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Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

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11–20 of 108 posts

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#11
post #5

maybe you're discounting the importance of luck... somehow society just decides your thing is cool. like when there's 5 equal products and one is successful for no particular reason. i always think about how weird bars are. you can 2 equal bars but 1 is packed every night... even with zero distinguishing differences. society just says 'oh that bar usually has people, let's go there'. the problem may not be the produc…

Luck is certainly an element in everything, but we need to be careful to not let the existence of luck blind us to all of the elements that actually are under our control.

For example: you can't, really, have two equal bars. They are going to be in two different locations, and one of those locations is likely better (even if only slightly) than the other. This can be enough of a difference to create a critical mass of people to get the "Cool, this bar is always hopping" effect.

"Zero distinguishing differences" usually just means you haven't analyzed deeply enough.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#13
We had someone talking about a similar situation a few days ago. Being able to produce a product is nice but it won't sell itself by merely existing. "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" If you release a product and no one knows will anyone buy it?

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#14
"I've been in the "build->launch->move to next project" loop for some time."

You seemed to have missed the "guilt everyone you know into using your product" phase. I've met very few startup founders that didn't fight tooth-and-nail for every single early user. You have to do whatever it takes to get those users on board. It won't be scalable, but you can worry about scaling user acquisition later, after you've gotten some feedback.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#15
Those specific users may be gone forever. But there are always more users, and there are always more markets. Don't worry too much about it. And I wouldn't worry about your visual design skills either. As you pointed out, the internet is littered with ugly but successful sites.

I do, however, recommend that you worry about that pesky "i didn't understand which problem you are solving" issue.

My advice would be to shut down your computer and talk to your friends and family. Go to dinner. Tag along with them in the grocery store. Even better... do something with them that you enjoy. And then listen to what's going on in their lives. What challenges are they facing? What challenges are you facing?

Start making a list of these things. You don't even have to write them down, but make mental notes of the things people struggle with. Every time you come across a challenge, think "could a computer help with this problem?" If the answer is yes, then think "how hard would it be to engineer?" If the answer is "not too hard for me to knock out a prototype in a week or two" then add this to another list in your head: promising ideas.

You'll need a lot of them. I have a list of about a hundred products that I think I could build in a week that solve a problem that I or someone I know cares about.

With that list, start thinking about the ideas in more detail. Think about some of the implementation details in your head. Maybe spend a few hours starting to implement some of the trickier parts of them to get a sense of how har they'd really be. Think about how you could make money off of them.

Notice which ideas keep popping into your head. Notice which ideas make you excited when you think about how they would feel to have built. Notice which ideas come up over and over.

You need to be doing this all the time.

Start telling people about your more promising ideas. Pitch to your friends, your family, your coworkers, strangers you meet at parties. Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. Any feedback you get at this stage is worth much more than the risk of losing an idea you have barely invested in. There's always another, better idea down the road.

Notice the difference between mild enthusiasm and genuine enthusiasm. "That sounds great!" doesn't mean much. "I need that! You should build that!" means a lot more. "I told my friend about your idea and they want it too!" means the most. If you find an idea that is already spreading before you've even built the site, that's a good sign.

Once you start to have ideas that a) solve a problem several people care about, b) are something you can implement, c) seem like they could make some money, d) excite and spread through your friends, and d) keep coming back into your head, that's when you should start implementing them more seriously. Write a 1-2 week minimum viable product.

I really think that if you do this kind of exploration process, you'll have a much stronger footing to stand on with your products. It's much faster to play with the idea in this way than it is to make a prototype, and you need to evaluate hundreds or thousands of ideas before you find a good one, so stick to this kind of fast evaluation process. Save prototyping for ideas that have already been vetted.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#16
post #2

My projects are mostly based on features that are missing or misimplemented in the existing products. This is your first problem. First, features do not sell software . If there were a Ten Commandments of customer acquisition in the Internet age that would be #2 right after "Google is your god, you shall have no others." People use software and use websites because of the benefit that you credibly propose to bring to…

Good comment, but what makes you believe StackOverflow is "incredibly more complicated" than Facebook?

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#17
If your users are telling you that they can't see what problem you're solving it's very probable that you really aren't solving any of the problems you think they have. Also you probably also underestimate the need for goodlooking visuals and good usability. This things are paramount if you want to get some sort of traction. Why not include someone with design sensibilities on this projects of yours?

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#18
post #10

I built http://isshort.com because I wanted to promote healthy link shortening, and created an API so that Twitter clients can use it. I promoted it on reddit, HN, techstartu.ps, Quora (in response to a question) and by emailing the people who were an inspiration for it (simon wilson, the people responsible for rev=canonical and rel=shortlink). I've been completely unable to gain traction for isshort.com, with 43 vis…

People complain about link shortening on sites like HN, then turn around and use bit.ly because it's easy, just works, and gives cool real-time analytics. You're solving a problem people _say_ they have, not that they _actually_ have.

Healthy link shortening is a 'nice to have', not something most folks will go out of their way to us.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#20
post #10

I built http://isshort.com because I wanted to promote healthy link shortening, and created an API so that Twitter clients can use it. I promoted it on reddit, HN, techstartu.ps, Quora (in response to a question) and by emailing the people who were an inspiration for it (simon wilson, the people responsible for rev=canonical and rel=shortlink). I've been completely unable to gain traction for isshort.com, with 43 vis…

Either the people that would be interested in it haven't heard about it yet (and you need to promote more), or it's just not interesting to almost anyone (and you should just give up).
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