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I also don't have a single user. That wasn't really the point of the exercise (I wanted to try new patterns out since I'm still learning Rails), but it reiterates what others have said - a startup and a website are two separate things.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Michael Jordan. "Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?" -- your title suggests that you've tried, but your words say you haven't. Don't disqualify yourself before you try, because until you try, you really never know
Also, building reusable code is a good way to get future projects done in a weekend!
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Michael Jordan. "Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?" -- your title suggests that you've tried, but your words say you haven't. Don't disqualify yourself before you try, because until you try, you really never know
Not go off topic...but that is actually a Wayne Gretzky quote...not Michael Jordan. Also, building reusable code is a good way to get future projects done in a weekend!
I've been feeling rather inadequate lately because of all the posts about weekend projects. One thing I've had to try to convince myself of is that things always look different from the outside than the inside. The perfect marriage isn't always so perfect. The perfect family is often the most broken.
I'm trying to say that comparing myself to what I PERCEIVE to be the reality of others is a losing proposition. Someone will always be better, quicker, faster. All I can do is try to do what I'm able to do, little by little, day by day.
I bet people look at you and wonder how you do x in y time. Or how you do "x" at all! Your curiosity is not much different. You're looking at something from the outside - and it always appears easier from that perspective.
Keep your spirits up! You'll be fine.
For one thing, you should take phrases like "weekend project" with a grain of salt. People who share their projects on HN know they're facing a tough crowd, and understating their time investment is one way to deflect the inevitable nitpicks. Add to that the typical hacker bravado factor, and you can assume the real figure is well more than whatever you read. That's not to say that anyone is being deliberately dishon…
My comment was caused as I observe an increasing number of these "weekend" or "side-project" messages at HN. For me it looks like the authors are too cautious to stand for their project as something that took all their attention and that still may have mistakes.
What follows is an inflationary trend that most "Show HN" posts are declared as minute-jobs and we lose the open culture of a showroom, where the other mates take your work serious and try to positively criticise it. Not long, and we have sidecars only.
I think it is not important how long one needs for a project shown here. The message transported with the timeline is else "look I'm a genious" or "sorry, all the remaining bugs are from a lack of time".
I have to remark, that I don't think of any particular posts in the last time and I know that I may include projects in my generalization that don't deserve it. This hasn't been my intention. And my original confession to be a bad hacker is still valid!
Those people aren't creating a startup in a weekend, they're creating a web app in the weekend. There's a big difference. Web apps don't need legal structure, a brand identity, customers, revenues, profits, hell they don't even need a name.
I pulled a sheet of paper out of the printer, scribbled down 12-13 ideas, drew some logical relationships, circled groups, labeled the ideas and then spent about 2 months refining and testing the ideas through discussion and research.
At this point we're narrowed down to about 8% of the scope of the original concept, but that 8% is viable, has customer traction (already) and looks likely to earn 1.5-2mm per customer per year.
We expect to spend another week on the pitching to initial customers and try and get closure with our first enterprise customer in the next two weeks. How long it will take to reach the right funding, we don't know. It's enterprise software and we want to grow.
What's different here is that we haven't coded anything. We won't until we have directed feedback from our pilot customers. Oh yeah, and funding. :)