This Is Where Brilliant Startup Ideas Go To Die

Here’s a story I see repeated a lot with promising startups

Joe Procopio
6 min readNov 16, 2023

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A startup idea isn’t worth anything.

It’s the execution that matters.

But sometimes, the execution isn’t worth anything either.

And that needs to be fixed before it kills a potentially great startup idea.

Look, this isn’t clickbait or tough love. I don’t assume that you’re an idiot, walking around thinking your startup idea is brilliant when it’s really terrible.

I mean, we all do that, right? But most of us eventually figure it out. So let’s go ahead and push through the fact that most startup ideas are indeed terrible.

Seriously, give me like 30 seconds on this. It sets the groundwork for the rest of the post.

Let’s Start At the Top Of the Bad Idea Funnel

Think of the measurement of the potential success of a startup idea as a funnel. At the top of the funnel, I have to ask myself the question: “Is my startup idea terrible?”

If I can answer that question in the negative, I get to move my idea down the funnel. That said, the vast majority of startup ideas are terrible and dead and floating at the top of that…

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Joe Procopio
Joe Procopio

Written by Joe Procopio

I'm a multi-exit, multi-failure entrepreneur. AI pioneer. Technologist. Innovator. Humanist. Write at Inc.com and BuiltIn.com. More about me at joeprocopio.com