Ask HN: Do you have a business idea? Why haven't you tried it?
Some books, such as The Lean Startup and The 4-Hour Work Week suggest testing your idea before building it. I've recently built a buy button for testing ideas and I'm interested in how I can expand the service.
Do you have an idea?
Would you be willing to test it?
What's stopping you?
70 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 143 ms ] threadI did some bootstrap work for a client which almost went as far as to have a mini mock ecommerce store which just displayed 0 stock, but you could click the giant button to get a reminder when it's back in stock. Quick and easy idea validation, and if it's validated, you have a nice list of targeted users.
Now, I'm not suggesting this, but I was listening to a story about Atari on a podcast the other day. They got net 60 day terms from their suppliers, built machines, and then sold them a few weeks later. The used their customers money to pay back their suppliers. Risky, for a startup, but an interesting tool they used.
Once you have thousands of ideas, you realize you can't pick just one. Then you realize they all have things in common. Then you notice a trend, general principles that apply to all of these ideas. Ultimately, you find one idea that makes the previous thousand ideas obsolete. You become obsessed with the idea, try to tell everyone about it, try to figure out where to start.
Nobody understands the idea. People actually reject it. They feel threatened. You start having doubts, you start questioning everything. You look for the meaning of life. You challenge axioms.
Ten years later, you're still thinking about this idea every day. Yet, you achieved nothing. Why?
I don't know why.
(I've tried thinking about 'solving my own problems' and such to no avail)
Today I head this idea in a podcast... Listen to people's complaints. Do you hear the same complaint from multiple people? That's probably a good problem to solve.
Here are some idea's from my list; I doubt they will resonate, but maybe they'll get you started.
Simple Stat Recorder - Think Google Analytics (complex) meets the old school web page counter (simple). Omniture and Google have proven there's money here.
Independent Music Site - There was a site called Aimee Street that did this well. Tracks started free and then went up in price as they were purchased. Amazon bought it and shut it down. I miss it.
Search Netflix by Rating - A personal one; I want to search by rating such as NR, R, MA, PG-13, etc. I can't be the only one.
Now, go build something.
Build something. It doesn't have to be perfect. Hell, it doesn't even have to be good. Just get it done. Try it once, maybe you'll be hooked.
I've started to make a prototype of my idea, but it will take some time before I finish it.
I have various ideas, one of which I am actively working on now, but with a full-time job and a young family, my time is rather precious.
Luckily I have a very understanding and supportive partner, who is happy for me to crack on with work in the evenings. Once my primary idea is released, I plan on scaling it up to a true business, rather than a side project. This will mean those other ideas may take a while to come to fruition!
People have been saying this here. I've been involved in a few of these products, and you're right, they do happen.
In my experience it's just tough to run a business. The outsourced product can be great, but it is going to be an MVP. You need to focus on it.
This was 3 months back. I already run a growing fmcg business . It has drained me of time and resources. I cant find time to give it for this project. I am decent in marketing and especially cold calls and walk ins so i am confident to get things done. But existing commitments and ventures are making it hard for starting the project.
I have a ludicrous dream that I can find talented people and give them the ideas and money and let them go off and build something great, but I know the world doesn’t work like this. People would rather work on their own crappy ideas with no money than work on someone else's good idea backed with money.
I'm not bored of it. It pays the bills. I still learn stuff all the time.
Point is, you're right in the sense that you probably want people who have good domain knowledge. However, there's nothing special about technical founders without that.
I'd even say most times their skills at getting an app out quick and fast (and good) are probably not that great, which is important for startups.
i know this is impossible for you to believe.
so in other words, the aspect of 'business' that your particular skill covers is probably about 1-7% of the entire domain.
For all other ideas, I write them down in a journal just for this purpose.
Ideas are cheap, its the execution and focus that takes the effort in my opinion
Add to that - I love building things that solve real problems. As such - for years I allowed myself to become a mini-factory of widgets built upon my ideas. It is a great way to learn new things and keep skills sharp. It often isn't a great way to make money or build a business.
When you have lots of ideas, the skills to start building things around those ideas and you enjoy doing it - it can open you up to a serious problem: all too often you end up with a product that you spent a lot of time on (it might even be a really good product) and you realize you don't have any clue how to take it to market.
Taking products to market is hard. It feels like anything that solves a real problem should take itself to market. It rarely happens that way.
If your goal is to make cool products to learn, build a portfolio, etc. then this doesn't matter. Keep doing it and maybe you get lucky and one of your products takes off on its own.
But if your goal is to start a business - I have learned that it is very productive to spend a lot of time before I build identifying how I will get the product out there.
This isn't said to discourage anyone. It's said to help you know which products to spend your time on.
The exercise is simple - pretend that you just finished your idea and it is now a product on your screen. It's beautiful and has all the awesome features and really works well. What now? If your ideas are limited to "Product Hunt", "AdWords" and "viral" there's a red flag.
When I sit back and think - I realize the many of the ideas I am most capable to take to market (due to my own network, industry, relationship with potential customers, etc.) are often the ideas I'm least excited about. These ideas usually overlap with what I do all day every day so don't seem fresh and exciting to me. They aren't as fun. They feel like work.
To be sure, taking a product to market successfully is absolutely possible. A lot of your engineering skills (repurposed) will help you in this effort to track, measure, analyze and experiment. You'll learn a ton as you do so. Just make sure that through careful consideration you are prepared to give proper respect to the challenge of product distribution, or change your expectations of outcome.
I have also found that not being greedy and secretive helps a lot. Talk openly about your ideas and be willing to bring others into projects if you see they have things to offer that you don't. The participation of others can make a massive difference in the outcome.
I'm very good at identifying needs, in the sense of "here's a fundamental problem, and here's some ways of addressing that problem."
However, I'm not very good at identifying ways of turning that into a profitable enterprise. Often when I think of problems and solutions, it's because others are neglecting something, and aren't even aware of the problem, so there's no motivation to pay for any solutions. That is, you'd be selling something that people don't want because they aren't even aware of the looming problem or risk they have. Later on, sure, when things fall apart, everyone wants the solution I had in mind, but at that point it's obvious and there's too much competition.
My other problem I run into I get too absorbed in my own interests and am not really motivated enough by the profitability of something, even when I know I should be more motivated by it. So here's two ideas, A and B. I'm very interested in A and see it as important, but maybe not so profitable. B is less interesting and maybe less important but more profitable. I subconsciously tend to gravitate toward A, to the thing that I see as interesting and important, but that might not garner a lot of recognition or compensation in the short-term.
I think so far I've been kind of unstrategic about where to go in life, and people have just seen me as smart and valuable enough to have around to solve problems. That's gotten me fairly far, but I've reached a point where maybe I need to be more entrepreneurial.
I've also seen enough things in my life to know that there's a ton of unpredictable social dynamics that go into these ventures, and I'm kind of burned out. Fads, corruption, etc.
What's stopping me? I think it's mostly burnout and disillusionment.
/s
- What's stopping you?
Money. Time.
Or have a partner that is capable of survive without money from some time.
My approximation for a solution is Crowdraising