Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#1

Post by arjunvpaul » Wed, May 31, 2017, 4:30 AM UTC

I am a non-technical guy who has validated a business model using messengers (WhatsApp and FB messenger) to sell stuff and made over $60K over the last 12 months without writing a single line of code. I now know how all the parts and pieces need to work together.

During the process I have encountered a lot of inefficiencies. If I had a technical co-founder, we would be able to build a web application that could greatly reduce these inefficiencies and scale this up significantly.

How would you guys go about finding such a person? (would be glad to talk to anyone here too). This is in Bangalore, India.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#2

Post by haser_au » Wed, May 31, 2017, 5:20 AM UTC

Looks like you might need to farm out specific problems (e.g. I need a website, built on technology X, that has THESE capabilities). You could just put those specific tasks out to tender on a programmers-for-hire site. Unless you are happy to part with some equity in your company. Here are some links on this topic to help.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tech-co-founder-myth-vijay-ga...

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-find-good-technical-co-founde...

http://web.archive.org/web/20120229131356/http://lederhosenl...

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#3

Post by ajinvw » Wed, May 31, 2017, 5:27 AM UTC

currently we @Nexart solving similar kind of problem. They were selling through Whatsapp. In there case the solution we suggested was better. May be i can suggest you some solution and act on it. you can mail me at ajinvwilson@gmail.com

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#4

Post by arjunvpaul » Wed, May 31, 2017, 5:46 AM UTC

haser_au wrote: post #2

Looks like you might need to farm out specific problems (e.g. I need a website, built on technology X, that has THESE capabilities). You could just put those specific tasks out to tender on a programmers-for-hire site. Unless you are happy to part with some equity in your company. Here are some links on this topic to help. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tech-co-founder-myth-vijay-ga... https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-…

Thanks for the links. Yes, I would happily give away equity to a cofounder who can manage the tech side of things.

I can scale this thing up a few 100K dollars a year the way I am doing this now. But it is excel sheets and 3 computers side by side so I can see product info, customer info etc side by side. Its just ugly. lol. I need some elegance in my life now.

I have settled the "should I really bring-on a technical co-founder" question in my head and hence the post.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#5

Post by wayn3 » Wed, May 31, 2017, 5:56 AM UTC

I'd be interested in taking a look at it. What are your long-term goals?

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#6

Post by doubleplusgood » Wed, May 31, 2017, 6:09 AM UTC

arjunvpaul wrote: post #4

haser_au wrote: post #2

Looks like you might need to farm out specific problems (e.g. I need a website, built on technology X, that has THESE capabilities). You could just put those specific tasks out to tender on a programmers-for-hire site. Unless you are happy to part with some equity in your company. Here are some links on this topic to help. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tech-co-founder-myth-vijay-ga... https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-…

Thanks for the links. Yes, I would happily give away equity to a cofounder who can manage the tech side of things. I can scale this thing up a few 100K dollars a year the way I am doing this now. But it is excel sheets and 3 computers side by side so I can see product info, customer info etc side by side. Its just ugly. lol. I need some elegance in my life now. I have settled the "should I really bring-on a technical…

My wife has a small business similar to yours, and I ended up building a micro CRM for her, complete with scraping (some of our vendors don't offer an Api), reports, invoicing etc.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#7

Post by viach » Wed, May 31, 2017, 6:12 AM UTC

I'm currently writing CRM for Whatsapp and Messendger. Clients list, calendar, products list, messages history. Is it what you are interested in?

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#8

Post by shimon_e » Wed, May 31, 2017, 6:20 AM UTC

Arjun, I am in bangalore. Add you contact details to your profile.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#9

Post by charlesdm » Wed, May 31, 2017, 6:21 AM UTC

doubleplusgood wrote: post #6

arjunvpaul wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the links. Yes, I would happily give away equity to a cofounder who can manage the tech side of things. I can scale this thing up a few 100K dollars a year the way I am doing this now. But it is excel sheets and 3 computers side by side so I can see product info, customer info etc side by side. Its just ugly. lol. I need some elegance in my life now. I have settled the "should I really bring-on a technical…

My wife has a small business similar to yours, and I ended up building a micro CRM for her, complete with scraping (some of our vendors don't offer an Api), reports, invoicing etc.

Curious: what impact did that have on her sales numbers?

Re: Ask HN: How would you take this business to the next level?

#10

Post by arjunvpaul » Wed, May 31, 2017, 6:26 AM UTC

wayn3 wrote: post #5

I'd be interested in taking a look at it. What are your long-term goals?

to teach high school in my hometown. serious.

could you drop me an email arjunvpaul AT gmail ? I can walk you through any details you need and even show you product animations that I have done to communicate what the web app could look like.

For the product - the long term goal is build a significantly automated web application that other small business can use to do commerce via messengers only (no apps, no websites)

For the business - an exit to Facebook.