It's hard to comment without actually knowing the guys idea, and seeing as you're a new account it's hard to say whether you really know what you're talking about either. I've had the displeasure of working with some very negative and arrogant people in the past who failed to see good in any idea that wasn't one of their own. Not saying you're one of those people, just saying.
Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
11–20 of 47 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#12"Your idea sucks."
What kind of a friend are you if you can't tell him/her straight that his idea sucks?
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#13Whenever someone comes to me with a great idea I kindly refer them 4 articles for studying.
Learn HTML, CSS, JS, and Michael Hartls book on Rails.
80% of them will give up when they realize I'm not going to do the work for them. 19% will spend a week on codecadamy before giving up. The final 1% are so motivated that it is no longer relevant what they do in life. They will be successful. Period.
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#14What do you hope to gain by telling him this?
I have much more to lose than gain. I failed in my first startup and spent 2 years and most of my life savings. We're trained in business very similarly (prior to my first startup) so I know how he's thinking about the business model and I see a ton of risks that he just wouldn't realize until he has gone through it on his own.
I want him to leverage everything I've learned, everything I've failed at so he increases his odds of success but want to do it in a constructive and appropriate way not to damage my friendship.
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#15"Hmmm. That's an interesting idea. But how are you going to solve [this gaping problem]?"
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#17It's hard to comment without actually knowing the guys idea, and seeing as you're a new account it's hard to say whether you really know what you're talking about either. I've had the displeasure of working with some very negative and arrogant people in the past who failed to see good in any idea that wasn't one of their own. Not saying you're one of those people, just saying.
Fair enough. I don't know much but you know when you've been through a startup yourself and banged your head against the wall for couple of years on every aspect of starting a business what kind of struggles he will face (that a Harvard business school class will not shed light on).
I am an optimist and want to see good in everything. My problem is he's doing a startup he has no real passion for and doing it because he thinks he can make some quick money after 1 or 2 years... The list of motivation to how he's going to find his starting team (as a non-technical founder) to his expectations on how seed round is actually raised as well as not understanding marketing funnel for his business really hurts his chances... let alone the value proposition being no better than a competitor that is well funded and already dominates in seo, sem.
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#18What do you hope to gain by telling him this?
I have much more to lose than gain. I failed in my first startup and spent 2 years and most of my life savings. We're trained in business very similarly (prior to my first startup) so I know how he's thinking about the business model and I see a ton of risks that he just wouldn't realize until he has gone through it on his own. I want him to leverage everything I've learned, everything I've failed at so he increases…
It sounds like you sort of know how to do it. Don't be negative. Ask questions. Help figure out solutions to hard problems. No one like naysayers who can actually be pretty dangerous. If the idea is truly awful it will be extremely difficult to raise money and recruit.
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#19Tell them only what is good about their idea.
This isn't meant to be a trick either. You should think really hard about what is good, and what works with their idea, and let them know what it is and why. They can use that to iterate and make something better. Many peoples' friends bad ideas end up solid products, but not because they were told what was shit, because they were told what was good and they optimized for it.
Re: Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks
#20Do they really suck? If someone had pitched Instagram, Twitter, or even facebook to me, I would have probably said they suck..