The talk focus on how start-ups can quickly work out whether their ideas are feasible and we offer 7 tips to do that. This presentation is given during the SPRING Young Entrepreneurs Event and Idea Generation Workshop in Asian Civilizations Museum on 29 March 2010.

1. 7 Tips on Idea
Generation
Bernard Leong
1

2. Tip 1:
Ideas are cheap and don’t get too hung over by them.
2

3. Tip 2:
An idea may not be an invention &
An invention may not be a good business.
3

4. Tip 3:
Break the whole process with a time limit
and be disciplined about time.
4

5. Tip 4:
Generate as many ideas as possible
and forget about constraints first.
5

6. Tip 5:
Select the best 3 ideas from the list and
get the best one by elimination & debate.
6

7. Tip 6:
With the best idea, start imposing constraints by asking the
following questions:
7

8. 5 Simple Questions:
• What is the product/service/idea involving the
industry?
• Who are the paying and non-paying customers?
• How do you market the product?
• How do you charge for the product?
• When do you know that the product fails?
8

9. Tip 7:
Once you have worked that out, test the idea by creating
the prototype and take it to market.
9

10. You will fail if ...
• you keep harping on whether you get the grants.
• you don’t even think about creating a prototype to
test the market.
• you don’t listen to feedback when you let the market
respond to you.
• you should quit and start again if the idea really have
no market traction.
10

11. Lastly ...
the aim of a business is to generate revenues and deliver
customer value.
Execution is key.
11

12. References
• SGEntrepreneurs: http://www.sgentrepreneurs.com
• SPRING: http://www.spring.gov.sg
12