I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea (2020)

Actually I was surprised when I read: "Make something people want. [...] The idea is that if you build something truly awesome, you'll figure out a way to make money off of it." That sounds to me like he got it backwards. Instead of building something that people want, he built something that was truly awesome. And I think that's the problem. When all those people encouraged him, I think he misinterpreted their enthusiasm at his awesome idea for a "want".

Either way, I think for all the shortcomings and faults the VC and accelerator world has, this is a good example of a mistake that's much more easily avoided when following a proper development plan for your startup.

i feel like it's something that, on its own isn't worth much, but could be sold to a group like goodrx or webmd or something like that for a decent payout.

His enthusiasm overtook everything. He felt the pain, rushed/designed a solution and everything. But he never followed the money trail. I felt like this was a glaring omission.

Another consideration is you consider : your solution, the end-consumer , and stop there ... and if you forget there's a middle-man (the doctor in this case) thats a miss too.. Middle-persons always complicate the situation.

>Make something people want. It’s Y-Combinator’s motto and a maxim of aspiring internet entrepreneurs. The idea is that if you build something truly awesome, you’ll figure out a way to make some money off of it.

To me, "make something people want" is a proxy for "make something people are willing to pay for." To truly want something, you have to be willing to expend resources to obtain it. Anything less than that is people blowing smoke.

This is a great case study in idea development.

He was onto something with the doctor thing.

1) Things that help people make money are 100x more valuable, i.e. something that helps the Docs generate more revenue.

2) This was insulting: "So I’d sorta just be, like, donating this money if I paid you for this thing, right"

Seriously a professional talking about a 'donation' if it didn't actually increase her revenue? What a jerk. "I care about my patients but in the end I just give them Zoloft!" I mean that might say a lot about that line of work.

That said, I think they might actually use it, if it's institutionalized - i.e. they use it Med School, doctors everywhere use it, two doctors 'unsure' about something both check it etc. it becomes 'something needed' at the office and everyone is expected to have it.

I suspect there's opportunity there, it's just take some time and structuring.