Let me humbly offer my advice, based on my last 10 years in startups (with 2 years interruption working for big G): 1. Figure out what kind of company you want

Let me humbly offer my advice, based on my last 10 years in startups (with 2 years interruption working for big G): 1. Figure out what kind of company you want to build and which spaces you feel most comfortable with. B2C or B2B? Software? Saas? Hardware? Services? How long would you like to be involved? 2 years? 5 years? 15 years? Any different combination will require a different approach. Find alignment on these points with your co-founders early. 2. Align yourself with larger tech trends and figure out which ones you actually believe in. As a reader of HN (or your favorite tech blogs) you should have a good idea about the trends and hypes du jour. Pay special attention to where BigTechCo is allocating resources. Proper alignment with a larger trend (+ the right timing) is a major success factor in startups (but way too often gets lost in the discussion noise). 3. Figure out if there's an area within a general trend you believe in where you can get one step ahead of everybody else (e.g. because of skills/expertise/connections of team members). 4. Within that area, start talking to people. 5. If that sequence doesn't yield any good results, start over. Only commit to an idea if everyone has a great gut feeling about it. If your gut tells you no then don't do it. Happy to talk more.