Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

viniciusvacanti.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 30 posts

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#11

Post by robfitz »

joevandyk wrote: post #7

I bet the guys at Twitter are glad they didn't take this advice.

Twitter is a different situation. Their previous biz was regular blogging. They thought higher-engagement audio blogging was the next step. They tried it and discovered it was not. Why? Because it took too much energy to create content.

So they went in the opposite direction, again from the starting point of regular blogging, toward micro blogging (less energy, lower fidelity, whereas audio blogs are higher energy, higher fidelity).

Since it was based on fundamentally different (in fact, opposite) assumptions than the business they had raised money for, they offered all investors their money back and created a new legal entity to keep the paperwork clean.

That is not the same as being distracted by a flashy idea, where you have neither good evidence that your current idea is bad nor concrete evidence that the upcoming idea is an improvement.

The article is also talking about jumping to ideas unrelated to your current focus, which aren't able to leverage what you've already learned and built. Twitter was invented entirely in response to what they learned from their experiment with audio blogging.

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#13

Post by kevt »

People usually "fall in love" with ideas, which is why its so hard to pull away from it. Its hard to be rational and objective when you're in love. This isn't so much of an issue in a relationship (in love with a person) because how you feel is what matters. However, in a startup, what matters is how the customers feel, and that love potion will be your Archilles heel if not treated carefully. I generally try to fall in love with problems before an idea (solution). When the idea comes before the problem, its been disastrous. Customer Development helps, but its still a rough ride.

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#14

Post by AtTheLast »

I discovered notepad really helps me when new ideas sweep me off my feet. I write down my idea and a few key nots about it. That way I don't lose the idea and spend a lot of time thinking about it. If the idea still sounds good after a month or so, then I might spend a few more hours clarifying the idea into a more concrete concept.

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#15

Post by dctoedt »

Charuru wrote: post #10

You don't want to make any absolute statements. Sites like flickr are siren-like ideas that turned out very well. It's always a tough judgement call for when to get distracted. The important thing is to make sure you're pursing this other idea because it's actually something worthwhile not just as an escape from your startup not doing so great... Basically, think about things rationally and not emotionally.

> You don't want to make any absolute statements.

All categorical statements are bad, including this one.

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#16

Post by delano »

AtTheLast wrote: post #14

I discovered notepad really helps me when new ideas sweep me off my feet. I write down my idea and a few key nots about it. That way I don't lose the idea and spend a lot of time thinking about it. If the idea still sounds good after a month or so, then I might spend a few more hours clarifying the idea into a more concrete concept.

It's the time that helps you.

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#17

Post by exactlee »

As entrepreneurs I believe we are hardwired to search for the "next big thing." I agree with this article in that it can be detrimental to our success as entrepreneurs. With my first business we launched and had decent revenues for almost two years. Then things started going south and instead of searching for a solution within our business, we tried starting another company to support it. And when that didn't work and I returned to "tie myself to the masthead like Odysseus" my ship had already sunk. Moral of the story: Stay focused!

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#18

Post by jaredsohn »

AtTheLast wrote: post #14

I discovered notepad really helps me when new ideas sweep me off my feet. I write down my idea and a few key nots about it. That way I don't lose the idea and spend a lot of time thinking about it. If the idea still sounds good after a month or so, then I might spend a few more hours clarifying the idea into a more concrete concept.

I've developed this habit, too. One problem I've run across (which I'm thinking you also might have) is I end the day with a whole bunch of notepads open and it is a pain to save/close them.

If you have that problem, too, you should check out a program I wrote called Notepad Consolidator (https://github.com/jaredsohn/NotepadConsolidator) that writes the contents of all open untitled notepads to an autonamed file.

Re: How New Ideas Almost Killed Our Startup

#19

Post by wiseleo »

jaredsohn wrote: post #18
AtTheLast wrote: post #14

I discovered notepad really helps me when new ideas sweep me off my feet. I write down my idea and a few key nots about it. That way I don't lose the idea and spend a lot of time thinking about it. If the idea still sounds good after a month or so, then I might spend a few more hours clarifying the idea into a more concrete concept.

I've developed this habit, too. One problem I've run across (which I'm thinking you also might have) is I end the day with a whole bunch of notepads open and it is a pain to save/close them. If you have that problem, too, you should check out a program I wrote called Notepad Consolidator ( https://github.com/jaredsohn/NotepadConsolidator ) that writes the contents of all open untitled notepads to an autonamed file.

I converted the lean startup worksheet into a Freemind mindmap. For new ideas, I simply open this mindmap template, fill it out, and store it in my main SVN repository under ideas. It makes documenting a new idea and running a quick feasibility analysis a matter of a few minutes.

Definitely beats notepads :)

Post reply on HN