On getting startup ideas
Doing is better than thinking. Pick a direction, get a customer, iterate.
We tried to take a top down approach to deciding what to build in multiple iterations of our company. Each time we approached starting that way, we ended up finding dead ends.
It's impossible to tell why a company is truly successful from the outside. Their marketing is tailored to a specific problem they are solving for the customer so the marketing is downstream of the problem.
To truly understand a problem, you have to talk to users.
Talking to users means identifying the rough shape of a problem, asking people if they have it, and listening to what they say. They will guide you in solving their problem.
This does not mean a vague "discovery" conversation. Pick a specific problem. Include a short description of the problem in your outreach. Then dive deep in the meeting.
Once you know the shape of the problem, ask them to pay!
If you never test willingness to pay, you will never know if your product is actually useful.