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Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

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Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#31

Post by jahewson »

This is really high quality work, great job!

> Let me know what you guys think of the idea and if you see any potential pitfalls.

Yes, so I don't agree with this:

> This model can be used to disrupt any marketplace from AirBNB to UberEats: building tech for home renters and restaurants and later, leveraging that to build a competing marketplace.

Because the value in a marketplace is the people, not the tech. Here's a thought experiment: if Amazon were to open-source their entire marketplace tomorrow, what would change? My answer is: close to nothing.

What makes marketplaces so hard is that you need people - on both the demand and supply sides.

You seem to have a good handle on the tech and the way that businesses use it, so keep talking to people and I'm confident that you'll find a valuable niche! People will find the quality of your work very compelling.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#32

Post by swyx »

jpatt wrote: post #24

A few points I'm skeptical of: simply connect to the seller’s infra instead of locking them in. One of the value-adds of Amazon is there's a whole bunch of tech sellers don't need to know how to write, run, and maintain. You'd need to understand how big the niche "technically literate to run their own e-commerce business, but selling on Amazon for other reasons" is, then how your operation would answer those "other r…

i think the branding "open source Amazon" is just way too ambitious/big. invites a lot of confusion/criticism if Amazon is different things to different people.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#33

Post by MisterBastahrd »

Saying that you're building an open source Amazon to complete with Amazon is like saying that you're working on an audio player skin to compete with Winamp.

Amazon isn't a web site. It's the one of the most sophisticated supply chain systems on the planet. The website is what people interface with, but it's also one of the most inconsequential parts of the system with regards for why people use it.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#34

Post by mikeiz404 »

theturtletalks wrote: post #14
CharlesW wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. This also relates to the clickbait-y "I'm building an open-source Amazon" positioning, which I don't think serves you well. You're building (I think) an e-commerce platform upon which someone can build online shops ("nano-Amazons"?). Where the "open-source Amazon" pitch is difficult to take seriously, I think there probably is space for ne…

This is just one piece of the puzzle. I explained it in another comment: > I think of it this way. Launching a marketplace today is very difficult, but what if we made the backend of a marketplace open-source and used that as leverage. One that could be your backend for all operations. You can choose to enable the integrated marketplace or not, but the system is yours. It’s about bringing power back to the sellers.

Is my understanding correct that: The leverage comes from lowering the seller’s switching cost to go to/add another market place by intermediating the seller/market place relationship with open-ship. That way when you release the open marketplace open-front you can get easy discoverability and a very low switching/adding cost from an existing set of sellers?

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#35

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #33

Saying that you're building an open source Amazon to complete with Amazon is like saying that you're working on an audio player skin to compete with Winamp. Amazon isn't a web site. It's the one of the most sophisticated supply chain systems on the planet. The website is what people interface with, but it's also one of the most inconsequential parts of the system with regards for why people use it.

What's the first?

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#36

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

swalsh wrote: post #20
toofy wrote: post #16

i haven’t visited your site yet, but i’ve long thought something in this vein has been missing. imagine if taxi companies could make use of it, or a group of friends could start their own GNUber. or a group of high school kids who want to deliver groceries/items to the elderly as volunteer work. or a bunch of middle school friends wanted to do a lawn mowing service. or… of course, anyone in the industry knows how man…

People are going to hate on me, but web3 makes this absolutely trivial to build. If you try to build this as another centralized service, you just end up in the same place but a new dominant owner. Don't get me wrong, there IS a wrong way to build this in web3 where it's just a web2 service on-chain. But designed correctly, it can avoid the pitfall.

> web3 makes this absolutely trivial to build

So good to hear. Put differently: are you insane?

ps. I built the original Amazon. On top of that, I have a brother who builds web-stuff related to decentralized coordinated activities and has done for many years. I didn't check in with him, but I'm pretty sure that we both think that you're insane.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#37

Post by rglover »

traceroute66 wrote: post #4
theturtletalks wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I saw that. The last one was a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision in detail.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

> I admire your ambition, but perhaps rein it in a little ?

Maaaan if we were in the same room. Don't belittle someone who's trying to accomplish something (and following through with it).

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#39

Post by trinsic2 »

traceroute66 wrote: post #15
trinsic2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Execution starts with vision. I don't see a problem with thinking big, it inspires others that want to help become part of something great.

> Execution starts with vision. Yes I agree. But the OP had the vision in 2019. We are now at the tail-end of 2022. I still see a vision and not much execution. Meanwhile, the Amazon that the OP is pitching themselves against has continued to move onwards and upwards.... As I said. The vision is fine. But the OP needs to realise that executing it will require a lot of time and a LOT more money !

I think if you start with vision, and you have passion for something the logistics around making it happen will manifest, or it won't if its not ready/needed. It depends on where your idea takes you and sometimes ideas need to be iterated to figure out where you are going. IMHO is too early to be focusing on the negatives of what may or may not happen. That comes later and it should be made in a positive direction, "Where are we going to get the money to make this happen", rather than, "Yea man, that's going to cost you a lot money". When comming up with ideas, the latter doesn't really help, for me.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#40

Post by ajvs »

jpatt wrote: post #24

A few points I'm skeptical of: simply connect to the seller’s infra instead of locking them in. One of the value-adds of Amazon is there's a whole bunch of tech sellers don't need to know how to write, run, and maintain. You'd need to understand how big the niche "technically literate to run their own e-commerce business, but selling on Amazon for other reasons" is, then how your operation would answer those "other r…

More of your storefront being portable is a big plus for any business that fears lock-in or unwanted removal from Amazon.

I haven't looked into the specifics of this offering, but if you were able to use your own custom domain for your storefront, minimise the platform's insights into your actual sales (i.e. to prevent a similar case to Amazon launching products in your niche), etc and mainly leveraging a centralised platform for the audience, then that's the best of both worlds.

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