In all three of these cases, these folks had the problem, they had experience, and in hindsight, there was an obvious opportunity to make something 10x better. And that's probably the overarching theme. They had to be contrarian. Each of these opportunities turned out to be bigger than the founders even knew when they started.
Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about where the ideas for Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe came from. Then they discuss what you can learn from these founders.
To create Rookies Mistakes we asked YC founders: Is there a simple fact you wish you knew when you started your company or a rookie mistake you wish you could take back?
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