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Ask HN: How much domain expertise do you need to start a startup?

5 points by adamzerner ↗ HN
A good startup idea solves a problem that people have. But a lot of the times you need some sort of domain expertise to solve this problem.

For example, from what I understand there isn't an easy way to "comparison shop" for mutual funds. To see the useful measures of past performance. However, I have no clue how to go about getting this data, and don't really know what are the best measures and what's important etc.

A lot of startups seem to require a good amount of domain expertise. Do all of these founders start off with this domain expertise, or do they learn it along the way? If so, how?

I don't see domain expertise talked about much, but I think that it's important.

8 comments

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olalonde
I've heard of many successful startups where the founders had very little domain knowledge when they started out. I think it's not a problem to learn on the way unless you're tackling a "research level" problem in which case it's difficult to do anything useful without deep domain expertise. I think you'll be fine but it would probably help to read "Mutual Funds For Dummies".
greenyoda
If you don't have domain expertise, how would you know whether the product you want to create solves anyone's problem? How would you know who your competitors will be? How would you know the potential size of the market?

As for comparison shopping for mutual funds, my brokerage (TD Ameritrade) has a mutual fund screening tool that lets you compare mutual funds based on a huge number of different criteria, such as fund composition, return, risk, fees, etc. While there may not be a public web site that provides this information, every brokerage provides similar information to their customers for free, so it's easy for investors to get.

pskittle
"If you don't have domain expertise, how would you know whether the product you want to create solves anyone's problem? How would you know who your competitors will be?"

Most successful founders/ startups solve problems that they themselves have as opposed to having tons of domain experience. The key is to identify your early adopters and understand their needs and provide a unique solution so they'll stick.

greenyoda
Even if you're solving a problem that you have yourself, you need to learn enough about the domain to know whether the problem you have is:

(1) shared by enough other people so that the solution could be sold enough times to be profitable (which also requires knowing whether these people would actually be willing to spend money on your solution). Identifying a small group of early adopters is no guarantee that your product will gain traction beyond that initial group.

(2) not just due to ignorance of an already existing solution (e.g., the original poster may not have known that every online brokerage already provides tools to compare mutual funds, and that his problem has already been solved).

The more you know about your domain, the less of a chance you have of spending a huge amount of effort to develop a product that nobody wants to use. You could argue that even if there's no market for your solution, you've still built something to solve your own problem. But the amount of effort needed to build a tool that solves your specific problem is much less than the effort needed to build and support a tool that others can use easily (how useful to you is the average undocumented project on Github?).

pskittle
"Even if you're solving a problem that you have yourself, you need to learn enough about the domain to know whether the problem you have is"

Yes! you need to know enough to be able to solve it but not necessarily a PhD. Additionally the question was how much domain knowledge you need.Id still say enough to start , the rest can be learnt on the fly.

identifying the early adopters doesn't guarantee that you will have enough traction however it will tell you more about the different problems/needs that could be fulfilled and could help you in identifying revenue sources , possible partnerships etc. Also most of these successful people talk about building something a few people love and focussing on that as opposed to creating a product that everyone will use sparsely

elleferrer
You basically learn along the way. Consider 'domaining' just one piece of a generally large pie. Startups have many pieces to tackle to be successful. You can learn about it or just learn generalities of it, but it's always best to focus on the bigger picture (all of the pieces of your startup). At the end of the day, you have to know how to be a good manager. Because the best solution is to 'hire your weakness'.

These are good strategies to follow: 10 Strategies Quick Learners Use To Pick Up Anything

http://www.businessinsider.com/strategies-quick-learners-use...

hashtag
This is going to sound like a non-answer but honestly it really depends. It can depend on a number of factors but mostly the idea and industry the idea is in. For many ideas, you can probably learn a solid amount along the way, particularly consumer facing ideas. For others, it will generally help significantly if you have domain knowledge coming in.
bobfirestone
I am sure you could find many stories of successful startups where the founders had no domain experience. The reality is they are the exception not the rule. If you don't understand an industries problems you can't solve them.

To address your example there are literally dozens of mutual fund comparison tools. Mutual fund companies are required to publish their fund data in a standard format specifically to make comparison between funds possible.