Should you work on that startup idea?

It's not enough to be pointed at a particular direction. You need to have a very clear reason why you will win. This is a list of questions you should ask yourself before picking a startup idea.
Weak answers to these questions might mean you need to change ideas... on the other hand, they focus you to figure out the things you need to solve so your startup becomes a winning one.
Read the full transcript at blog.garrytan.com/should-you-...
I’m Garry Tan, venture capitalist and cofounder at Initialized Capital. We were earliest investors in billion dollar startups like Coinbase and Instacart, and we’re spending time with some of our best founders to learn the secrets of their success and see the future they’re building. I’m doing my own run-and-gun one man KZbin channel with no staff or crew - we're going for raw and unfiltered, not perfect.
Please like this video and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more videos like this!

[@NinjaNuggets21]

Gavin Belson’s disappointed face gets me every time! 🤣

[@jetsetjoel7219]

You can't just point at the moon, you gotta build the goddamn spaceship... Words to live by, Gary!

[@shamwela_]

I really love it!

[@TRIXTER203]

Garry*

[@castielhamza272]

you all probably dont care at all but does anyone know a way to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost my account password. I appreciate any help you can give me!

[@lancewestin7885]

@Castiel Hamza Instablaster :)

[@castielhamza272]

@Lance Westin I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm in the hacking process now. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

[@mawortz]

1. observe 2. write your assumption 3. test your assumption 4. analyze the data 5a. if assumption was true continue 5b. if not pivot

[@RemiOdufuye]

" It's not only about machine learning .... sometimes your good moat is a collection of IF Statements " ... Mic drop right there! love your content Garry, thanks for sharing with the world

[@UnniSukumaran]

You are fueling the entrepreneur in me GT. Finally I have reached somewhere where I can find some quality content. Thanks GT :)

[@MikeWilliamsYoroomie]

Love this and incredible insights as always! The edits also add a great touch 👌

[@ednevsky]

I love both the advice and the way you present it (quotes and everything). Great job!

[@bls512]

Clearer vision of the mentor that I've been looking for. Thank YOU!

[@atindermultani7017]

Thank you Gary for sharing these timeless ideas!! Watching this a year after it was published and its still relevant.

[@zizzyzozo807]

Hi Garry, appreciate you sharing your knowledge around startups and the venture capital space.

[@PreshDineshkumar]

This was great. Super helpful. Thanks Garry!

[@Filaxsan]

Bath of humility needed to do great stuff. Loved it, thanks as usual!

[@munaalamudi9975]

You are absolutely right Garry. 👍💕💕💕

[@sattarsattar4206]

Thanks for the video!

[@alexchieng227]

I'd love to hear more about how/where you started!

[@GarryTan]

Sounds good! Coming up.

[@projectmiche9082]

@@GarryTan Just knew or started watching your videos recently and I can’t stop. Please I will like to watch the video where you answered@Alex question. Thanks.

[@rayhon1014]

Great tips Garry! One more question to add, are you passionate about it? Many times what you think you are going to build is not what it ends up to be. As your competitors are not sitting still and you may need to pivot over the course. So, it is your passion to make you continue to work tirelessly to overcome the obstacles ahead.

[@idowuolamipeju9575]

Thanks for this, Garry!

[@djikan]

Man amazing videos! Thanks al lot for the content. It really helps me as I am starting a business right now!

[@GarryTan]

Happy to help!

[@ozzieatman2086]

Garry you are just incredible.

[@wakegary]

Thanks for this one. Very helpful. Way to use music intelligently, and emotionally, to move the narrative. Well done - Subbed!

[@Tangably]

Lovin all this wisdom you keep dropping on us. Keep it up!

[@GarryTan]

Thank you! Will do!

[@readmycomment3157]

This list of questions is so good, you can see why you're such a successful VC

[@arismu5973]

I have worked in startup environment for almost 4 and half years now but never seen those questions. It would be great if you can provide the sample of the answers. Really appreciate!

[@grunde7392]

Inspirational!

[@ajaysharma662]

Thanks Garry.

[@GarryTan]

Thanks for watching!

[@sandieman]

Love the Silicon Valley references!!! So good!

[@Mullersemacesso]

Awesome content. Tks a lot

[@GarryTan]

Glad you liked it!

[@shaik7144]

Nice as always 😄 thanks

[@user-kj7xm5bv9v]

super fun channel. thanks for your vid. subbed

[@GarryTan]

Thanks for the sub!

[@kenmooso]

Always loving the advice. Sent you a message on IG with a question. Hope you have time to respond.

[@ahmad_atm]

Gavin Belson: I like it. It's bold

[@GarryTan]

LOL

[@shashankbhatt8102]

I just love your way of story telling 🔥 Also you look and talk a lot like Leonard from Big Bang Theory

[@manas101988]

You are my mentor...

[@danilotrampovski1698]

Thank you for all your videos - the value you're providing is off the charts. One thing that slightly confuses me is this notion of having an unfair advantage from the very start. While I see how important that would be for many industries, I don't quite understand how it would apply in your case with Posterous. Sure, no one ended up using the "simple" if statements solution and it turned out to be your moat - but if you were to go back in 2008 and say pitched Posterous at a very early stage for seed, would you hypothesize that it would be your unfair advantage? Thanks again.

[@GarryTan]

This is a good and tough question. In the moment when you're pitching, you don't actually know what parts of your pitch are true vs not. I do know that we DID pitch this as an unfair advantage, but at the time we didn't know for certain it would be right. Hindsight is 20/20. I guess the lesson here is pitch what you think is true. It's not possible to know until after you look at the tale of the tape.

[@danilotrampovski1698]

Garry Tan Makes sense :) Thanks for your time!

[@rj_olmedo]

So cool that you use HBO Silicon Valley clips ! Love it!

[@GarryTan]

Haha just having fun

[@Buddfox]

@@GarryTan it’s a great show!! Wish they did more. Has anyone got suggestions for any similar tech-shows?

[@AzriRich28]

I like this 0:30 LOL 😁 Thanks

[@loynlu5325]

Thank you for sharing. You talked about it from an engineer perspective. Do you have any experience to share about how to switch traditional business into tech as a business operation without tech background? We know what customers need and the problems of the traditional process which tech can serve better. What step we should take to get a start?

[@GarryTan]

Learn to code - you need to be able to understand the craft to do the best at hiring and managing the function.

[@GameCrawl]

Garry, you might want to disable the ads running in the middle of the video. We don't watch your videos but listen to them, it is too disruptive for us to temporary stop what we were doing just to press the skip button.

[@iliiluminacion1695]

You just can't be totally right with this one: "Not enough people need it". Sometimes people don't know they need something till they get it. You just need to find a really clever way to make people want it...

[@GarryTan]

That’s true. Though I though I mentioned the other thing too: not being able to access customers or tell them about it.

[@iliiluminacion1695]

@@GarryTan why would you not be able to do that? For example?

[@TxFw]

But is creating artificial demand a good or a moral thing to do? Not saying it's not but many times it has unintended negative consequences manifested by a whole host of societal ills.

[@juankiefer6493]

Gary, your words worth gold for me. Thank you for sharing. Berlin-based Industrial designer

[@GarryTan]

My pleasure!

[@prof2k]

Yo man. You've got really great content. Just watched 2 videos from you and those 15mins were probably the most productive moments I've had here on youtube today. And this is my first ever sharing of a youtube video! Just keep the great quality. You are going places.

[@GarryTan]

Thanks for your kind words!

[@otcisthepoormansoptions7225]

hey Gary, not sure if ive asked this before, do you think pointing your phone at your tv and winning ball game tickets or a burger from mcdonalds is revolutionary and disruptive tech?

[@nidsssss1]

hi in the section of difficulties, you mentioned in weak answers that when your market is too small- not enough people need it, i am kind of facing that in my current research for an idea I have, i talk to potential customers i found on linkedin, and it validates our problem but the audience is less- what to do then? how do we go about our research in that area - should we drop it? i followed the tip which also says even if its a small market see if its growing- i find it hard to even find those numbers. great if you could suggest me on this.

[@GarryTan]

Figure out how to grow it

[@khoaphung6965]

What it is you have right now that nobody has ?

[@LearnWithBahman]

If yes , how you should do that?

[@Mark-si6xx]

Can you give case examples of successful startups’ moats? For example, what is airbnb’s moats when they just started?

[@GarryTan]

Today, Airbnb’s moats are network effect and brand, so you don’t always have one up and running at that time. The thing they had for “why now?” was really no alternatives. VRBO was pointed at larger professional property management, and Airbnb was first to really encourage individuals to host people. It was a good example of something going from fringe to mainstream. Today it seems hard to believe there was a time when Airbnb didn’t exist. At the time it was very novel, and it was the first time it could happen. You could argue there was a technology moat simply because it was first to show it could be done.

[@bossgd100]

@@GarryTan thank for the explanation

[@PedroLopez-zz9hb]

Do you have all these questions on a blog post or pdf?

[@3umphbywill313]

What was that clip from?

[@tegaogheneovo5881]

Mr Tan

[@bilalelachab6270]

What's the music background's name??

[@careoffacts7430]

Bro.. Suggest me best books for startup and entrepreneurial Inspiration

[@GarryTan]

Hackers and Painters, Paul Graham Founders at Work, Jessica Livingston Zero to One, Peter Thiel High Growth Handbook, Elad Gil

[@supreet-singh]

@@GarryTan This would make a great video - "top startup books".

[@achilleconte4385]

I would add "The lean startup" by Erick Ries

[@louisb1]

Ready set growth hack - Nader Sarby

[@idowuolamipeju9575]

Thanks Garry

[@mmanuel6874]

Is there any way I can contact you for advice?

[@GarryTan]

DM me @garrytan on IG

[@mmanuel6874]

Garry Tan thank you 🙏

[@tenniswithric]

Is it really an issue with idea or execution?

[@saulgoodman2438]

I know this may sound stupid, but can it also be bad if there are too many yes answers?

[@GarryTan]

Probably not! unless it's a scam haha

[@saulgoodman2438]

Garry Tan thank you for responding! Love your content!

[@wahkaoz]

Whats the movie name called from the start?

[@GarryTan]

HBO’s Silicon Valley (TV show)

[@wahkaoz]

@@GarryTan Thank you!

[@bephrem]

What mic do you use

[@GarryTan]

I use Sennheiser AVX lavs, and an Electrovoice RE-20 now, but when I was filming this I think I was using a Sennheiser MKH50

[@johnnychang3456]

IMO unless you are working in a world-class lab researching on next-gen tech, almost nothing is non-replicable in 2020... I think in order to create "moat", you need to figure a way out to enhance customer stickiness, which is very hard for startups.

[@GarryTan]

First mover advantage or moats are elusive but not impossible. I find and fund a billion dollar company every year that does it.

[@alibenabdalla3599]

Can Y Combinator help us with just the idea ?

[@GarryTan]

I worked at YC when we tried a no idea track. We thought maybe we could help people come up with them. It did not work well.

[@alibenabdalla3599]

@@GarryTan I mean I have the idea but no team does it work ?

[@GarryTan]

No, you need to recruit a team and if you can’t try to get customers first and that will help. See my Katamari Damacy video

[@ozzyfromspace]

Find your IF statement 😂😂 But he’s got a point though.

[@sudhakarkaushik6128]

if IF statements can defend moats, do we still need to file IP and reveal our tech?

[@GarryTan]

I don’t understand your question

[@sudhakarkaushik6128]

@@GarryTan thanks .. what I meant was you were able to create a moat with breakthrough thinking and used simple IF then logic to simplify and create nice s/w. I am trying to build up a moat with 4 or 5 patents and sometimes I wonder why bother because when I create full patent, the logic is all disclosed and people can work around . So maybe not creating IP is ok but then as a startup, having IP means big guys wont kill us once we become a player that can be noticed. thanks!

[@tas5250]

Garry you should get on the next season of HBO’s Silicon Valley and drop some more wisdom bombs there as well hahaha 😝

[@its_rns]

0:54 Directed by Robert B Weide

[@mohammedd2483]

Nice video, but please get rid of the background music

[@o.h.w.6638]

Sometimes you just can’t let that white whale go and you KNOW you are the one to build it

[@hadithitv7517]

Neuralink 😂😂

[@tas5250]

Garry you should get on the next season of HBO’s Silicon Valley and drop some more wisdom bombs there as well hahaha 😝