When considering ideas, asking “How might it work?” is more interesting and constructive than asking “Why will it fail?”
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Or even better, what might it mutate into? What fabulous thing is this the initial form of? That's usually a question I try to answer the first time I meet a YC startup. I only get an answer half the time, but the answers are sometimes really surprising.
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How often are the founders surprised by your answers to this?
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More often than not. It's very common for people doing new things (generally, not just in startups) not to see the full implications initially. It's arguably a point in your favor if you can't, because it means what you're doing has a lot of potential.
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McLuhan tack
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IIRC there was once a startup that had three completely separate paths to becoming Microsoft-big. (If anyone wonders which path to take in that situation, the answer is to let it choose itself by hill-climbing. It doesn't work to plan ahead too much.)
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The investors in the first (very crude) oil well in the boondocks of PA thought maybe they could sell a little lamp oil, take some market share from the sperm whalers.
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What you think
@LambdaSchool would mutate into and similarly other Moocs like@edXOnline@udacityThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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I would speculate that focusing on the problem and vision rather than your specific current solution opens up doors that otherwise would be missed.
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