I'd pick an idea that doesn't rely on ad revenue. It takes time to build enough traffic to generate a good amount of money.
Build something SMBs need (like QuickBooks but online).
Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#22One of the worst things that "start your own business" books suggest is taking out a loan. A very high percentage of startups fail (really. high percentage!). The last thing you want to do is quit your day job and get a loan. If the startup fails, you will have no income, no money, and a fat debt. Hello bankruptcy! Avoid loans until you find some measure of income/revenue stability. If you absolutely have to go the loan route, fine, just don't quit your day job.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#23I love the bootstrapping instinct of the YC community, but $50K still doesn't give you much runway. I've seen several startups struggle because they tried to bootstrap problems that were too hard.
Here are two suggestions.
First, build something subscription-based that you can finish in about 3 months and 25% of the money. Then support, promote, manage, and improve the site part-time, and get another part-time job. Or sink all your money into initial development, get another job, and manage the site on the side.
Second, build a consulting company instead of a product. A healthy programming/design shop can generate steady paychecks + profits, and you can reinvest the profits in a product. $50K is more than enough to start a consulting company.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#24I wouldn't go for full time. There are 100,000+ of people trying to create sites that generate enough ad revenue to be full time. A very small percentage actually succeed. Try to do it part-time and see where it goes. In my experience this has been the better path. I worked fulltime on an ad supported site for 3 months, plunking 10k into it(and living expenses), and got about $200 in return. Another site, which I bui…
I'd suggest the opposite, actually. Not going full time means that you'll go half-assed on the startup.
Really what I think it does is force you to focus on what's really important. Either way you're always going to feel that there is much more work to be done than you have time for. Having less time will just let you do the core tasks. Then you can see whether or not the core idea gets traction. If it turns out not to be a successful idea(which is most likely) you'll have wasted a lot less time.
A large number of famous startups have started this way--Facebook, Yahoo, Google, craigslist, eBay...
It is incredibly easy on the vast internet to work on things that may be interesting, different, unique, cool, but in the end don't attract a big enough audience to pay the bills and beyond. That's why I think it's dangerous to go full time until you have some site with significant traffic & growth rates.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#25Without leaving your full-time job start developing (part-time) ver 1.0 of one of your idea that has market and can get some revenue (either by ad or subscription etc.). As soon as you start getting revenue you may leave your job and find a loan that has minimum interest rate - on the other side start looking for angel investors to expand your startups. Make sure you do this with minimum debt and maximum chances of revenue starting right away so that just in case if you cant find angel or if your startup doesnt get you the revenue enough to sustain then you're still safe as you can go back to your full time job. Alternatively you can start thinking about increasing your household income by selling stuff on ebay, preparing your other family member to start working (may be part-time), if you have extra space in your house then rent it to earn some money, etc.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#26I highly recommend taking a skim through Seth Godin's "The Bootstrapper's Bible".
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#27I wouldn't go for full time. There are 100,000+ of people trying to create sites that generate enough ad revenue to be full time. A very small percentage actually succeed. Try to do it part-time and see where it goes. In my experience this has been the better path. I worked fulltime on an ad supported site for 3 months, plunking 10k into it(and living expenses), and got about $200 in return. Another site, which I bui…
Care to show the website that generated over $10K in ad revenue?
He didn't put a time line on things, but 10K a year is relatively common. 10K a month is a different matter altogether.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#28Make something of value.
It's as simple as that. People will pay for something that they think is worth their money. When I made www.friendfury.com it went completely viral and made $600 the first 8 hours and about $200 a day for a few months afterwards until we stopped promoting it heavily to focus on other projects.
People paid for our subscriptions because it was worth the money to them to get 500+ friend requests a day on Myspace for whatever reason.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#29I would rethink ad-supported. I cannot see you creating an eCPM greater than you advertising CPM in less than 6 months without an incredible viral model. And a lot of the successful viral apps are looking for revenue outside advertising, because they are not making enough on advertising alone.
Re: Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
#30How averse to raising funding later are you? My advice would be to develop which ever idea you think is best, don't worry about advertising revenue now, and then try to raise funding. Then you'll get a salary to support the fam. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to startups going the self-funded route and pursuing revenue from the get go, but that's almost impossible with ads. If you really don't want to raise mone…
One thing to keep in mind about raising funding: It's often harder to raise funding than actually building a product/company, and much less fun.