Will people quit saying that it’s not about the idea but it’s about the team, execution, etc. It’s ALL about the idea!

A million people had the idea for a social network to put MySpace out of business. How many of them executed on it successfully?

I don't think anyone says ideas are worthless. What most people in this industry usually point out, is that the idea is barely the first step. Of course you need a good idea, otherwise it will most likely fail. But a good execution, and the proper team, can take an idea that has been developed a million times, and make it a total success.

Great ideas are seldom obvious. Great teams are. Great ideas may be worth a lot but identifying them is very hard hence it's easier to pick the team.

"I have $2 mil in funding and I can't find good people to execute my idea"- said nobody ever

The whole focus on "team" is bullshit

How long (or hard) is it to come up with an idea? It takes no time at all.

How long (or hard) is it to come up with a team and start trying to execute on that idea? This will take years. It will make you question everything about your idea, yourself, your partners, your market, etc. There will be more ups and downs than anything you've ever experienced in your life. Most people can't handle this stage.

How many ideas ended up exactly where they started out? Zero.

Idea is important.... but team/execution (and stamina!) is what will ultimately determine success/failure.

To op. You seem passionate about ideas are the unicorn to success. The rest matters little. Why don't you out yourself and prove that you came up with the idea and executed to back up your facts. We cannot argue then because you proved everyone wrong. If you are Elon Musk or Steve Jobs let me apologise in advance for my tardiness.

If you talk to legitimate business people, who have gone to war and survived, you'll find that they generate an actionable, implementable business idea that <em>could</em> work at the rate of one a week, pretty much whether they want to or not. More if you can get two or more around a pitcher of beer. The ideas will take about ten years to fully implement. And the idea will invariably change mid stream because it's impossible to account for all the variables.

Ideas are a only worth the paper they are written on

You need to be able to prove that other people will find your idea useful - else - you are in for a life lesson

You cannot do that without a team

If you have a mediocre team - and what you believe is a great idea - you may very well still be in for a big failure

Amazing teams are resilient, inventive, and can pivot with grace when you find out that your initial idea was indeed only worth the paper you wrote it down on...

Fuck that logic. The reason team and execution are worth more than the idea is because there is no such thing as a perfect initial idea. It will evolve overtime and for it to evolve, good team and excellent execution is important. Ideas change all the time. A startup will be formed with an idea but will end up serving a different idea because the good team with proper execution made a better decision. Also, good ideas almost always come from an individual which is then molded by a good team. Give a good team a shitty idea and they will turn it into a gold mine. Well that's just my 2cents, who am i to judge, i'm not even a startup founder yet.

op you are an idiot.

look, google, facebook, twitter, dropbox, linkedin, gmail

these are all obvious ideas everyone had. but these companies executed better to reach success

When idea is new business model, than right idea is crucial.