I agree with the statement that startups are like biological organisms evolving in the broth of an economic environment. In @pmarca's words "the market needs to be fulfilled and the market will be fulfilled". Once we move on from this fact (that we can't create startups out of thin air without there being an underlying wave ...without a "why now"), the rest of the actionable advice here will work better for an investor and/or the entrepreneur who views herself more as an investor than say a hacker. Alternative advice is to "live in the future" as PG would say it or to be different as Peter Thiel would imply. What I think this means is to ask yourself how similar what you do for fun/ for projects is to what everyone else is doing[similar --> bad]. How often do you work on that stuff? Do you collaborate with people? I am convinced ideas emerge as a natural consequence of working on ideas at the fringe with interesting people. What is hard is a) working on ideas and b) finding interesting people to work with. Another thing that doesn't help is committing to a company prematurely. Easier said than done, but i think if we as entrepreneurs took it a little less serious...we'd net out with more successful companies.