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

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

#111

Post by datalopers »

synergy20 wrote: post #106
Barrera wrote: post #15

The main reason this didn't work is that the founder didn't identify a customer willing to spend money . A lot of startups fail because they never identify a customer. Or even a problem. This one failed because before writing a line of code the founder did not take the next step and ensure that the prospective customer was willing to spend money on a solution. This is why so many failing startups try to pivot to two-…

I have a half-baked product in the making for 4 years but never had enough time (and skill) to fully make it, every time I asked potential customers all of them wanted it right away except I could not finish it. Tried to apply for HN to no avail. I just need some investment(500K should do it in one year) to hire one or two developers to help to ship the product really, but I don't know how, which is why I'm back to w…

> 500K should do it in one year

Do it in your spare time without burning so much capital. As much as YC wants you to think otherwise, VC money isn't some magical gatekeeper to innovation. Just build.

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

#112

Post by standeven »

synergy20 wrote: post #106
Barrera wrote: post #15

The main reason this didn't work is that the founder didn't identify a customer willing to spend money . A lot of startups fail because they never identify a customer. Or even a problem. This one failed because before writing a line of code the founder did not take the next step and ensure that the prospective customer was willing to spend money on a solution. This is why so many failing startups try to pivot to two-…

I have a half-baked product in the making for 4 years but never had enough time (and skill) to fully make it, every time I asked potential customers all of them wanted it right away except I could not finish it. Tried to apply for HN to no avail. I just need some investment(500K should do it in one year) to hire one or two developers to help to ship the product really, but I don't know how, which is why I'm back to w…

Find a technical co-founder, join some other accelerator, and develop the MVP. Not many investors will drop $500k into an idea.

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

#114

Post by yobbo »

Given that it is actually possible to implement this idea, I imagine medicine professionals would appreciate it, and there should be enough to make his startup viable.

When talking to doctors, he's not selling his idea or service - he has to first sell his own credibility, and then the credibility of his service. He is claiming that the intended/unintended effects of medicines can be coded into a big searchable table, that his "contractors" have done this, and his service is now usable and valuable.

This too bold a claim, especially from "some random guy". That's why none of the doctors were interested.

In his blog post, he's assuming his product actually has value, but somehow has opposing stakeholders.

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

#115

Post by eckza »

fartcannon wrote: post #105
ilamont wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's right. A lot of founders don't make it to #3 in your list, or they only get the "make something people want" part. It's not enough. Build something people want and will pay for . Not just say they want. Not just say they'll pay for. Make something that they see and will immediately take out their cash/cc/paypal/venmo and pay for on the spot .

Then you'll just end up with samey expensive garbage. People don't know what they want until they're told what they want. It's important to create a society where ideas that have no current market can be developed. This is how the future is made. Not by making it aluminum and jacking up the price.

Sure, but in order to do that, you need to know how to teach people how to want; and then, you have to be able to do that. NB, those two things generally comprise two different skillsets.

You need a product that is powerful enough to give you the leverage to change deep-seated bits of human psychology.

Henry Ford knew how to do this. So did Jobs.

$0.02. I don't want to discourage anyone from building something and making money on it; just adding on to your comment.

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

#116

Post by RC_ITR »

throw10920 wrote: post #40
ilamont wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's right. A lot of founders don't make it to #3 in your list, or they only get the "make something people want" part. It's not enough. Build something people want and will pay for . Not just say they want. Not just say they'll pay for. Make something that they see and will immediately take out their cash/cc/paypal/venmo and pay for on the spot .

> Not just say they want. Not just say they'll pay for. This is big - lots of people (on HN and other places) say that they'd pay "$x for y" but aren't actually willing to. I feel like I saw a post that had some pretty good evidence of the disconnect between those two things but I can't find it.

It's the same problem as advertising.

Nobody thinks they're particularly susceptible to it, but everyone still somehow knows that Chipotle exists and serves burritos...

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

#117

Post by jasfi »

Barrera wrote: post #15

The main reason this didn't work is that the founder didn't identify a customer willing to spend money . A lot of startups fail because they never identify a customer. Or even a problem. This one failed because before writing a line of code the founder did not take the next step and ensure that the prospective customer was willing to spend money on a solution. This is why so many failing startups try to pivot to two-…

This is why MVP exists. However validation is often needed much earlier. I think a prototype that works visually only, then collecting pre-orders, is the way to go.

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

#118

Post by soylentgraham »

snarf21 wrote: post #37
Barrera wrote: post #15

The main reason this didn't work is that the founder didn't identify a customer willing to spend money . A lot of startups fail because they never identify a customer. Or even a problem. This one failed because before writing a line of code the founder did not take the next step and ensure that the prospective customer was willing to spend money on a solution. This is why so many failing startups try to pivot to two-…

Ideas are nothing. Execution is everything . Scale is unlikely.

Ive always thought (well, after being wrong about both sides), its Idea multiplied by execution

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

#119

Post by adwn »

kilroy123 wrote: post #101
elpakal wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure I agree with you about your extra > and will pay for. People want Reddit, people want FB and Insta. Do they pay for those? I’m not saying those are good or realistic models to follow but I think the scale of your product needs to be taken into account with your statement. ie landing millions of users can forgive the lack of a business plan _at that scale_ whereas a SAAS platform targeting B2B customers s…

But the users aren't the customers in those businesses. The advertisers are.

Although you're technically correct [1], your objection is a bit tired – in particular because in this context, "customer" clearly meant "target audience for a product". Building something that attracts millions of daily visitors to a website is much harder than selling advertising space on that website.

[1] the best kind of "correct"

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

#120

Post by synergy20 »

standeven wrote: post #112
synergy20 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a half-baked product in the making for 4 years but never had enough time (and skill) to fully make it, every time I asked potential customers all of them wanted it right away except I could not finish it. Tried to apply for HN to no avail. I just need some investment(500K should do it in one year) to hire one or two developers to help to ship the product really, but I don't know how, which is why I'm back to w…

Find a technical co-founder, join some other accelerator, and develop the MVP. Not many investors will drop $500k into an idea.

I'm fairly technical myself, mostly I need someone good at frontend(vuejs), where I need help to design nice UI for the (embedded device) product. I spent my own time learning vuejs but, not as fast as I wanted so far, I am a low level developer coding in c/c++ basically. I have been thinking about hiring a (cheaper) overseas vuejs3 developer for a while using my own money, the reality is that, hiring is more challenging than learning vuejs, so I stuck with the latter, but, it's slow.
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