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

Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

swombat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 108 posts

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#61

Post by TheHydroImpulse »

madiator wrote: post #52
ef4 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, you have the difficulty backward. It's just fear of the unknown that keeps too many technical people from attempting it. If your product has a demonstrable return on investment, then it is far easier to sell to businesses. Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI, and consumers mostly don't. Remember that to make a fair comparison, you need to do it per dollar, not per sale. Even if i…

You are mostly right, but then there are other issues to consider: why would a business buy from you who is just starting out? They would like to have some guarantee you will be around after a few years..

Reputation definitely counts for something. But there's a slew of businesses that would likely buy from you in the early stages. They may be much smaller businesses, and possible not even in your long-term/medium-term target market, but it's a stepping stone.

Selling can still be a challenge. But if you have a valuable product, and an A* sales team, it's much much easier.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#62

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

ensignavenger wrote: post #32
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #17

The problem with so many "startup ideas" is that they are a solution to the problem, "I want to create a startup and don't have an idea." Not surprisingly, this tends to produce copycat concepts, products with no real market fit, services that target sexy but oversaturated markets, etc. There are lots and lots of problems that are either unsolved or are being solved in ways that are less efficient and cost-effective…

I have come up with a lot of ideas to solve business problems, but I am reluctant to implement them for the concern that selling to such businesses would be a far more difficult problem than simply creating something that works better than what they are currently using. Business often make stupid decisions based on relationships with sells people or brand recognition more than merit of the solution. Of course, this p…

First, it should be noted that if you're actually in the industry you're targeting, chances are you have relationships that you can leverage. Your comment seems to imply that you're an outsider with no domain expertise who believes he has ideas to solve problems in various markets. If that's the case, you have the aforementioned domain expertise shortcoming.

Second, far too many technical folks seem to believe that they have to sell what they've built. That's almost never the case. There are people who make a living selling all sorts of products and services in established B2B markets. If you have a product or service of merit, chances are you'll be able to find somebody with sales experience who will be interested in selling for you.

Now here's the key: you must be prepared to invest money into your sales efforts. You're probably not going to find many good, experienced salespeople who will work on commission only. And depending on the market, you'll most likely need to budget for tools that will help your salesperson succeed (trade shows, etc.).

Bottom line: it takes money to make money. If you're not willing to put cold hard cash on the line to sell your solution, you have no reason to expect results.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#63

Post by abrichr »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #26
joshhart wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, of course if you have domain expertise and there is a need you can recognize a niche to fill with a company. I think getting domain expertise is easier said than done and could probably require quitting one's day job to go work in industry X for 5 years. Possibly just to find out that filling a niche is hard.

1. I didn't suggest that domain expertise is easy to develop. Nobody gains expertise overnight. That's the point. 2. You don't have to quit your day job to develop domain expertise. Be strategic and try to make sure your day jobs are related to a specific industry. Far too many people hop from random startup to random startup. That's not surprising: the pay can be excellent, you get to work with the latest and greate…

Great points. Any suggestions as to verticals which are particularly under served by software?

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#64

Post by dreamfactory »

joshhart wrote: post #21
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #17

The problem with so many "startup ideas" is that they are a solution to the problem, "I want to create a startup and don't have an idea." Not surprisingly, this tends to produce copycat concepts, products with no real market fit, services that target sexy but oversaturated markets, etc. There are lots and lots of problems that are either unsolved or are being solved in ways that are less efficient and cost-effective…

Yes, of course if you have domain expertise and there is a need you can recognize a niche to fill with a company. I think getting domain expertise is easier said than done and could probably require quitting one's day job to go work in industry X for 5 years. Possibly just to find out that filling a niche is hard.

Write articles and go and interview people as a journalist/researcher. You can do that in your spare time and you will get good access to decision makers and find out all about industry perspectives and pain points.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#65

Post by abrichr »

bliti wrote: post #24

I stopped looking for ideas, and focused on solving problems. There is a difference. Ideas come with a lot of fluff. Meaning that under the right conditions they might work. Solving problems focuses on talking to people who have problems, and figuring out a way to solve it. I now spend at least an hour every week talking to people who have problems I want to solve: people who can pay. (:

How do you choose whom to talk to, and where do you find them?

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#66

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

abrichr wrote: post #63
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I didn't suggest that domain expertise is easy to develop. Nobody gains expertise overnight. That's the point. 2. You don't have to quit your day job to develop domain expertise. Be strategic and try to make sure your day jobs are related to a specific industry. Far too many people hop from random startup to random startup. That's not surprising: the pay can be excellent, you get to work with the latest and greate…

Great points. Any suggestions as to verticals which are particularly under served by software?

Let me put it this way: in all of the industries I've been exposed to, I've never encountered one that had a) no pain points or b) companies entirely happy with their current vendors.

Note that you don't necessarily need to find a market that's underserved. Plenty of markets are served, but not well. Sometimes, doing something marginally better and/or doing it for less than the entrenched competition is all you need to create opportunity.

The size of that opportunity will vary of course. A lot of wantrapreneurs look at huge markets and think in terms of 8, 9 and 10 figures, but if you're more realistic (i.e. you'd be happy with a six or seven-figure annual top line with healthy margins), I would suggest that opportunity is abundant. The easiest way to find that opportunity? If you meet people in unsexy markets, talk to them. Most wantrapreneurs won't give these folks the time of day.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#67

Post by graycat »

> As I pointed out before, there are no new ideas. Everything of value has been done before in one form or another.

Let's see: Take idea some X and the set A of all efforts for idea X. Then take the effort in set A that was earliest in time (probability of exact ties 0). Call that effort T. Then when T was done, idea X was a "new idea" and not "done before" in contradiction to the quote.

For there being "no new ideas", the research libraries are stuffed with journals of peer-reviewed original research, and the usual standards for publication are "new, correct, and significant". So, those libraries are stuffed with "new ideas" that the quote says don't exist.

Are there new ideas in business? Sure: The transistor, the integrated circuit, the Multics processor architecture (heavily borrowed since), security via capabilities, access control lists, and authentication, the microprocessor, RSA encryption, speculative execution, out of order execution, penicillin, cardiac stents, and on and on.

'Nuff.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#68

Post by asdasf »

ef4 wrote: post #36
ensignavenger wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have come up with a lot of ideas to solve business problems, but I am reluctant to implement them for the concern that selling to such businesses would be a far more difficult problem than simply creating something that works better than what they are currently using. Business often make stupid decisions based on relationships with sells people or brand recognition more than merit of the solution. Of course, this p…

In my experience, you have the difficulty backward. It's just fear of the unknown that keeps too many technical people from attempting it. If your product has a demonstrable return on investment, then it is far easier to sell to businesses. Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI, and consumers mostly don't. Remember that to make a fair comparison, you need to do it per dollar, not per sale. Even if i…

>Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI

They like to say they do, but they very frequently don't. I'd say easily 80% of the software and hardware purchases I've seen corporate clients make are based on things other than ROI. Things like "the sales person for product X always takes me to nice lunches" or "everyone else is using Y so we need to use Y too".

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#69

Post by frozenport »

shubb wrote: post #60

I have a startup idea that I'm not going to execute. I currently live with a senior social worker, and my mother was a social worker. Over the years have been deeply troubled by what I've heard. I think this tool could help them, even if it's a bit creepy. Social workers in the UK have a big problem. Different teams, professions (police, medical, housing), deal with the same people, and often collect all the pieces r…

Sounds like a good idea, but i'm not sure how this relates to conversation.

Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)

#70

Post by nikatwork »

asdasf wrote: post #68
ef4 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, you have the difficulty backward. It's just fear of the unknown that keeps too many technical people from attempting it. If your product has a demonstrable return on investment, then it is far easier to sell to businesses. Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI, and consumers mostly don't. Remember that to make a fair comparison, you need to do it per dollar, not per sale. Even if i…

>Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI They like to say they do, but they very frequently don't. I'd say easily 80% of the software and hardware purchases I've seen corporate clients make are based on things other than ROI. Things like "the sales person for product X always takes me to nice lunches" or "everyone else is using Y so we need to use Y too".

Thus the evergreen adage, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".
Post reply on HN