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Ask HN: An online 'doers' community for bootstrapping developers?

60 points by andreyvit ↗ HN
1. I'm a sole bootstrapping startup developer in Novosibirsk, Russia. (LiveReload app, if you heard of it.)

2. I want to virtually hang out with other folks busy building a product business on their own.

3. The goal would be to cross-boost motivation, share tiny successes, get feedback etc (NOT idle sharing of opinions), and generally to get more of a ‘team feeling’.

Anyone knows a place or interested in starting one?

UPDATE: I've created https://plus.google.com/events/c40a48hviivngqaj3r6a3k4jhug; please hop in if interested!

40 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] thread
mephju
I know that there is(or was) a place like you described for book authors on Google hangout. They would just meet in a room and not really have a conversation but only be present. The goal was to get a motivational boost by seeing other people working and doing the stuff you should be doing too, which in that case would be writing. I imagine it could work for some people. So I say try to find something on Google hangout. And when you have found something tell me about it :)
andreyvit
Couldn't find anything so far, although a Google Hangout does sound like something that might work.
pdenya
I don't have firsthand experience with this but it's similar to what you're looking for: http://www.micropreneur.com/
andreyvit
Not sure; I'm looking for peers, and these guys seem to be offering information and training.
matt1
The Micropreneur Academy also has an active forum where current members can ask and answer questions, share their products, update each other on their successes and lessons learned, etc.

It's a great place to start if you're a developer looking to build a small software business (I was a member for a few months and highly recommend it).

sbashyal
IRC channel startups currently serves this purpose.
andreyvit
Thanks. The channel has a frightening number of members, though; I would imagine this kind of activity would require splitting up into much smaller groups.
nagnatron
A lot of people are just idling and the "active" group is really rather small.
kanzure
> IRC channel #startups currently serves this purpose.

For those unfamiliar with IRC:

http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23startups

or pick up an actual IRC client:

http://irssi.org/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chatzilla/

http://codeux.com/textual/

The server is "irc.freenode.net".

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kbouw
Any other startup related irc channels you can recommend?
zalew
> For those unfamiliar with IRC

a tech savvy community where there are people not knowing what irc is - I'm damn old...

eduardordm
I just stopped there to have a conversation. I'm never going there again.

eduardordm: 20mi to spend in a 18 month period

seanstickle: If anyone wants to help me out and give me $20MM, that'd be swell

eduardordm: seanstickle: have you ever asked?

seanstickle: eduardordm: asked what?

eduardordm: seanstickle: 20mm from someone

seanstickle: eduardordm: nope.

seanstickle: eduardordm: because I'm mostly not a dipshit.

davesmylie
Check out - startupguild.net. This is group of developers (initially) from hacker news doing pretty much what you're after.

In practise it hasn't really worked out for me, but may just be the thing for you.

andreyvit
Thanks. Applied, will see if it works for me.

UPDATE: Now I'm in, and I can see why it didn't work out for you. I think the activity I'm looking for requires splitting up into small groups (about 10 people?); the Startup Guild is too impersonal, even though it's nice to be able to share Yammer with like-minded people.

jbigelow76
Andrey, I'm in the same boat as you. Haven't found much that clicked with me yet but I'd be interested in building something from the ground up. Feel free to drop a me an email (my username @gmail.com)
StavrosK
I was looking for just that a few weeks ago. I joined nReduce in the hopes that it would be like that, but it's much less personal. I was thinking that joiners would split up in groups of around 10 companies and help each other out, and become intimately familiar with each other's progress and achievements.

I'd be very interested in starting something like this, if you like. We only need 8 other people, it shouldn't be that hard.

coopdog
I feel like NReduce is the right answer, coincidental that it starts in a few days..
pirer
I'm in for this batch, thanks for the reminder :)
andreyvit
Applying to nReduce (thanks), but it seems to solve a slightly different problem.
vineet
NReduce is definitely cool, but I would love a more lightweight version of it.

(I don't mind videos chats, but I creating videos updates that are accessible to everyone, would mean me focusing too much on the message as opposed to driving progress).

davidw
Not sure he wants it publicized, but it's not getting much traction, so what the hell:

http://ufounders.com/

andreyvit
I'm sorry if it's a dumb question, but… what's that? The web site looks like a HN clone, although I'm sure I didn't get it.
davidw
It's an online 'doers' community for bootstrapping developers, in its early stages.
mathrawka
Check out http://geekli.st/ it is a community for developers and you can post what you are working on and your accomplishments.
andreyvit
I think I have signed up there before, but I guess I need something more interactive and personal.
mathrawka
Alright, sounds like IRC chat would be best... of course it depends who else you are chatting with, but I'd give that a try!
TamDenholm
I used to run a small web dev IRC chatroom back in the day and was recently considering getting it up and running again. If anyone is interested in hanging out and helping me build the small community again, get in touch, contact@[MyHNUsername].com
jnar
Hi Andrey, nice question. I'd honestly go for an IRC channel, i'm not really sure if anything like this exists, freenode should help in this direction. Anyway, i just added you on google+. I've spent over a year in Russia so far (NSK, Tomsk and Magadan) and i loved it :) And i'm also a startup guy. We can definetely get in touch. PS: I knew LiveReload and loved it!
SirPalmerston
Andrey,

I'm in the same boat - I'm trying to work on a startup but I need advice and motivation from peers who I can talk to in an environment which isn't impersonal.

I have to agree that an IRC channel would be awesome (#startups simply doesn't work for me).

I've jumped into the "Solo Startup Doers" event you created.

P.S. I do know of your app.

luigi
There's Sole Flounder, run by Maciej of Pinboard:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/sole-flo...

Not much activity though.

thaumaturgy
> Not much activity though.

    Sole Flounder
    You must be signed in and a member of this group to view and participate in it.
Nothing says "I don't want any activity here" quite like a polite "fuck off".
dchuk
could be behind a login-wall to protect the content that the members are sharing from all public eyes, pretty common when it comes to business discussion sites
luigi
There's also the Bootstrapper Guild:

http://bootstrapperguild.com/faq/

andreyvit
Looks like more of a how-to-start-a-business coaching. I think that's different; I'm looking for a day-to-day ‘companionship’ rather than coaching.
bemmu
I really hope this could work.

However I have a growing suspicion that generally nobody really cares (not as much as you do, anyway) about you and your stuff, unless perhaps you have great writing skills and are willing to pre-chew your random learnings into lessons that might interest and apply to the reader too (patio11) or make it engaging in other ways (notch).

This is just the lonely path we chose as solo founders. Really true interest in the raw daily challenges of your project can only be had if those people are working on it and have a stake in it.