Why Startups Should Generate Absolutely Crazy Ideas Every Single Day

Great products don’t happen by accident, but sometimes they start with a joke.

One night back in 2010, at a startup awards dinner, I was seated with a few of my peers, and I joked that the only time I’d had a beer in my hand lately was at a startup event — so I should start my own startup event, just to have an excuse to drink more often. It wouldn’t have any agenda, just entrepreneurs and beer.

A woman across the table, whom I did not know, told me that she knew I was joking, but it sounded like a good idea, and she had just moved her company into an awesome space that had an event room. By the end of the dinner, everyone around the table was pushing me to follow through on my joke.

I had to admit there was some merit to this crazy idea. Having grown up in New York and having spent a bunch of time in the Valley, I knew that half the problem with our fledgling startup ecosystem was that it wasn’t being run by entrepreneurs, as it had been in those other places.

What if I could sort of… provoke a solution… starting with entrepreneurs just coming together and having a few beers.

The result, ExitEvent, developed quickly after that, and it became wildly successful before being acquired three years later. But in the end, ExitEvent’s…