Ask yourself: "Am I just trying to start a startup for the sake of having a startup?" In my experience (I've bootstrapped some companies, had moderate success,

Ask yourself: "Am I just trying to start a startup for the sake of having a startup?" In my experience (I've bootstrapped some companies, had moderate success, make decent money), good startups and entrepreneurs are born out of simply solving a problem–not from "trying to build a startup". PG and Zuckerberg had this conversation at Startup School in 2012. PG said something to the effect of "I wish more founders were started by the startup" ... that, in my opinion, is the crux of the matter. It is now popular, cool, and noteworthy to be a startup founder. There are more investors, incubators, and boot camps than ever before. Development costs are at an all-time low. Even here in San Luis, I meet so many Cal Poly kids who are in the entrepreneurship program. I worry they'll go from school-to-startup and never live or work in an environment where they can experience real problems that need solving. But none of that matters if you're not solving a problem–usually for yourself. When you do, you find other people have the same problem. If you solve it, they will pay you. It's that simple ... but almost everyone has it backwards now. They have their heart set on being a startup founder, so they compromise on the core principle in order to maintain that image. And they build nothing of value–just another to-do list app or useless startup-serving-startups service.