The sort of startup that makes money the fastest is not a startup, it's a clone. Unless you have a brilliant idea and solve a hard technical problem, your best bet is to copy a business that you know is successful and has few competitors. Startups are for dreamers who aim at a billion dollars, clones are for realists who aim at a million. Every day this becomes more true because the number of startup ideas with big potential decreases over time. Distribution is getting harder because noise is getting louder, and the low-lying fruit is already being harvested. Not that you were really aiming for a startup anyway, affiliate marketing and solving business needs for people you know are in clone not startup space. Every warm blooded mammal at a keyboard wants to make passive income, be the one who does market research.