack231 do you have other examples of institutions doing the same think ? I m curious

[@josephk87171]

@@codeattack231 Different game, YC is seed capital. In order to give money at scale like Tiger you need metrics and financials to look at.

[@Sondre7]

Love how encouraging Michael Seibel is to everyone else in these podcasts, with his voice, words, body language, it is like just a river of positive feedback and encouragement for everything anyone else says that is good By the way I continue to find these so valuable. I basically listen to no other podcasts. I have founded two somewhat successful startups, and I am so glad you havent hired some social media clickbait person, but stay authentic and deliver actual true knowledge on how to succeed with a startup here

[@paul_e123]

Some may find it encouraging. Personally I find these two guys discouraging. They laugh at and disparage so many ideas

[@oscarwaterman6137]

​@@paul_e123"The truth is often uncomfortable" - Jeffe Bezozzzzz

[@celestialnubian]

Dalton and Michael: "F*** your stupid a** restaurant discovery app". Me: While cradling my project wrapped in a blanket whispering "Don't listen to them. You're the prince that was promised." 🤣

[@spol]

Great episode but never forget that a lot of incredible startups accomplished what a graveyard of startups trying the same thing couldn’t. Sometimes all you need are a few important tweaks. Just know exactly what those are and why if you are going into the tar pit.

[@FinancialConsultdotcodotza]

Many times it's about timing and they discussed that.

[@jonjeskie5234]

@@FinancialConsultdotcodotza sometimes it's not just timing, sometimes it's literally the tweaks themselves. Google and Yahoo had about the same timing but Google tweaked their process. Same with Facebook over myspace, they had same timing but different execution.

[@FinancialConsultdotcodotza]

@@jonjeskie5234 as I said, MANY times and as you said SOME TIMES...happy

[@Lionsgala]

More often than not it's to spend that you put on an idea like some people who are very successful say you don't have to reinvent the wheel just edit it and call it something new

[@lewisburton1852]

@@Lionsgala I've done this at a small scale on service businesses. Old dinosaurs don't even have a good website. You're not reinventing the wheel just polishing it, maybe putting on nice-looking rims so to speak.

[@cpmcmanaman]

God, I love these videos. They are just so insightful and able to explain things effectively/impactfully. I need to rewatch their videos to keep the messages in the forefront of my brain. You see the slippery slope that we can all fall into as founders.

[@goesinevent]

Dalton and Michael share a brilliant concept here on this video. For our generation of folks born post 1990, I think is so hard to have someone committing to `boring` ideas. More than ever, we values cool ideas as a right and benefit of our generation, so doing boring stuff can be deemed even as a punishment on them. We have been lucky to go through YC, raising funds and getting to 150 employees on our business focused app.

[@mithrandirzecan558]

I have co-founded 2 startups and eventually realised exactly what Michael and Dalton are saying. So do extreme discovery research from problem space to every competitive space. It's much much much better to figure out stuff before you have spent a lot of money and effort than afterwards. And most of the time at the end of this figuring out you will find that "This Product is not needed!"

[@danielemingolla]

Hi Mithrandir I agree with you! Can you suggest me some frameworks to help recognize if a product is really needed or not?

[@aaronbirook4367]

Talk to users before you write a single line of code

[@wanjohi]

I have been waiting for this one, for a very veeeery long time (after getting a sneak peek during startup school 2022). It is finally out. THANK YOU!

[@apsysspace6764]

That is one of the most valuable videos on startup ideas, thank you.

[@debarshibasak8890]

Great discussion. Very insightful. I think the concept of tarpit is really really important. I have experienced this first hand in our first iteration of the product which was a self host-able PaaS. So, I think it can also happen in enterprise software space. But interesting insight for me, or a parallel I can draw for these enterprise tarpit products would be that they often target hobbyist, early stage startups and SMBs.

[@kingarth0r]

The whole thing about the "hidden/magical restaurants" is that they are special BECAUSE nobody knows about them. It's rewarding to discover those things on your own or through friends.

[@chan90s]

This is an extremely good episode. I had visceral feeling about these ideas while I was starting but this video comprehensively explained.

[@nelsonthekinger]

Excelent content, I'm trying to get some directions to start my own startup and this seems one of the great places to get advice. For now what I find difficult is that everyone has a different opinion and doesn't seem to have a single unique path to find success. The analogy of finding gold is very inspiring. Usually you dont find gold in the middle of Manhattan you go to a faraway place often times unexplored. This seems to be the most objetive advice even though is not super objective it is a great pointer for you to understand that you will endure a unique self exploration path that it's not guaranteed to be successful. This seems to be it. Another great advice I took was from Peter Thiel. Being an entrepreneur is more like being a detective. Obviously if you want to start a consultancy company or open a restaurant this advices don't apply the same way and you can be successful too in a different way. Maybe by copying someone's business model but you gonna get much more competition and you might be capped to a dozen millions dollars which is not necessarily bad but... Why not got to the bigger tank?

[@oscarcifuentes17]

Thank you for clarigying. We're definitely on the right path!!!

[@aytunch]

This is a very sincere and educational video. However there is an unsolved mystery. For instance a fully consumer social app called BeReal became such a hit recently. The content is just images. No videos, no video calls, no audio rooms. So simple to implement. If the founders of BeReal thought to themselves if their idea was a tarpit, they would agree that their idea is the definition of a tarpit. So can you please make a video on how these founders managed to make unicorns from their tarpit ideas. What is the trick? We would love that. I just love watching you two, keep more coming :D

[@Gamerhero45]

Bereal has NO REVENUE. and they have no idea how to do it yet. Don’t consider it any success yet.

[@arteast8146]

What about Gas app?

[@kennedykaranja1841]

lady LUCK

[@SamvitAgarwal]

BeReal meets their defintion of a good consumer app though - people got incredibly hooked very fast with minimal marketing. I think their advice related to tarpits isn't to not implement a tarpit idea at all, it's rather to back out soon if it fails to gain traction.

[@Raaawrrrrr]

​@@dailydose273 ​​Hey mate, read some of your comments. In one of them, you talked about Hyper. When I looked them up I found three different ones with almost the same name. Can you share which one were you talking about? Thanks.

[@baba00eddy]

I cannot thank you enough. This is the most important video you’ve ever shared.

[@teacherrafael6705]

I love you guys! Thank you for the high quality content!

[@aaravvarma]

As a founder of a very very ridiculously common problem that has been tried by thousand of founders, You spoke about the very truth, deep within my soul resonated with a lot things and it did pinch, You initially get married to these consumer ideas and I'm married too to mine and this thought it must be as easy as history speaks about all these successful start ups we hear about and it isn't. It is an ever changing quantum social behaviour mechanism which is getting more complicated to measure as we grow in technological influence everyday. Consumer is a toddler who wants everything they see but when you give it to them they want the next shiny object. I'm watching this video at 4am in my time zone and I just decided to give my startup deadline of Q1 2023 to measure the success else I will shut it or pivot my startup. Thank you guys Namaste

[@cole1]

Tell me about you company! What’s the story, Aarav?

[@Prakhar_A]

I looked up into your platform.. Orbiting. I genuinely found it pretty cool however there’s a catch..It’s hard for me to use it if my friends aren’t using it, also the userbase is dramatically low right now.. for this to go viral there has to be some catchy thing to occur. How about first targeting the schools and colleges where this could blow up.. Example: NMIMS, Amity Uni, Bennet uni, Jindal Global uni, TIBS banglore, Manipal etc etc..

[@aaravvarma]

​@@Prakhar_A Thank you so much, your comment gives me strength, what you mentioned is a proper criticism and colleges is my game plan. Orbits are great for intra-campus connectivity. Our entire strength is going towards onboarding colleges, We are in talks with multiple colleges. We have our V2 getting launched soon enough. Would like to become part of our beta tester for V2 ? We are doing an alpha launch in 1st week of Jan.

[@Prakhar_A]

@@aaravvarma That would be amazing. I would absolutely love to contribute towards orbiting's growth since it's solving an actual problem the Gen Zs are facing these days..i believe in the idea and i think if executed correctly then it'll be a soonicorn!

[@aaravvarma]

@@cole1 let's connect on Linkedin or email and I shall tell you about my story then just search for my name and my startup Orbiting

[@firstemail]

Thank you very much for sharing this wisdom. Very informative and impactful.

[@andgo]

Great video. Thank you! It would be great if you could share a list of the most common tar pit ideas that apply to YC

[@ThingsIKnow101]

Thank you guys, we appreciate the best advise from you guys

[@Chipotlefoos]

I wish i seen this video earlier. Many people need to see this. It would save them time and energy and money.

[@testadrome]

This was a really valuable and eye-opening talk, thank you!!!

[@BogdanPaunul]

I've literally kept away from the "startup world" because of the "restaurant discovery" and "social network for tall people" ideas (and that type of over-excited-networker founder, to be honest) for a lot of years. You'll probably see an application to YC from me regarding product management and development tooling. Great video, thank you!

[@jaa928]

Thank you for the clear and valuable insight.

[@robertbagares2331]

"Founders think that the average people are like them" ... and in design there is a rule "You are not the user" ...as a designer who worked with founders, this is one of the most difficult arguments ugh

[@OntologyofValue]

Great episode! I feel that the tendency of falling into tarpits also stems from the fact that the creators of the iconic platforms (mimicking whom now leads to tarpits) have become the icons of pop culture. And the retorics on the media is that if you are not a "thought leader" or "a role model," then you are not a successful entrepreneur. While most of the successful entrepreneurs that I met in my life were introverted, quiet, focused, and absent from the media.

[@maxwellibarra5830]

Extremely insightful. Thank you.

[@davidbello3004]

This was really insightful, thank you!

[@yoshcode]

What is the point of using Facebook and Google as examples? What is the value or takeaway that any of this gives prospective entrepreneurs? Other than TikTok, and maybe some crypto related apps, what apps have had that sort of adoption in the last 5 years? You might as well talk about the launch of wifi or computers... I am just trying to see the value-add here

[@garywoodhead7475]

Great points Guy’s, couldn’t agree more, when we graduated Founder Institute we saw the same effect, millions of units sold, and zero marketing underpinned by evangelical user’s. Always love listening to YC, keep up the great work.

[@daultimate100]

One of the best YC videos I've seen. Definitely a shift in thinking

[@evanchen5360]

Lots of folks fall into the tarpit. Lenny Rachitsky started Localmind, a way to help you discover restaurants in your area. Classic tarpit.

[@SooryaGangaraj]

Nice insights. Thank you so much.

[@masanmola]

I once watched a video and took notes, but I believe it would be beneficial to watch it again with my team at least ten times.

[@octavioavila6548]

When you guys described the Discovery idea at around 17:20 and were explaining why it doesn’t work, I actually paused the video and started verbally defending it to myself and in that moment I realized what a tar pit idea is. Nonetheless, here is my defense: I love going to coffee shops but I don’t want to go to the same coffee shop every day. I love that feeling of finding a coffee shop I’ve never ever gone to. It is true that I will run out of coffee shops eventually but there was a period where I kept finding new coffee shops every day. Therefore, the discovery app works temporarily during this period or at a city you’ve never been to before. Once you run out of places in a particular area, it’s over So a discovery app could work if you are constantly changing areas, although even this has a limit and the number of people who are constantly changing areas is small

[@skyee7512]

It's also hard to compete against tools people are already using. I wouldn't download a special app to find coffee shops in new places, and then a different app to find restaurants, and then a different place to find concerts. I'd google it and use googles built in function or yelp or the 5 huge companies that popped up when I searched 'concerts near me'. The space is so crowded with easier options, why would the average consumer bother to explore more?

[@Haroombe]

to be completely honest I would rather just use google. If I am out and about with friends, the last thing I want to do is open another unfamiliar app instead of asking google or siri where a good coffee shop is.

[@jean-lucneptunemdmba8107]

Great, thoughtful discussion. I particularly liked: 1.) supply and demand theory, 2.) importance of timing, and 3.) historical conditions that contribute to success. Subscribing now and looking forward to more great discussions. Happy Thanksgiving!

[@InternetNewZealand]

Thanks for this refreshing insight.

[@MonkeyEngineerPHD]

This video came up right after I watch one about the Dunning Kruger effect. Seems like the right frame to view these "tarpit" ideas.

[@seanvanderaa7978]

A disgruntling video to watch when your idea is consumer-facing and music-oriented. We're still in the initial stages, so we'll decide if it's not worth it once we've seen whether traction can built itself and hit that high bar, but everything said in this video makes sense. Just means it's time to continue ideating!

[@derek-yap]

Another great topic thanks!

[@honestcore2531]

Thanks, this was an insightful talk 👍

[@goshick]

thanks for the talk!

[@christian_vega]

These videos are so good. Can’t believe they’re free. Thank you for making these 🤝

[@lewisburton1852]

This was the business equivalent of tough love lol this was awesome!

[@odiadavid6957]

I understand and agree entirely with what you guys are saying. But if you’re building something that fits the idea of Tarpit and watching this video DO NOT STOP. Make sure you complete that project before you pick up something else.

[@samgoodwin89]

I’m literally building an open source software orchestration tool, that was trippy af.

[@jacobjacob5232]

This was an awesome vid - thanks!

[@ShashankChaganty]

Love the supply-demand theory, thanks.

[@TetosLoL]

I love these discussions - thanks for sharing it with the world! Two quick thoughts: Re: discovery ideas & physical constraints => What about ideas that don't rely on the physical world? E.g. IMO Discovery for apps is really broken. Of course, you have the monopoly storefronts (iOS / Android app stores) but it's so overcrowded with ads, bought reviews, and trash comments that it's genuinely impossible for me to find good new apps without going on Reddit or some other site. There are more than enough apps, so what would be the argument to try and explore that space? A few arguments against "improving app discovery": most people don't care about the actual quality of apps as long as it's sort of doing the job, Apple/Google could just improve their store and wreck the startup, and nothing can compete with the readily available Apple/Google stores so there's no way to even create a competition, ... Re: discovery ideas & why they don't work => This seems to be the opposite advice that Thiel gives in "Zero to One". He actively pushed the philosophy that "you need an insightful idea of seeing the world differently that few people will agree" (paraphrased). Anybody wants to weigh in here?

[@jamesjosuejara]

Great content! thank you very much

[@andre-le-bone-aparte]

Hot Take: Venture Capitalist fund ideas they understand, like, and have experience with.... (Atari founder) Nolan Bushnell turned down Steve Jobs offer of a third of Apple when it was a garage startup.

[@amityone1]

Thanks for Video!

[@malcolmlagares8245]

This was a very informative and enlightening discussion. Thank you. It's amazing how the importance of Supply and Demand should be a very basic and obvious concern and cosideration; the same can be said of Timing and the Historical Conditions that contributed to the success of today's "Tech Giants", yet it's not. People get so caught up in emotion, and in wanting to do what everyone else is doing that they don't consider these things. I also agree that the best ideas are those geared towards solving the problems of corporations.

[@benholmquist3589]

You guys are funny man 😂 advice plus a laugh, thanks for these

[@melkenhoning158]

Hard hitting realism, good stuff

[@montekupon4969]

I love idea about supply and demand but I have one question what metrics you could use to measure what is good supply and demand levels ?

[@nathanbanks2354]

Why was Twitch not a tar pit idea? It's consumer facing and it took several years to find a niche (streaming games used to be a niche). Did it succeed only because of timing?

[@marionogueiraramos9488]

right?

[@bossgd100]

@@dailydose273 💯

[@daultimate100]

They're not saying you shouldn't do it but just to be self aware of the reality

[@nathanbanks2354]

​@@daultimate100 This is a good point. It would be neat to hear Michael Seibel talk about whether Twitch & Socialcam both succeeded despite being a tar pit idea or if the idea was not a tar pit. Live video systems are difficult technically, so they may have had less competition. It's likely easier to recognize a tar pit idea by reading hundreds of applications instead of writing one.

[@Prakhar_A]

@@nathanbanks2354 Are you planning to pivot from Lumendé?

[@sioncamara7]

Thank you guys.

[@saeedalizadeh550]

A great one, thanks.

[@maxmiranda6298]

As a startup founder just getting out of founding a funded tarpit startup - this advice is resonating deeply for me in a way it never could've before I had attempted it. We built a consumer mobile fitness game app (games + fitness obviously both already incredibly crowded spaces, the bar was SO FRIGGING HIGH), and when we begged people to use it they were mostly like: "Why I have Strava?" My cofounder still refuses to pivot or acknowledge that this idea does not have a tangible shot of success. It sucks, I'd heavily recommend people consider more B2B startups before consumer.

[@udayverma6120]

what's the name of the app?

[@cory99998]

I think we're seeing the same explosion in AI generation tools / applications where it's very easy to make basic usable products, though it seems that when technology is rapidly emerging you're at high risk of becoming superseded by something more innate that comes along. This will be especially true in AI with the leaps and bounds it continues to make. ChatGPT alone has made so much of what we were solving for redundant as a purely emergent property of the technology.

[@justinelliott5799]

Thank you for another insightful video. Both of you should be professors someday or teaching in some capacity if you're not already. It would've been good to hear some examples of B2B/Enterprise tarpit ideas.

[@paragadlakha]

This opened my mind 🧠

[@klank67]

Excellent advice!!

[@monaiqbal3978]

Hey have seen your website and have few questions: How can we know that a specific startup is funded or not?.

[@andriytatchyn6497]

Good stuff guys thank you. But if you have so much knowledge about falling businesses, I wonder if this is possible to find somewhere results of the market experiments or tests? Every new entrepreneur will benefit from having such a database.

[@natarajanshanker5103]

This hit home. In other news, I had *just* parked my social app idea after prototyping it for months (still think it has potential... lol). Perfect timing for this video.

[@cole1]

What’s the pitch, Natarajan?

[@natarajanshanker5103]

@@cole1 platform for hobbies. I know, that's not much of a pitch 😅

[@Helpforhumanitys]

@@natarajanshanker5103 thanks

[@MrAlbertSi]

Love these videos

[@user-yd2se4zh6p]

It would be interesting to hear about the tarpit ideas for b2b startups.

[@robleonard2862]

I appreciate much of the info here - especially since I believe myself to have somewhat of a tarpit idea. Although, some of the messaging here reads as if you aren't an extremely high functioning employee or part of the 'rich' class than you shouldn't even try.

[@pandalife1313]

I have Learnt alot from you guys. And personally i think right now concentrating on the consumer products is really risky!

[@mjay0019]

This is great advice. If you’re trying to make money, I do have a passion project that I can’t wait to release once I’m done with it. Not expecting to make any money from it, but it would be cool to have my idea out in the universe and understand what it’s like to develop something into release it and then I can think about money making in the future.😊

[@patrickfreeman9460]

I think a big chunk of these themes are geographic. I’ve built my whole career in the Northern Virginia tech corridor, and ALL the founders I’ve known are focused on B2B or B2G technical problems. I suspect the difference is that Silicon Valley attracts a ton of people obsessed with consumer products.

[@oyisalanga1295]

Very insightful

[@jstov]

Great advice!!!

[@brigadeweb]

This is gold!

[@FahmiEshaq]

I love these talks....

[@gpt_haseeb]

Awesome advice

[@nickwilger]

I have 3 products. Now I know 1 is a tarpit unless I pivot. Thank you

[@productivitymonster]

you've persuaded me, I pivoted) the greatest video I've seen on YC

[@mrjohncrumpton]

One year on, how's the new positioning going?

[@Adichu]

awesome video

[@rahultiwari.95]

life changing video.

[@gunzithanzo]

Thank you

[@stephenstanton6860]

I can’t wrap my head around why a consumer product would be considered a tar pit. I feel like “consumer product” is such a big blanket that covers just soooo many ideas. The only ideas left would be business products right? Am I not understanding correctly?

[@jeromeibanez2891]

Tarpits are ideas that seem to be sexy but they have an underlying business model issue that will make it unlikely for it to work. It's not exclusive to consumer startups - there are plenty of B2B tarpits (for me a lot of these no code B2B stuff are tarpits). I think they emphasized on consumer products because it's the first thing we think about.

[@aryamanchoudhary2779]

@@jeromeibanez2891 not necessarily just a business model issue

[@stanchan]

It’s more about how the bar is high for them to succeed that makes them tarpits. They are not saying consumer ideas will never succeed, but the chance of them finding a unicorn is much lower than other sectors.

[@spol]

They are more sexy so they attract a lot of talent. So unless you are the best of the best, make something that is on the road less traveled. Only problem is that most founders can’t tell that they aren’t top tier.

[@benholmquist3589]

Building a working business out of a consumer product is much harder than a business to business product, in my opinion. As a first time entrepreneur we started thinking we would build a consumer product and it would just go viral eventually, just work a little harder, almost there. It did not, and since our pivot to b2b, it's such a more logical and achievable business model

[@nguruTheGuru]

I have been listening to yc for almost a year and you have been of great value to me as a startup founder.... Could I possibily know the software you use to record this episodes. Thank you.

[@Icedanon]

So pay attention to saturation when deciding what field to do your startup. 30 minutes summed up in 1 sentence.

[@SuperArtuditu]

Very useful video

[@Lionsgala]

Some people think I'm crazy when I get to talking about nft metaverse shops it occurred to me a while back that it would probably be easier if we just built a tool to walk into stores and basically copy everything in the entire store just like Google did with that giant camera that used to sit on the car for Google maps

[@allmotars3123]

Well said

[@target500milliontradersinv5]

Hi tell me tarpit ideas and casestudies of the companies you have funded

[@KOBIHelpsChildrenRead]

Were there many tar pit ideas in dyslexia/ADHD edtech space? Consumer facing.

[@pawandeore6989]

Really liked video

[@mikiallen7733]

But what about the case where the bar is an artificial one , I can't think of a better example than financial and insurance sector where this is évidant ? Do you agree that in such situation your might be selling your idea / perception of such idea short ? !

[@markg5986]

If a consumer startup doesn't have strong pull from users (as described at @10:55 in the video), how likely is it the idea is a loser?How can you tell early on whether it's an awareness problem, or an "I'm aware, but don't care" problem? I'm in this boat. What are the next steps you suggest?

[@jeromeibanez2891]

Maybe your go to market strategy is not good. If your product is iterative the go to market strategy needs to be novel. If you have early users now, check who's the most active active and see if you can find specific channels to reach those. The more specific the better, and it needs to be free-ish.

[@hommhommhomm]

If they' re not aware they have the problem and don't recognize they have the problem even when they see the solution, it's incredibly unlikely they will pay for it. Creating awareness is terribly expensive in those situations where people don't care "but should care". They will not care

[@jeromeibanez2891]

@@hommhommhomm That's not true. There are two types of products: Pull products and push products. Pull products are based off of known problems and users pull you into building them. Push products are the opposite - you need to push the solution to people because they don't know they have that problem. There are success stories in both cases.

[@markg5986]

Thank you @@jeromeibanez2891 - good thoughts.

[@markg5986]

@@hommhommhomm, Your comment // situations where people don't care "but should care". They will not care // is good advice. Thank you so much.

[@none0n]

Why haven't I found this channel since? KZbin work on your algos!!!

[@angelinasbusinessworld]

I rewatch this video every few months just to make sure I am not pursuing a tarpit idea with my startup 😅👌🏻

[@bambangdurrani114]

Not a big fan of this videos, I personally feel like this is just an investor mindset - "We've seen the stats, and we personally think its not worth it". If you see an angle on an idea, go for it but do you due diligence, know what other similiar companies have done and how they suceeded or failed and work through those obstacles to make yours work. If the opportunity outweighs the effort, go for gold. Look at the success history of auto-manufacturer, before Tesla came along. Same thing with dating apps, before tinder came along. Just know what your getting yourself into, spot the opportunity, plan how youre going to get there, then if its worth the opportunity, quickly build something to test that theory out. If it succeeds, that angle is going to create a wedge thats going to be worth something. If you dont succeed, well, then on to the next idea, that you might have.

[@marionogueiraramos9488]

Google as the nth search engine is a time everybody knew for sure that: A) search results quality was an intractable problem and B) it was impossible to monetize a thing that would send traffic away. 🤷‍♀

[@gordon2766]

I would watch Michael and Dalton’s discussion of FTX on PPV