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Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

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Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#451

Post by babaganoosh89 »

Jean-Philipe wrote: post #447
nnq wrote: post #439

STOP. Just go work for someone else, please! Pretty please! Find someone with vision, and work for/with him/her instead. Or merge as equal partners. You sound like really competent people, but working under people without their own vision and without their own ideas is a wrist slashing inducing experience... The people with the ideas/vision should be in charge, not ever the other way around! If you're execution peopl…

I so disagree. I've met so many "people with vision" who were far off with reality and ultimately failed miserably. Most successful startups I know, including my own, have pivoted - i.e. they had the wrong vision to begin with and figured out something else along the way. The team was what made them succeed.

Usually you want someone who’s also a domain expert and knows the market inside and out. More than just a vision that hasn’t been market tested.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#452

Post by logicallee »

Let me put this into financial terms.

Currently your team is 'fundamentally' worthless (in market terms it can be quite valuable). Despite being well-funded, it has no market in which it can make money. The investors who are putting a dollar value on it are mistaken, because its fundamental value is $0. (There is a mismatch between its valuation and its fundamental value.) The investors are idiots. (By comparison, they probably wouldn't invest in many very valuable startups at the seed stage, again, because they're idiots.)

Well all right, you can get blank checks. Now you just need to add some value to the business. So you're writing a check of your own. You're writing this check:

https://imgur.com/a/QnTgb

And, ideally, will use it to pay for $1 billion in value: the new amount your team will be worth.

The thing is, you can't really get anyone to take your check. "I Just want to pay $0 and get $1 billion in value. Why is this so hard?"

Put in these terms, can you think of any reasons it might be hard?

(The actual reason is that the market misprices ideas, and although the market prices them at $0, you cannot buy them for zero: the market does not 'clear'.)

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#454

Post by reacweb »

I have one idea that I will probably never have time to do (I have 3 childs and a fulltime job). It is an app to manage fuel consumption. The idea is that some people use a notebook to write each time they buy fuel (I did until I bought a Nissan Leaf). If the application is as handy as a notebook (maybe a simple picture of the gaz pump would be enough to fill in the data), some people will use it and you will start to collect the price and location of all gas stations. Once you have enough data, you can provide additional service to find the best gas station taking into account your position, current destination, remaining fuel, ... Gas stations may want to pay you some advertising, ... The application may grow further to take into account maintenance of the car. Maybe it is a silly idea, but if you build it, I would use it (for my second car).

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#456

Post by reacweb »

reacweb wrote: post #454

I have one idea that I will probably never have time to do (I have 3 childs and a fulltime job). It is an app to manage fuel consumption. The idea is that some people use a notebook to write each time they buy fuel (I did until I bought a Nissan Leaf). If the application is as handy as a notebook (maybe a simple picture of the gaz pump would be enough to fill in the data), some people will use it and you will start t…

It seems some other people had the idea http://appcrawlr.com/android-apps/best-apps-fuel-tracking. A couple of years ago (when I had the idea), there was nothing barely usable.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#457

Post by reacweb »

reacweb wrote: post #456
reacweb wrote: post #454

I have one idea that I will probably never have time to do (I have 3 childs and a fulltime job). It is an app to manage fuel consumption. The idea is that some people use a notebook to write each time they buy fuel (I did until I bought a Nissan Leaf). If the application is as handy as a notebook (maybe a simple picture of the gaz pump would be enough to fill in the data), some people will use it and you will start t…

It seems some other people had the idea http://appcrawlr.com/android-apps/best-apps-fuel-tracking . A couple of years ago (when I had the idea), there was nothing barely usable.

After looking at the screendumps of current apps, it seems they still are awful. IMHO, a good UX is to have one click to take the picture of the pump, then you can check the fields. The mileage field is automatically filled using your average consumption, you just need to fix the last digits if you want, then press OK. It should work fine even offline and synchronize latter.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#459

Post by TrickyRick »

babaganoosh89 wrote: post #451
Jean-Philipe wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I so disagree. I've met so many "people with vision" who were far off with reality and ultimately failed miserably. Most successful startups I know, including my own, have pivoted - i.e. they had the wrong vision to begin with and figured out something else along the way. The team was what made them succeed.

Usually you want someone who’s also a domain expert and knows the market inside and out. More than just a vision that hasn’t been market tested.

So a domain expert with vision. What would he need this team for apart from maybe their money, which out of the three is probably the easiest to acquire?
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