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I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

tjcx.me

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Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#31

Post by hartator »

> So in July 2018, nine months and $40K after starting GlacierMD, I shut it down. [...] The idea is that if you build something truly awesome [...] Where did I go wrong?

$40k and 9 months is not that much. Either you gave up just before you figure out how to make the business work or maybe GlacierMD wasn't that revolutionary.

Why not open sourcing and publishing all that work? You can still recoup some money via ad money even if it's not the millions you were expecting and at least you have something to show off.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#32

Post by worldsayshi »

nickjj wrote: post #9

That was a fun read. I wish the author mentioned how much he was trying to sell the service for. It could have been $59 a month or $599 a month and with doctors you could potentially expect the same answer. I'm not a psychologist but some of the author's quoted text came off extremely demeaning in written form. If the author happens to read this, did you really say those things directly to them? For example, Susan (p…

If you are to proud to visit stackoverflow or Google to search for best practices you're not a very good developer. Sounds like the same rule should apply to a doctor or psychiatrist.

Do they have such fragile egos that they can't have someone showing them the "new Google for doctors" without feeling offended?

(Sorry if that came out a bit edgy. But this hole story irks me. It's frustrating when value can't be delivered because of cash flow issues.)

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#34

Post by analyte123 »

It sounds like GlacierMD not only presented results from meta-analyses, they made a platform to make them easier to do and did their own but didn't publish them. If you built a platform to make doing meta-analysis easier, you could collaborate with medical researchers and institutions who are publishing meta-analyses. Maybe give it to them for free at first, maybe get an author credit, some PR, and more sales leads. Researchers can probably use grant money to buy access to your platform and still save money on paying analysts to do things manually.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#36

Post by dikaio »

worldsayshi wrote: post #32
nickjj wrote: post #9

That was a fun read. I wish the author mentioned how much he was trying to sell the service for. It could have been $59 a month or $599 a month and with doctors you could potentially expect the same answer. I'm not a psychologist but some of the author's quoted text came off extremely demeaning in written form. If the author happens to read this, did you really say those things directly to them? For example, Susan (p…

If you are to proud to visit stackoverflow or Google to search for best practices you're not a very good developer. Sounds like the same rule should apply to a doctor or psychiatrist. Do they have such fragile egos that they can't have someone showing them the "new Google for doctors" without feeling offended? (Sorry if that came out a bit edgy. But this hole story irks me. It's frustrating when value can't be delive…

Agree

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#37

Post by madamelic »

The current ideology of needing to go big fast kills a lot of decent ideas.

Everyone thinks there are two modes for a service: dead or worth $1B+.

Not to like bash you while you are down but you may have been able to do this while working and not spending $40k on contractors.

Not everyone needs to raise $10M, get a flashy office, employ 200 people and have all of the trappings of a "successful" startup founder; if anything, that's antithetical to what you should be doing.

No MVP, no testing their model, just straight to "Next Best Thing". It definitely hurts, I've been there too for my first "next big thing" and I doubt you'll be the last to get burnt by the image VC firms sell.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#38

Post by Falling3 »

nickjj wrote: post #9

That was a fun read. I wish the author mentioned how much he was trying to sell the service for. It could have been $59 a month or $599 a month and with doctors you could potentially expect the same answer. I'm not a psychologist but some of the author's quoted text came off extremely demeaning in written form. If the author happens to read this, did you really say those things directly to them? For example, Susan (p…

> you waltz in and tell them what they prescribe is wrong and your automated treatment plan is better.

That doesn't really capture the conversation though. Susan specifically said (as you quoted) that it was possible she would use the recommendations of the app. If she took a recommendation that means she agreed it was a better treatment. His question was not whether his algorithm was better than her default prescriptions - because they both agreed that was the case at least some of the time - it was whether it was better enough to be financially worthwhile.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#40

Post by twobitshifter »

laser wrote: post #24

“Doppelganger has created value for the customer but not for the company.” Tell that to “Celebs”, which’s sole app function is the described and makes ~$200K MRR.

That’s shocking to me. They have subscriptions? Why is someone subscribing to an app like this?

Looked at things on the App Store. It’s not clear what a subscription gets you but they’re charging $4.99 a week for the premium features.

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