Good coffee morning, starting with my first Americano and a small talk.

This time, our talk is about “stupid ideas” for startups. A few weeks ago I was reading an interview with someone that described as a leading Angel investor in Israel. The article was a standard PR nothing unusual, but one sentence got me “70% of the idea are stupid, and people that invest in them are fools”.

So I’ll start from the end, there are no stupid ideas! The fact that someone devoted time and efforts because he understood there is a problem and found a solution makes it “smart”. Looking back, Facebook could be considered stupid at the time it started, “Yu” didn’t make any sense but was the fastest app adapted ever and many others.

I remember a guy came to me three years ago with an idea of using a smartphone as a security camera when you are staying in hotels and would like to know what is going on when you are not in the room. I must say I did not jump out of my skin when he presented the idea, it looked OK, no more no less. A few weeks ago I saw a new startup with a brilliant idea of using old smartphones (anyone have at home) as a security system that uses the camera as motion detection system, taking photos and send them in real time, wow what a great idea. Then I remembered the other guy and felt stupid; same idea deferent market and you have a killer application.

So, there are no stupid ideas just the right market definition!

Have a great day.