How to Start a Startup...

So you want to start a startup, but you have no money, connections, or an office. You're basically Steve Jobs and Wozniak in 1976, just a couple of guys in a garage with an idea. You get to work on a logo or company name when you should be asking what problem is worth solving. So Jobs and Woz notice computers are expensive and complicated. Why not make them simple? Enter their first product, Apple I, pretty much just a motherboard. But having a product means nothing if you can't sell it. So Jobs pitches until a local store orders 50 units at $500. But they have no money to manufacture them. So they get creative, buying parts with credit and building them in their garage. And ta-da! They come up with all 50 units. But this thing isn't perfect, not even close. So they talk to those 50 customers, iterate quickly, and create the Apple II, one of the first mass-market personal computers. Your startup starts at this same place: what you're passionate about, what you can be exceptional at, and what people will actually pay you for. You want to be right here, the sweet spot.