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Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

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Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#21

Post by jamesskarzynski »

cornychonay wrote: post #20

Great idea. I think it'd be a really useful feature to be able to have yes/no data based on specific groups (this could easily be implemented via the URL, e.g. areyouinterested.co/pals-insurance?group=X). This would allow customers to dig deeper into which communities are (more) interested.

This is a great idea! Right now this can be accomplished fairly easily by simply making a landing page for each group that you post in. For example, one of our users has 4 pages, with the slug of each ending with -{{group}}. This way you can collect emails and get vote info based on certain groups like you said.

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#22

Post by amadeuspagel »

solumos wrote: post #12
hansdieter1337 wrote: post #5

How do you prevent people stealing other’s ideas? I feel it’s risky to post your possibly-millions-worth business idea in the Internet.

Similar to how companies rarely fail due to competition, ideas are rarely the sole reason for a company's success. "Stealing" an idea doesn't really happen unless someone else has the means and will to execute it. The idea itself isn't really the hard part of building a company. Otherwise, people would be "selling" ideas, and not businesses[0]! [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

I often see people asking how to think of startup ideas. Why wouldn't those people steal one?

The reason people sell businesses, not ideas, is precisely that it's so easy to steal ideas. So why buy one?

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#23

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

hansdieter1337 wrote: post #5

How do you prevent people stealing other’s ideas? I feel it’s risky to post your possibly-millions-worth business idea in the Internet.

The danger of working on an idea that isn't properly validated is much greater than the danger of having good ideas stolen.

When I was a young environmentalist, I was very concerned with the problem of toilet paper waste.

I wasted hundreds of hours working on a reusable Loofah + Bidet system, it was a product that absolutely nobody wanted.

Are you laughing? Because its not a joke.

Tools like this one could have helped me move on to a better idea, and saved me a lot of time and heartache.

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#24

Post by wtracy »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #22
solumos wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to how companies rarely fail due to competition, ideas are rarely the sole reason for a company's success. "Stealing" an idea doesn't really happen unless someone else has the means and will to execute it. The idea itself isn't really the hard part of building a company. Otherwise, people would be "selling" ideas, and not businesses[0]! [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

I often see people asking how to think of startup ideas. Why wouldn't those people steal one? The reason people sell businesses, not ideas, is precisely that it's so easy to steal ideas. So why buy one?

Here's an idea: Make a pill that cures any viral disease! Don't bother me with questions about how to make it work. I'm an idea guy, not a chemist. Are you interested in the idea or not?

The reason people don't buy ideas is because ideas are worthless without execution. An idea with execution is already a business.

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#26

Post by jamesskarzynski »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #23
hansdieter1337 wrote: post #5

How do you prevent people stealing other’s ideas? I feel it’s risky to post your possibly-millions-worth business idea in the Internet.

The danger of working on an idea that isn't properly validated is much greater than the danger of having good ideas stolen. When I was a young environmentalist, I was very concerned with the problem of toilet paper waste. I wasted hundreds of hours working on a reusable Loofah + Bidet system, it was a product that absolutely nobody wanted. Are you laughing? Because its not a joke. Tools like this one could have helpe…

I'm sorry to hear about that, but it is a really funny product idea looking back on it. Glad you see the value in our product!

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#28

Post by xwdv »

Sorry, but the answer to any business idea presented like this is going to be a hard no, despite however I may actually feel about the idea. Show me a working product with actual time and money and skill invested in it and then I’ll tell you if I’m interested.

The world is quickly becoming polluted with these validation-ware startups that are cowardly looking for ways to push risk onto the consumer, and the consumer is starting to wise up. Pretty soon, any new ideas are going to be met with skepticism and cynicism, even if there is a real product already made. Everyone wants money upfront, no one wants to just build shit and hope for the best anymore. Sometimes they even take your money and deliver nothing; how many people have been burned by kickstarters?

The end result of lean startup methods being practiced at massive scales is that it becomes harder for any startup to be taken seriously and it becomes harder for entrepreneurs to get real validation.

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#29

Post by jamesskarzynski »

xwdv wrote: post #28

Sorry, but the answer to any business idea presented like this is going to be a hard no, despite however I may actually feel about the idea. Show me a working product with actual time and money and skill invested in it and then I’ll tell you if I’m interested. The world is quickly becoming polluted with these validation-ware startups that are cowardly looking for ways to push risk onto the consumer, and the consumer…

Thanks for the input! Sorry you feel that way. I don't think I'd agree with your sentiment. I think it's a bad idea to build a whole product and spend potentially months or years before even knowing if people like your product.

Re: Show HN: A site to help you validate ideas in bulk

#30

Post by xwdv »

jamesskarzynski wrote: post #29
xwdv wrote: post #28

Sorry, but the answer to any business idea presented like this is going to be a hard no, despite however I may actually feel about the idea. Show me a working product with actual time and money and skill invested in it and then I’ll tell you if I’m interested. The world is quickly becoming polluted with these validation-ware startups that are cowardly looking for ways to push risk onto the consumer, and the consumer…

Thanks for the input! Sorry you feel that way. I don't think I'd agree with your sentiment. I think it's a bad idea to build a whole product and spend potentially months or years before even knowing if people like your product.

Bad for the startup that builds the wrong product, but good for the consumer.

Why should the consumer have to constantly suffer through a parade of fake ads for fake startups that don’t really know what consumers want and just want to try a bunch of things and see what shit sticks?

I used to buy stuff from Instagram ads, but now it’s littered with companies putting up ads for a bunch of random Chinese crap they can find on Ali Express and seeing what gets the most orders so they can ship it off to customers and then it turns out to be some piece of shit. Because of that I no longer pay attention to products advertised like that. This is the startup equivalent.

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