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

Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

immadsnewworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 69 posts

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#51

Post by imasr »

diN0bot wrote: post #31
knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

what if the people with similar ideas were told about each other so that they might collaborate. the startup i founded with my husband is very community based, and we try to make use of everyone who is interested in contributing. on the tech side i work hard to keep a well document code base and interesting modules with minimal ramp up. we've contacted every organization we hear about (more than 50; maybe more than 1…

I think you're on point, here. We should take advantage of overlapping interests and resources. I bet is not about the money he might not be getting, but the fact he wont build the product. The more you give, the more you receive. By the way, I'd like to know more about what you're doing.

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#52

Post by FredSource »

knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

I hate to say it -- the idea is the easy thing. Execution is what really counts!

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#53

Post by SwellJoe »

katamole wrote: post #21
patio11 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without knocking YC: if you really feel that this is a great idea, and you really feel that it is doable, then just go ahead and do it. (Sure, you now have 1 YC funded competitor. Eh, who cares. Competitors are God's way of telling you there is a market which will pay to be satisfied. If you don't see any you should be scared. You can both still be successful.)

Without knowing anything about the scope of the idea it's hard to conjecture whether it's worth pursuing on his own time. However, the potential competition is probably a good thing.

If it isn't worth pursuing on his own time, it's certainly not worth someone investing in it.

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#54

Post by comatose_kid »

Alex3917 wrote: post #20
knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

I had to come up with 111 business ideas for Seth's alternative-mba program this week. The idea was both to make sure we weren't choosing the business we wanted to start just because it was the first good idea we came up with, and also to prove that ideas were worthless because we could come up with a million billion-dollar ideas. There are nine of us, and so that's 999 ideas between us. We are going to take the best…

You did that? Cool - I'd be interested in hearing about your experience - please consider blogging about it.

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#55

Post by swivelmaster »

knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

It is all about the team.

There are several companies currently executing on an idea I came up with (and thought was a brilliant, hundred million dollar idea) a year and a half ago.

But... My friends and I were comletely unprepared to execute. We learned this the hard way after months of hard work. Now those other companies have VC funding, tons of employees, etc.

If I could have done it, I'd be in their shoes.

Oh well. You live and you learn. It was an obvious idea in retrospect. I'll just come up with more.

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#56

Post by Alex3917 »

comatose_kid wrote: post #54
Alex3917 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to come up with 111 business ideas for Seth's alternative-mba program this week. The idea was both to make sure we weren't choosing the business we wanted to start just because it was the first good idea we came up with, and also to prove that ideas were worthless because we could come up with a million billion-dollar ideas. There are nine of us, and so that's 999 ideas between us. We are going to take the best…

You did that? Cool - I'd be interested in hearing about your experience - please consider blogging about it.

It's under NDA, so I can't do a day-by-day blog of everything that gets said. However, I'll certainly write something up toward the end of the experience.

We do have a public group blog though, which you can find here:

http://www.sixmonthmba.com/

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#57

Post by randallsquared »

dhimes wrote: post #46
patio11 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping careful track of who you tell what does not sell widgets to customers.

Sorry, I don't get your point. Do you mind elaborating?

The expected value of extra documentation for a possible lawsuit is lower than the expected return on just carrying out the business plan with the same resources. That is, it's almost certainly a waste of time.

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#58

Post by donniefitz2 »

knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

YC is not the end-all be-all. Great organization doing great things, but you could have done whatever it was you were going to do without their validation.

Maybe you really weren't all that convinced of your own idea (doesn't sound like it). Maybe YC did you a favor.

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#59

Post by swivelmaster »

swivelmaster wrote: post #55
knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

It is all about the team. There are several companies currently executing on an idea I came up with (and thought was a brilliant, hundred million dollar idea) a year and a half ago. But... My friends and I were comletely unprepared to execute. We learned this the hard way after months of hard work. Now those other companies have VC funding, tons of employees, etc. If I could have done it, I'd be in their shoes. Oh we…

(Point being, just to clarify, we didn't have the skills, experience, wisdom, etc. to pull it off. And that's okay. You have to start somewhere... we just tried to start in the wrong place.)

Re: Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

#60

Post by jjersin »

Alex3917 wrote: post #20
knarf wrote: post #12

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same…

I had to come up with 111 business ideas for Seth's alternative-mba program this week. The idea was both to make sure we weren't choosing the business we wanted to start just because it was the first good idea we came up with, and also to prove that ideas were worthless because we could come up with a million billion-dollar ideas. There are nine of us, and so that's 999 ideas between us. We are going to take the best…

Hit movies come in pairs because the big studios try to leverage each others marketing budgets. You really think that nobody thought of an asteroid movie until Armageddon/Deep Impact?
Post reply on HN