Your idea doesn't need to be novel in order to develop yourself further as a developer. Do the flickr mashup if you want the experience. A "Startup Idea" invo

Your idea doesn't need to be novel in order to develop yourself further as a developer. Do the flickr mashup if you want the experience. A "Startup Idea" involves not just a feature, but something that is compelling enough to be a business. You should be in a position where you have more ideas than you can possibly do (this is my position- I get a new business idea every day, at least and a good one every week.) So, I may not be able to relate to not being able to come up with ideas, but I would suggest if you're having trouble to think about the things that you see online and in the world, where there are problems, or inefficiencies that you can improve on. Great ideas are ones where it is a no-brainer to your customers and where what you're supplying them can be supplied at a very low cost relative to the value they are willing to pay for. Do try to look for things that are worth paying for- this sets the bar high enough, and means that you have something that can grow by itself without outside investment. IF you do get outside investment, a profitable business, is going to get better terms than one that bears higher risk. Possibly more experience with engineering will help because it will help you identify areas where software can make peoples lives better..... But do read a lot. Read entrepreneur books and blogs and understand that it will take awhile before you find the right idea and that it will take a lot of thinking about the possibilities of various ideas to understand what makes a good business for you to do. (Every entrepreneur is different and so their businesses will be different...find one that plays to your unique makeup.)