Img source: The NextWeb

Here are 16 Most Ridiculous Startup Ideas That Eventually Become Successful

• Facebook - the world needs yet another social network a la Myspace or Friendster except several years late. We'll only open it up to a few thousand overworked, anti-social Ivy Leaguers. Everyone else will then follow since Harvard students are so cool.
• Dropbox - we built a file sharing and syncing solution in a market has a dozen of them built by big companies like Microsoft. It only has one feature, and you have to move all of your content to use it.
• Amazon - we'll sell books online, even though users are still scared to use credit cards on the web. Their shipping costs will eat up any money they save. They'll do it for the convenience, even though they have to wait a week for the book.
• Virgin Atlantic - airlines are fun, so we are starting one. How hard could it be? We'll differentiate with a funny safety video and by not being a**holes.
• Mint - give us all of your bank, brokerage, and credit card information. We'll store them on the web and give you the data back but with nicer fonts. To make you feel richer, we'll make it all green.
• Palantir - we'll build arcane analytics software, put the company in California, hire a bunch of new college grads, many of them immigrants, hire no sales reps, and close giant deals with D.C.-based defense and intelligence agencies.
• Craigslist - it will be ugly. It will be free. Except for the scammers and hookers.
• iOS - we are shipping a brand new operating system that doesn't run a single one of the millions of applications that have already been developed for Mac OS, Windows, or Linux. Apple has to approve all of the apps, and it won't have cut and paste to start with.
• Google - we are building the world's 20th search engine at a time when most of the others have been abandoned as being commoditized money losers. We'll strip out all of the ad-supported news and portal features so you won't be distracted from using the free search stuff.
• Github - software engineers will pay monthly fees for the rest of their lives in order to create free software out of other free software!
• PayPal - people will use their insecure AOL and Yahoo email addresses to pay each other real money, backed by a non-bank with a cute name run by 20-somethings.
• Paperless Post - we are like Evite, except you pay us. All of your friends will know that you are an idiot the minute your faux-parchment digital envelope hits their inbox.
• Instagram - who needs Facebook? We got filters! That's right, filters!
• LinkedIn - how about a professional social network, aimed at busy 30- and 40-somethings. They will use it once every 5 years when they go job searching.
• Tesla - instead of just building batteries and selling them to Detroit, we are going to build our own cars from scratch plus own the distribution network. We'll start the company during a recession and the crashing of the clean tech industry.
• SpaceX - if NASA can do it, so can we! It ain't rocket science. Oh, it is.
• Firefox - we are going to build a better web browser, even though 90 percent of the world's computers already have a free one built in. It's based on a product that a single college student built.
• Twitter - it is like email, SMS, or RSS. Except it only has 140 characters, doesn't support images, can't be made private, and will be used mostly by geeks at first, followed by Britney Spears and Charlie Sheen. (source)

Mike Cerny, CEO and founder of the startup DoNotRent.com, a national apartment review and ratings website based in Chicago, knows the challenges of building a company from the ground up. He has faced the typical trials startup founders face, including gaining traction as a self-funded bootstrapped company and competing with well-established brands with large marketing budgets.

1. Share your idea.

2. Take your time.

3. Build your team.Build your team before you go into production. I made the mistake of going at it alone in the beginning, and I am still in the process of adding additional members to the team.

4. Get creative.

5. Make connections.

This time a year ago, I was in a similar position as many of you who are out there building startups. I was spending numerous hours working feverishly to apply to several startup accelerators, from Summer@Highland to University of Chicago’s Polsky Accelerator. Nervously waiting for decisions, I finally heard back from the University of Chicago’s Polsky Accelerator accepting us to fill one of ten spots in their first class.

Our startup, Kip Solutions, is a social media consulting firm for social causes. We had significant traction before applying to accelerators: we had raised $10,000 for a client in Cameroon, and were already featured by Inc. Magazine as one of the Coolest College Start-ups for 2012 and Kairos Society selected us one of the Top 50 Most Innovative Student-Run Companies.

During my first week at the Polsky Accelerator, I was most excited to be surrounded by some of the best startups in Chicago. Among the final ten were startups like Moneythink, which had just been featured at the White House, and Zipfit, which opened a store on the prestigious Michigan Avenue in Chicago a few weeks after the accelerator program ended, and is now opening a second store.

I’ve always been told that the best thing about being in an accelerator is being surrounded by individuals who are going through similar challenges. But now, nine months since the completion of the Polsky Accelerator and the recent acquisition of Kip Solutions, I can’t say being constantly surrounded by startups is the best way to accelerate your company.

Instead, here are my four tips to help you truly accelerate:

1. Ditch the startup networking sessions. Go to the networking events that your customers attend. 

One of the most eye-opening moments for me while at the accelerator was attending the many “startup” networking sessions. I personally did not find them very helpful, because I realized that time is better spent going to network events where your customers are.

When I attended non-profit networking sessions (our core customer), our startup closed clients and dove deeper into our customer’s problems (which inspired us to think of better solutions). It’s also much easier to get face time with people we wanted to meet. At startup networking sessions, we were constantly fighting for investor time—a major downside. But at non-profit networking sessions, we stood out—it’s easier to do because we were often the only startup (or one of very few).

2. Be disciplined.

Startup lifestyle has the dual stereotype of both “We start work closer to the afternoon because we go to a lot of work-related events at night,” and, “We don’t sleep because we’re working all the time.” Every startup has their own culture, but what I’ve learned is that it’s important to commit 100% to the hours you say you’re going to work. 

As a good friend of mine Kevin Rustagi, start-up Founder of Evolution of Noise Music and Design, quoted from R.A. Kearney, “If you don’t get anything done, you’re not going to get anything done.” It sounds like common sense, but I’ve observed how startups burn the day watching cat videos or surfing the web. Commit to a set number of hours where you disconnect from distractions and focus on getting work done. Be disciplined.

3. Surround yourself with those that have answers (Hint: it’s not other early-stage startups).

Spend time with those who can answer your questions. Moneythink’s Executive Director,Ted Gonder, often quotes from Jim Rohn that “You’re the average of the five people you surround yourself with.” As startups, we’re still trying to understand how our business models will work, who our real customers are, and how our products (or services) best function. It’s hard to find those answers when we surround ourselves with other startups that are asking similar questions and seeking similar answers.

I found it most helpful to surround myself with those who have already successfully addressed questions about business models and customer sizing. My co-founder and I had the opportunity to attend a CEO luncheon hosted by Inc. Magazine, and we were surrounded by some of the top CEOs in Chicago. That one lunch taught me more about how to shape my business than spending a lot more time with other startups.

4. Okay, but you should spend some time with startups.

Now, just because you’ll find a lot of your answers by surrounding yourself with your customers and already-successful founders and CEOs, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend anytime with other startups. David Chen, Co-founder of Strikingly.com (part of the Y Combinator Winter 2013 class),  explains, “At YC, we don’t spend more than 6 hours a week with other startups.” Six hours seems to be the perfect amount of time to get inspired by the energy of actually being a startup—but too much more time than that could mean you’re not accelerating your startup as fast as you could be.

Accelerate Now

The best thing about all of this advice, and being a startup, is you don’t need permission to act. You can start accelerating now by following these easy suggestions.

“How am I going to scale that?”

• It’s much less likely going to help you find your early evangelists or encourage anyone to want to be one. The people who are going to help tell your story are the ones who feel more personally connected to you, and that starts with you showing them you care about them.
• It’s unlikely you’ll get the attention of the most influential prospects. People who yield influence get contacted a lot. People who get contacted a lot develop an uncanny skill of filtering through generic pitches. Yours will likely go straight to the trash bin if you’re not pulling together a tailored note.
• It won’t show respect for the person you want to work with. Email marketing is great for keeping people informed when they’ve opted-in to general updates. Copying and pasting a pitch without a shred of personalization is an imposition on the recipient and a statement that your time is more valuable than theirs.

If your marketing plan doesn’t include a social aspect, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to promote your startup. If you’ve incorporated social as part of your marketing strategy, that’s great. But what happens if no one is liking or following your social presence?

Social media can be leveraged to provide your business with a great deal of exposure, but so many companies are guilty of making mistakes that render their efforts ineffective. Here are 10 mistakes companies make with social media, along with how to fix them:

Mistake #1: Not having a plan

When you launched your business, you created a plan. Why should social media be any different? As with any marketing effort, you must develop goals for having a social media presence, tactics to accomplish those goals, and measurement factors to determine whether you were successful. Though social media is a low-cost marketing effort, you need to know that your time is going to be well spent, and that you’re creating a way to produce revenue, boost brand recognition, or provide some other value for your startup.

Not only does a plan help you stay focused on creating ROI, it will help you maintain a clear voice, too. A plan will help carry this over to all other marketing efforts, including social.

Mistake #2: Not completing profiles

Many companies treat social networking sites as separate from their website. But social sites should be treated as an extension of a startup’s website. It’s another online presence and another opportunity to make information available. But, some companies don’t include information, like basic contact details, on their social sites. Why? By not doing so, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Some people may visit your Facebook page to find out who you are and what you offer. If you don’t flesh out your profile and make as much information as possible available, someone may not take the time to go to your website to find out. Complete your social profiles and include a link to your website. Also, make sure that whatever information exists on your website and social profiles is consistent.

Mistake #3: You don’t engage with people

Yes, you’re busy. But so are the people following your social presence. And, if one of those people took the time to reach out to you, it’s a good idea to acknowledge it. Social media is about networking and relationship building. Relationships have the potential to turn into revenue. It sounds silly to think that something as small as thanking a new Twitter follower could turn into anything, but all relationships need to start somewhere. Take those small steps. That one person feel acknowledged, and others will notice it, too. You’ll build a reputation as a startup that truly cares about its audience. Also, realize that social media can be used as a customer service tool. Never ignore a customer who is reaching out to you with a question or complaint. Word travels fast when companies neglect this type of feedback.

Mistake #4: You’re too self-promotional

Have you ever sat down to watch television and skipped past a show to get to the commercials? Of course not. People don’t care as much about your blatant promotional efforts as they do about things that are going to provide them with some value. Take that into consideration when you’re posting on social media. Instead of telling people to buy your new app, tell them what value they will receive if they have the app. And don’t make it all about you—acknowledge other businesses who are doing great things or share industry articles. The point is not to make every post a sales pitch. Remember, you’re trying to build relationships.

Mistake #5: You don’t post the right amount

All entrepreneurs have heard phrases like, “There’s already an app for that,” or, “X company already has first-mover advantage.” When I did my first startup, I initially quivered whenever one of these phrases was mentioned, but now my response is this: “So what?”

In the first pitch competition I ever entered, I had the idea to build a consolidated cloud service so a user could tie all of their Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and other cloud services together into one mega cloud drive. As soon as I had pitched the idea, everyone came up to me and said, “I love your idea, but the winner of the MIT 100K competition already pitched your idea.” Rats! Somebody beat me to my idea.

I decided to pivot to word processing for tablets, but again everyone said I was crazy since Google Docs and Microsoft Word dominate the market. By this time, I had formed a team of individuals who were passionate about productivity applications, and together we pivoted to build a better touch keyboard. However, the feedback piled up. There are a ton companies trying to innovate in this space, but none of them can beat Apple’s built-in keyboard. Well, I guess we’ll scratch that idea.

Then we pivoted to building a note-taking app for our next pitch competition, and again the chorus rang out that we were entering a crowded market. Disheartened, my team and I decided to meet one late night and figure out what we were going to do. After writing every startup idea we had on a dry-erase board, we crossed off ideas that were not feasible due to technical, financial, and/or time constraints. Then, we crossed off ideas that weren’t extremely lucrative. Finally we were down to three ideas and our final question: Has somebody already beaten us to the market? In every instance, there was a direct competitor already in that space.

It was in that moment I resolved to stop caring about the competition. I said to my team, “Forget about what the competitors are doing. Let’s just do what we love and what we do well.” We returned to our idea of note-taking and poured our souls into the product, calling it Chisel. Within three weeks, we had a beta launch and received great feedback from our test group. We then entered another pitch competition and placed third. Eight weeks after our pivot, we launched on the App Store, and within 8 hours, a blog found our newly minted app and wrote a great review. Suddenly we had 1,000 downloads within the first three days on the App Store.

This launch occurred recently, so my team and I realize we still have a long road ahead. But, I’m sure we could not have achieved our success so far without following our passion and conviction.

Throughout this experience, I kept thinking back on the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. In his book, Collins emphasizes the importance of getting the “right people on the bus.” He also teaches the “Hedgehog Concept” which is to do something in which you: 1.) can make money, 2.) be passionate about, and 3.) be the best in the world at. I feel like I internalized these principles during my experience.

During my struggle to find an idea, I was able to get the right people on the bus: a fabulous designer, coder, and financial modeler. We then iterated through the Hedgehog concept until we found something we could generate revenue with, something we’re passionate about, and something we thought we could be the best in the world at. Who cares if there is competition? Battling competition and beating the odds is what makes entrepreneurship tough, yet so worthwhile.

Too often we focus on the idea and spin our wheels without getting anywhere, when our focus should be on securing talent and channeling passion. After all, if you’re not passionate about your business, your competition will be and it will carry them across the finish line.

Mobile is growing like a weed. Apparently, by the end of this year, there will be more mobile devices on Earth than people. Look at the super growth of Instagram and Snapchat. Mobile is only going to get bigger and more badass. Obviously, my startup should be mobile first!

Hold up.

“Mobile-first vs. web-first” has been a topic of discussion for some time now, with both the startup and VC community chiming in. Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures has suggested his affinity towards mobile-focused startups both in his writing and in his portfolio. Others have explained why budding entrepreneurs should consider web first instead. The true answer, as suggested by VC Mark Suster, is that mobile first works for some companies and not for others.

I’d like to add to that though: If you’re inexperienced, do web first.

When I say inexperienced, I mean a few possible things:

• This is your first startup.
• No one on your team has ever built a good mobile app.
• Your startup has not figured out product/market fit.
• You have less than $200,000 to spend on ads.

Although there’s a lot of potential in mobile, it’s far more challenging than web. Everything is harder and more expensive. Typical mobile-first startups spend at least 4 months developing their app, using TestFlight to send to a hundred or so people, beta test in Canada, and then launch to the US. The amount of time before even getting it into the end users’ hands is absurd, so you better get it right the first time around.

Worse yet, after launching you can’t easily make changes on the fly to improve conversions. A/B testing is practically impossible. Acquiring users is near impossible, as non-spammy viral loops and retention are especially difficult. The only proven way to get more users is to be in the top charts, which costs big ad bucks to do. This also means that to sustain growth, your startup needs to have its business model completely figured out (see: Foursquare’s debt round of financing).

At the end of the day, mobile-first is not newbie friendly. Inexperienced entrepreneurs should spend the early days of their startup getting early adopters and learning as much as you can about them. Many startup folk forget that even Instagram learned its first lessons and acquired its early adopters through its first product, Burbn. Use the web first (or evenemail-first) with lean startup methodology until you can find product-market fit. If your mobile makes sense, then do it.

At our event discovery startup, we decided to have a mobile presence but focus primarily on the web. It’s allowed us to optimize iterate on the product to market fit. Nearly every day, we can push changes to the website that increase our conversions, improve retention, or push our k-factor.

There are certainly exceptions (such as gaming or serving mobile developers), but I’d encourage inexperienced people to not go mobile first. Startups are already risky. Why increase your chance of failure by starting with mobile?