Ask HN: What do you do with big ideas?

What do you do when you come up with an idea that would take too much time/resources to implement with what you currently have available?

Do you wait until you have enough resources? Pitch it to a VC? Build a tiny portion of the idea?

And how would you evaluate how good it is if you don't have to resources to test it out?

Yes, release early and iterate

Build an MVP and try it out.

- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=748057

- http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product

Also, talk about your idea to as many people that you trust as possible, getting feedback is really important, especially in the early stages of a project. Don't keep it secret as that won't serve you well for developing and executing your idea.

There was a series of pictures here a while ago about some guy that built a castle by his own hands. It doesn't really matter what you have available to you today, what matters is if you can keep your goal in sight over an extended period and persevere until you've realized your vision.

It's amazing what you can do once you really focus on something.

Write it down in my ideas book and think about it long enough that I either can implement it (MVP, get the resources, etc) or it mutates into something better within my reach. Sitting on it also means when I see an opportunity that might fit it (e.g. funding available for $foo) it's there ready to go.

Of course, this doesn't always work, some ideas are too timely and then you have a different decision process; but sitting on an idea from a year ago and spotting a funding source specific to it this year is how I'm doing what I'm currently doing.