Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#11

Post by malbiniak » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:10 PM UTC

GO FOR IT!

1. Plans are for investors, to keep teams on track, or documenting wild guesses. You're not taking on investors, you're flying solo, and you don't need to document your guesses (yet).

2. Founders are great for analog load balancing and as a support system. If your wife is supportive, keep moving. If she's not supportive enough, start a local HN meetup or tap into other existing groups.

3. I can only imagine trying to budget with 4 kids that $200/mo might be hard to come by. Plead your case on kickstarter, and be sure to tell HN.

In conclusion, GO FOR IT!

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#12

Post by ErrantX » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:19 PM UTC

captaincrunch wrote: post #8

ErrantX wrote: post #7

Here is your answer: I am near completion of a project that I think will do well, fixes a problem I have had as a developer several times If you've worked on the project at least give it a shot! I'm guessing this is that little slump of confidence just before completion; don't let it put you off. I've been there a few times and if you power through you'll start to reach a real high which peaks on "launch day" There i…

Well, it would cost me about $200.00 a month for dedicated hosting, I've looked into VPS/Shared and even non VPS/Dedicated, but found that for the quality of service I need to provide, as well the space requirements, and memory requirements are a lot higher than a VPS would provide. On top of that, I want to do a couple advertisement campaigns on Google, as what I am providing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of adwor…

That amount of funding should not be hard to come by. Several people on HN, in fact, fund projects of that sort of size ((my gut instinct is you could probably get by on cloud hosting that is a lot cheaper - and which scales with demand - at least initially; but you know your product)

The key takeaway: none of these are unsolvable problems. Startups have come to the market on shakier grounds and succeed.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#13

Post by petervandijck » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:21 PM UTC

captaincrunch wrote: post #8

ErrantX wrote: post #7

Here is your answer: I am near completion of a project that I think will do well, fixes a problem I have had as a developer several times If you've worked on the project at least give it a shot! I'm guessing this is that little slump of confidence just before completion; don't let it put you off. I've been there a few times and if you power through you'll start to reach a real high which peaks on "launch day" There i…

Well, it would cost me about $200.00 a month for dedicated hosting, I've looked into VPS/Shared and even non VPS/Dedicated, but found that for the quality of service I need to provide, as well the space requirements, and memory requirements are a lot higher than a VPS would provide. On top of that, I want to do a couple advertisement campaigns on Google, as what I am providing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of adwor…

You may be overestimating hosting cost. Go with AWS, 75$/month dedicated server.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#14

Post by petervandijck » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:23 PM UTC

Do a limited (closed) beta, and test your hypothesis, which at this point currently goes something like: "This will be useful for other programmers and they would pay for it." So get some other programmers, privately, ask them to use it. See if they will. If nobody uses it, not even free, it's not useful. Once you have 5 people using it, invite more people and ask them to pay 10$/month. If nobody wants to pay for it, look harder, invite more people. If you do find some people, NOW you've got something.

Now finish and polish the product and release.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#15

Post by patio11 » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:24 PM UTC

What would you change about your business if you had those things? Specifically. Release, then figure how to get those minigoals under your constraints.

If the answer is just "Execute", well, go execute then.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#16

Post by japherwocky » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:48 PM UTC

captaincrunch wrote: post #8

ErrantX wrote: post #7

Here is your answer: I am near completion of a project that I think will do well, fixes a problem I have had as a developer several times If you've worked on the project at least give it a shot! I'm guessing this is that little slump of confidence just before completion; don't let it put you off. I've been there a few times and if you power through you'll start to reach a real high which peaks on "launch day" There i…

Well, it would cost me about $200.00 a month for dedicated hosting, I've looked into VPS/Shared and even non VPS/Dedicated, but found that for the quality of service I need to provide, as well the space requirements, and memory requirements are a lot higher than a VPS would provide. On top of that, I want to do a couple advertisement campaigns on Google, as what I am providing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of adwor…

There's a difference between what you want and what you need. Launch softly on a VPS, and hold off on the adwords for a bit.

I'm very skeptical that you need a piece of hardware; VPS' can be ordered up to almost any spec, nowadays.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#17

Post by k0ban » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 2:51 PM UTC

there are always two sides of the story. You spent a lot of time on that, this is your idea and your fifth kid. So you are scared that it will be stolen away from you.

However one you will pass this fear, and slowly show it to the world, you will face another kind of problem - how to promote your solution and do a PR noise. So you will spend enormous time promoting, publishing talking about the product.

You have nothing to loose.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#18

Post by guiseppecalzone » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 3:10 PM UTC

captaincrunch wrote: post #8

ErrantX wrote: post #7

Here is your answer: I am near completion of a project that I think will do well, fixes a problem I have had as a developer several times If you've worked on the project at least give it a shot! I'm guessing this is that little slump of confidence just before completion; don't let it put you off. I've been there a few times and if you power through you'll start to reach a real high which peaks on "launch day" There i…

Well, it would cost me about $200.00 a month for dedicated hosting, I've looked into VPS/Shared and even non VPS/Dedicated, but found that for the quality of service I need to provide, as well the space requirements, and memory requirements are a lot higher than a VPS would provide. On top of that, I want to do a couple advertisement campaigns on Google, as what I am providing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of adwor…

Have you looked at Rackspace.com? It costs $11 a month for a cloud linux server: http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/servers

Then, as your customers grow, you can crank up the specs (and cost) of your server. It also comes with root access, which is one of the main reasons people need a dedicated box.

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#19

Post by adrianscott » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 3:23 PM UTC

you are only doomed if you don't release it.

go for it.

you can get a dedicated server via amazon ec2 for less than $200/month to get started.

go for it!

Re: Ask HN: no co-founder, no business plan, no funding?

#20

Post by AmberShah » Thu, Jun 03, 2010, 3:28 PM UTC

captaincrunch wrote: post #8

ErrantX wrote: post #7

Here is your answer: I am near completion of a project that I think will do well, fixes a problem I have had as a developer several times If you've worked on the project at least give it a shot! I'm guessing this is that little slump of confidence just before completion; don't let it put you off. I've been there a few times and if you power through you'll start to reach a real high which peaks on "launch day" There i…

Well, it would cost me about $200.00 a month for dedicated hosting, I've looked into VPS/Shared and even non VPS/Dedicated, but found that for the quality of service I need to provide, as well the space requirements, and memory requirements are a lot higher than a VPS would provide. On top of that, I want to do a couple advertisement campaigns on Google, as what I am providing surprisingly doesn't have a lot of adwor…

Release but spend your money only on a A VPS may not support very many customers, but you can always migrate once you have a few and some money to help offset the cost.

As for Adwords, that's a whole different can of worms. I've heard stories of people throwing thousands of dollars down the drain, either because their idea wasn't validated or because they their site wasn't optimized for conversions or they didn't know how to select the right keywords, etc. There are lots of ways to do free advertising and let you hone your product and marketing message BEFORE you spend a time on paid traffic.

I recommend listening to the "Startups for the Rest of Us" podcast (all of the episodes).