"I can think of several heuristics for generating ideas for startups, but most reduce to this: look at something people are trying to do, and figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't suck."

and then go on to give the example of making a better dating site. But what about network effects? That's basically the name of the game with dating sites.

1) Should small startup founders avoid ideas that involve network effects?

2) If not, what sort of heuristic would you propose for a small founder to overcome network effects?

Network effects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect