How To Get Unique AI Startup Ideas

One of the biggest problems founders (and builders in general) have right now is not "how do I build my MVP?" but instead "what idea should I be building?" It feels like all of the good ideas are taken, and the competition for those ideas is ruthless. In this episode of Dalton + Michael, the two discuss some of the starting conditions for coming up with unique startup ideas, and why it can feel so hard to come up with something that is both: 1) something people want and 2) original. They suggest some tactics you consider trying that are more likely to yield differentiated startup ideas than derivations of whatever The Current Thing is. Dalton + Michael is brought to you by @Standard_Cap Dalton Caldwell on X: https://x.com/daltonc Michael Seibel on X: https://x.com/mwseibel

Dalton CaldwellhostMichael Seibelhost

Mar 16, 202616mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: March 16, 2026
Duration: 16m
Channel: Dalton + Michael
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

One of the biggest problems founders (and builders in general) have right now is not "how do I build my MVP?" but instead "what idea should I be building?" It feels like all of the good ideas are taken, and the competition for those ideas is ruthless. In this episode of Dalton + Michael, the two discuss some of the starting conditions for coming up with unique startup ideas, and why it can feel so hard to come up with something that is both: 1) something people want and 2) original. They suggest some tactics you consider trying that are more likely to yield differentiated startup ideas than derivations of whatever The Current Thing is. Dalton + Michael is brought to you by @Standard_Cap Dalton Caldwell on X: https://x.com/daltonc Michael Seibel on X: https://x.com/mwseibel

SPEAKERS

Dalton Caldwell
host
Startup investor and YC managing director known for advising early-stage founders.
Michael Seibel
host
Startup founder and YC managing director; cofounder of Justin.tv (which became Twitch).

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dalton + Michael, featuring Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel, How To Get Unique AI Startup Ideas explores how to find non-consensus AI startup ideas that actually win They argue that today’s AI tools make building easy, so the real bottleneck is generating genuinely non-derivative ideas rather than copying what’s trending on Twitter or recently funded.

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