How to find ideas for your next app | Starter Story

"Once you get into the groove and start building something, you will naturally get a ton of other great cool ideas for later projects." That's the core insight from this Starter Story episode, and it flips the conventional wisdom on its head. Most aspiring app builders wait for the perfect idea before they start building. The guest's approach is the reverse: start building anything, and the ideas will follow.

The mechanism: building generates ideas, not the other way around

The guest's process rests on a psychological mechanism that many founders overlook. When you are not actively building, your brain operates in a passive, evaluative mode. You judge ideas from the outside, looking for reasons they might fail. But when you are already in the habit of building, your brain shifts into a generative, problem-solving mode. You start noticing gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities because you are already engaged with the act of creation.

This is not about random action for its own sake. The guest emphasizes that the initial project does not need to be a home run. It just needs to get you into the "groove" — a state of flow where building feels natural and where your mind starts connecting dots it would not otherwise connect. The first app is a warm-up, not the main event.

Validation through self-use