Chinese version:

Before the Startup audio

PaulGraham:
Before the startup: http://paulgraham.com/before.html .
Because great ideas tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies.
So how do you turn your mind into the type that startup ideas form in unconsciously?

1. Learn a lot about things that matter, then
2. work on problems that interest you
3. with people you like and respect.

The third part, incidentally, is how you get cofounders at the same time as the idea.

LiuNan，Founder of Miya Baby（A Unicorn Startup)

Liu Nan, founder of Miya Baby, is a graduate of Peking University. After working for about three years, she became a full-time housewife while pregnant.
With nothing to do and feeling bored, she started preparing for the GMAT. While in a QQ group “March Rabbit Mom Group” for expecting mothers with a due date in March, she noticed that mothers in the group were interested in buying foreign brand diapers.
As she was fluent in English, she reached out to the brand and confirmed the authenticity of the product. Liu Nan then started ordering directly from the brand and delivered the products to a warehouse for distribution.
She opened a Taobao store to collect payment and made a profit of 100 RMB for each item sold.
Her Taobao store opened on October 27, 2011 and had a first-day turnover of 170,000 RMB.

In Liu Nan’s case,

• The channel is her QQ group with over 200 people.
• The technology is Liu Nan’s advantage in English and international logistics combined with her Taobao store.
• The service enabled domestic mothers to purchase breast pumps at half the price through online shopping on Taobao.

Looking at this specific example in light of Paul Graham’s article,

1. Liu Nan was bored when she was pregnant and staying at home as a homemaker, so she learned English and took the GMAT.
2. Liu Nan was also a mother who was interested in purchasing a breast pump and paid attention to the brand, product authenticity, and price. She proactively communicated with the American brand in English via email.

As a result, Liu Nan was given the opportunity and the product became the starting point of a unicorn startup company.