Rands: Hurry • Hacker News Board

Re: Rands: Hurry

#11

Post by Periodic » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 10:21 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #6

Deciding to get off your butt is the hard part...until you do. Then it's the easy part. Anyone can decide. Now getting something done - that's really the hard part. OP is right on: pick something small and get started. You don't have to quit your job. And here's the tricky part: You have to get something done every day. Something, anything. It doesn't have to be big, it just has to be something. Get one little thing…

I like this. Too many times I find that if I put off a project once it starts to get pushed off indefinitely until I sort of give up on it.

Persistence will get you further than intelligence or luck.

Re: Rands: Hurry

#12

Post by thetrumanshow » Sat, Oct 03, 2009, 2:49 AM UTC

bsaunder wrote: post #8

And when you find competitors, you need to realize that probably no one else you know has heard of them. The people here have rather bleeding edge knowledge of start-ups. There may be 10 start-ups for your idea. Some of them are probably running on vapors at this point.

When I lose heart I reflect on this very fact, and thus I find encouragement to keep going.

Re: Rands: Hurry

#13

Post by thetrumanshow » Sat, Oct 03, 2009, 3:02 AM UTC

billswift wrote: post #10

bsaunder wrote: post #8

And when you find competitors, you need to realize that probably no one else you know has heard of them. The people here have rather bleeding edge knowledge of start-ups. There may be 10 start-ups for your idea. Some of them are probably running on vapors at this point.

If nothing else, finding other people working on the same idea is a validation of the idea, since they think it is worth working on too. If you think you can do a better job at it than they can why not try it yourself?

In fact, if you find competitors in your market and they are using a free model to gain traction, don't be shy about taking them on with a paid model.

If customers find you first and you can close the deal, those other free competitors won't pose a threat. The caveat here is that you must keep your customers happy. However, if true customer satisfaction is just not quite attainable and you're in survival mode (due to being under resourced or what have you), simply keep the the level of pain that you create for them below the threshold of pain required to switch from your service to your competitors.