You're very close. I agree with "Skip"[1] the rest.
However, don't bother with a team or co-founders. Just build an experiment yourself. Then use that experiment to find a co-founder if you don't have one.
I think co-founders should be people you've known for a long time, a decade or more (if you're 20 and haven't known anyone that long, then consider working for awhile and building out a network until you have someone you know well and trust and have known for 5 years.)
If you can't build the experiment yourself then you're not ready to lead a company in the space of the experiment (managers should know how to do their subordinats jobs).... so if you're an idea guy, figure out how to program. Do your experiment ins super simple code or easy to use tools, a real engineer can do it right later if the experiment succeeds.
And above all, don't build a company first. There is an unending list of chores that are involved there. All the time you see advice like "get a lawyer" and "get an accountant". You don't need an accountant when you have nothing to account.
[1] You actually say "build a team and skill the rest", but I'm pretty sure you mean "skip".
Exactly. My first few projects I bought domains and set up google apps for those domains, paid to have logos done, etc. After 3 or 4 failed experiments on different domains I realized how much time I was wasting setting up all this stuff when I should have just started building first.
Although, a component of why I did that was because I had big dreams. I wanted to "play startup" because I didn't actually have any clue how to build one. The obvious thing that you see about every company is their public website and their logo, so it makes sense to start mimicking that first.
The irony is that once you start to understand how to actually build a company you often end up picking a name and incorporating as the LAST thing. In fact, you try to avoid it for as long as you reasonably can because it makes you lose your focus on just simply building an excellent product.
Funnily enough I am completely the opposite way round.
I always wanted to start writing the code first, but then started realising that was a waste of time if there was no-one to sell it to.
So now I always start with trying to find customers, via a simple sign-up page or similar, before I even think about writing code.
Not saying that either approach is right, but interesting that we've come at it from opposite angles, and both ended up changing our opinions completely!
I come from this path too. I've usually found that writing code is too easy. Confronting the potential customers is harder to do and I believe the hard part of the business.
IMHO
It probably depends on what exactly the idea is, but yeah I think what you are saying has a lot of value. I never made a sign up page. It was like, "I'm going to build the next reddit.com" kind of ideas. I don't think a sign up page would get you anywhere with something like that.
However, don't bother with a team or co-founders. Just build an experiment yourself. Then use that experiment to find a co-founder if you don't have one.
I think co-founders should be people you've known for a long time, a decade or more (if you're 20 and haven't known anyone that long, then consider working for awhile and building out a network until you have someone you know well and trust and have known for 5 years.)
If you can't build the experiment yourself then you're not ready to lead a company in the space of the experiment (managers should know how to do their subordinats jobs).... so if you're an idea guy, figure out how to program. Do your experiment ins super simple code or easy to use tools, a real engineer can do it right later if the experiment succeeds.
And above all, don't build a company first. There is an unending list of chores that are involved there. All the time you see advice like "get a lawyer" and "get an accountant". You don't need an accountant when you have nothing to account.
[1] You actually say "build a team and skill the rest", but I'm pretty sure you mean "skip".