Ask HN: Am I crazy? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#81

Post by mkramlich » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:34 AM UTC

Frocer wrote: post #64

joshuarr wrote: post #52

You can either do it, or always wish you did. Your choice.

This is one of the best quotes I've read on HN. Very true! I have also seen much crazier things. A friend of mine from college who is a stand up comedian, decided to hitchhike his way from NYC to LA to "find Tom" of MySpace. He filmed his entire journey and shared it on the web. Additionally, he also crashed with all his MySpace friends the whole way so his cost is practically 0 (besides the bus tickets). It's defini…

you left us hanging: did he actually find & meet Tom?

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#82

Post by mkramlich » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:41 AM UTC

If you pass through Colorado I can probably introduce you to a couple entrepreneurs: the founders of NetDevil (Jumpgate) and Double Encore, at the very least. I'm also somewhat of an entrepreneur, but just starting out and but a wee little tadpole in comparison to their success.

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#83

Post by anamax » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 5:07 AM UTC

lsc wrote: post #44

amohr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is the thing that's really bugging me. I don't want to bank on people just inherently wanting to share their story and calling in favors. I've got a couple weeks before I can realistically set out, and that will probably be haunting my thoughts the whole time. Hopefully, I could offer enough exposure to present an incentive, but this only really works for the less established.

then focus on the less established. there are plenty of really interesting businesses in the 'exchange goods and/or services for money' category that have zero chance (and sometimes less interest) of getting venture capital. Even those that get seed capital are usually interested in talking with interesting people... and if you do this right you will end up with a lot of contacts, and thus be a very valuable person,…

Second the "focus on the less established".

I suspect that you'll get better stories from folks who didn't get VC funding. Lots of writers try to get stories from people who are likely to become famous or already are, but the others are likely to have better stories.

Also, many people want their story told, not for biz reasons, but because the think that their life has something useful to show other people.

The guy who wrote "The Soul of the New Machine" says that some of the managers said later that having someone around to chronicle the effort improved the experience. He wasn't sure if they were joking when they said that they were going to try to arrange to have a writer around the next time.

In other words, think bard.

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#84

Post by jamesbritt » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 5:41 AM UTC

Eliezer wrote: post #45

If you haven't made money from writing before, don't count on being able to do it this time. Making money at writing is super bonus extra hard.

"Making money at writing is super bonus extra hard."

On the whole, perhaps, but if you have a compelling story that appeals to a specific market, you're way ahead of the game.

It helps if you can write, but people pay for shitty writing if the content is otherwise not readily available.

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#85

Post by dankjaergaard » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 6:10 AM UTC

Yes you're crazy :-) I love it!

If you find entrepreneurs who'll be willing to share details like these: http://particletree.com/features/web-app-autopsy/

...then you hit a goldmine.

So my suggestion is to go and find start-ups that are not yet well known and get no attention from the bloggers, but are willing to share their numbers.

Publish your case stories as freemium PDF's with kickback to the entrepreneurs.

Best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#86

Post by onreact-com » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 8:53 AM UTC

You're the right kind of crazy if you ask me. People travel on a much lower budget and I don't mean hobos. Setting up a blog and earning money with it is not a problem. with an original idea like this you get lots of exposure.

Focus on travel products and advertise with affiliate ads. Get publicity by interviewing people the world is or might be interested in.

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#87

Post by 3ds » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 8:58 AM UTC

bufordtwain wrote: post #72

You might be a little crazy. Why don't you put the money in the bank for now and find some entrepreneurs to talk to in Chicago instead of chasing all over the place? You have 37signals in Chicago and Adrian Holovaty of Django/Everyblock and that's just off the top of my head. If you want to go on the road that could be fun as well but just saying.

Exactly! There are probably hundreds of interesting people where you live you could talk to and you wouldn't have to spend so much money on the trip. You really should just try the whole interview thing at least once or twice before you head off.

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#88

Post by adolfoabegg » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 9:06 AM UTC

please, do it

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#89

Post by jasonkester » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 9:18 AM UTC

I'm a big fan of saving before spending. Go find a job and save up $10k or so. Get yourself enough experience to make yourself thoroughly employable. Then quit and go take that trip.

Being in debt sucks, and doing what you propose will put you into debt in about a month. The end result will be several years of working at some crap company trying to pay it off. Get some savings laid in first, get yourself into a position where you're calling the shots, then go for it.

Re: Ask HN: Am I crazy?

#90

Post by scharan » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 10:04 AM UTC

I don't think you are crazy. Wishing you luck with what you want to do. Just make sure you post back your experiences on HN. Also, like someone suggested, blog about it regularly. Will be great to see whats going on with this idea on a daily basis!