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Ask HN: Strong interest in idea from users...suggestions?

3 points by mapster ↗ HN
I had an idea for a while, and only recently started shopping around the idea to ideal customers. Its an SaaS with monthly subscription. I have ~50 perfect customers asking when it will be available. This is a huge market so these 50 are the tip of the iceberg. There is no way I can learn enough programming in 2-3 months to launch an MVP. What would YOU do in this situation?

15 comments

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feniv
Redefine your MVP to something you CAN build within a month. It probably doesn't need all of the features you envision in your mind. Engage the users you already have and give them the bare basics to get started and let it grow organically over time. Choose languages and frameworks which will let you build this fast and don't worry too much about performance or scalability till later.

Maybe also try to get some help from the community there is already some excitement around your product.

But if you can finance it, hire a programmer.

mapster
A great thought thank you. I will consider this seriously.
Lockyy
Related to the "absolute bare basics" suggestion. Have you considered asking your 50 people what the most important 3 features they want are? From there you can work out exactly what your bare basics service actually is.
mapster
great point. I have the MVP sketched out - being the core functions, with version 2 functions listed separately.
mapster
Regarding hiring a programmer, I take it you mean make some connections thru freelancer dot com?
marcomassaro
email me: marco@masswerks.com

I can provide some insight into creating an MVP and possibly help

sfrechtling
Is there any way you can provide this service yourself (instead of through software) just to test your idea and see what people are demanding?
mapster
genius idea, but I see in this situation it would not be possible since the software with perform indexing of a lot of data sources and require a few algorithms - which haven't been coded.
rachelbythebay
You could tell someone else the idea and see if they'll write some of it. If it starts working, then you can buy it from them.
mapster
That could definitely work, thanks!
varunkho
I can help creating it. Email in profile. We can discuss and I can show you recent mvp created.
mapster
I may just do that. Thank you!
sherm8n
Can you get them to pay for your product now? Ask your customers to pre-pay right now for a few months of service (at a discounted rate).

If you have even 20 customers willing to prepay $49 a month for 6 months of service you'd have $5,880 in your pocket. You just validated your idea and you have money to build the MVP.

Feel free to email me to talk more: http://blog.goodsense.io/contact/

mapster
thank you sherm8n for the great idea!