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I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

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Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#91

Post by Kaizyn »

johnrob wrote: post #21

I don't know how you can find a good hacker, because there is no way for you to judge one. That aside, your best bet is to offer a lot of equity in the startup. More than half of the company. Your biggest selling point is that you will take care of all the stuff that annoys hackers - designing UI screens, marketing, face time with real users. If your idea is good, you offer more than 50% equity, and take care of the…

This seems silly. The guy with the big idea should be handing out peanuts to the code monkeys, not giving them all of his cash. Knowing exactly what the web system should do is far more important than a few programming skills (you can replace the code monkey more easily than you can a good startup idea).

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#92

Post by Kaizyn »

pg wrote: post #67
neo wrote: post #12

Get an NDA with anyone you work with. "Ideas are easy, execution is hard" is a cop-out excuse by people who don't have any patentable worthwhile ideas of their own!

"Ideas are easy, execution is hard" is a cop-out excuse by people who don't have any patentable worthwhile ideas I have a lot of ideas. Some are worthwhile. And yet I think execution is the hard part.

Do you think that's because it's easy for you personally to generate ideas? Such creative thinking comes more easily to some than to most others.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#93

Post by rms »

Kaizyn wrote: post #91
johnrob wrote: post #21

I don't know how you can find a good hacker, because there is no way for you to judge one. That aside, your best bet is to offer a lot of equity in the startup. More than half of the company. Your biggest selling point is that you will take care of all the stuff that annoys hackers - designing UI screens, marketing, face time with real users. If your idea is good, you offer more than 50% equity, and take care of the…

This seems silly. The guy with the big idea should be handing out peanuts to the code monkeys, not giving them all of his cash. Knowing exactly what the web system should do is far more important than a few programming skills (you can replace the code monkey more easily than you can a good startup idea).

The whole thing still only works when the big idea guy has money.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#94

Post by fauigerzigerk »

joshwa wrote: post #80
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ecuzzillo, I've been running the marketing department of a well known retailer for 10 years. I think I have discovered a way to use data from social networking sites to enhance the models we've been using to analyse particular buying patterns. Obviously, I know a few people in the industry and everybody agrees that this idea has huge potential. I'm thinking of starting my own business to explore this further. Would y…

email me... contact info in my profile.

Sorry, this was just a parody. There are people who have valuable domain knowledge. They can develop not one idea but many. They know how to sell the idea because they can make the case on the basis of deep knowledge. They are credible in the eyes of investors and so on.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#95

Post by adnam »

ecuzzillo wrote: post #22

This is a bit like saying "I have a great idea for a painting. Will you paint it for me, and then give me half the money you get from selling it?"

Huh? Who said anything about money? Thehigherlife just said he had a good idea.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#96

Post by michaelneale »

Shooter wrote: post #65
run4yourlives wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you already did?

Maybe. (Damn you, short attention span.)

Sorry, I was just experimenting with my remote jedi mind trick on you.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#97

Post by euccastro »

run4yourlives wrote: post #85
jimbokun wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever seem most managers give a presentation? Enough said I think. :-)

Well,I wouldn't want a manager giving a presentation either. I'd want a sales guy.

Fair enough, but read the original comment. It talks about providing the idea, not the sales expertise.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#99

Post by sbraford »

michaelneale wrote: post #96
Shooter wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. (Damn you, short attention span.)

Sorry, I was just experimenting with my remote jedi mind trick on you.

PG should skip the co-founder requirement on you if you can pull off the DEMO on that one.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#100

Post by sbraford »

jamiequint wrote: post #75
ardit33 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's complete bullsh!t. It is execution that matters. Ideas are a dime a dozen. What google did was excellent execution of an non-original idea (there were lots of search engines at that time). Look at the UConnect vs. Facebook. vs. that other dude that that the same idea. Facebook was able to execute much faster and better and got traction, while Uconnect is just crap, and they have to resort to lawsuits. Sure, if…

Maybe thats true if the idea is "lets make a better search engine" but thats not much of an idea. If the idea is "lets make a better search engine that uses a unique ranking system based on links to estimate the popularity of any given page" then I'd say the idea is worth something. The probable difference between ConnectU and Facebook? Facebook spammed all of Harvard to get its initial traction, ConnectU didn't.

I work with a Harvard guy who has ID in the low 300s on Facebook and also had an account on the early ConnectU.

His exact quote: "ConnectU was nothing like Facebook. It was a total joke."

"Spamming" or not, Facebook executed better.

Also even if another team had the Pagerank idea, they still could've royally blew it. You think Yahoo hasn't studied the algorithm and come up with their own version by now? If it was just the idea then Yahoo would have a search engine competitive to Google by now. (it's getting there but still has a long way to go)

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