Overarching product idea? So it's not an idea unless it's overarching? They've had plenty of ideas. Not all the ideas panned out. It's not like they stumbled, fell on a keyboard, and out popped Windows 95.
It's still a counterexample to all the startups that had one big unifying vision from the outset. Obviously you need some idea before you start making a product, that much is a tautology, but it's equally clear that Microsoft more or less winged it from there.
I didn't see the GP ask about a big, unifying vision. He was asking about ideas.
> Obviously you need some idea before you start making a product
That's not the discussion though.
>> The idea for a company is an artificial barrier to becoming an entrepreneur
> Oh really? How many successful entrepreneurs have you heard of without ideas, just totally empty heads and whole bunch of hustle?
Can you be an entrepreneur without an idea? Obviously not.
And even Microsoft had an idea for a product (starting with the BASIC interpreter for the Altair). That was, after all, where it all started.
