Ask HN: How to tell your friend his idea sucks

You tell them, as a knowlegable person in industry X in order for your idea for be a success you'll need at least $10 mm in capital in order to provide funding for:

  A $1mm
  B $2mm
  C $500K
  D $6.5mm

It's business he'll understand that you've analyzed and identified the obstacles and put together the budget to overcome these issues, I used to work in mining, many projects that will become successful require funding far in excess of $10mm.

After you say that, if you feel confident in his abilities and like the idea, you may want to become part of the business having demonstrated your ability to consult and manage risk to the business.

PS. His idea doesn't suck, it simply requires an amount of capital that may or may not exceed what he has at his disposal.

by sleeping with his girlfriend, then you don't have to listen to any of his future ideas! Problem solved.

I always respond with "Find the money." That is, find a buyer today for the simplest version.

THOUGH, this did not end well when after many drinks I met a guy who runs (presumably illegal) gambling out of his house and wanted to expand on it with an app to let people place bets on the players. I sent him an email as a record of contacting him with the single line "Find the money." Apparently he was scared shitless for a week before he remembered who I was.

Ask questions that he shouldn't be able to answer well if it's actually a bad idea. If he responds with bad answers, ask follow up questions. Repeat.

Maybe it's not actually a bad idea and his answers will convince of that.

Someone showed me Twitter very early on and I thought it was totally pointless.

Anyway, I'd encourage your friend to put a very minimal product out there and iterate on it, rather than putting a ton of time and resources into it first. That's just good advice for any idea.