diary.io - should we build this? • Hacker News Board

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#21

Post by highace » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:11 PM UTC

vividmind wrote: post #9

Guys, I really love the "shouldwebuild" this concept! This is a great way to validate an idea. Can I borrow it for my concept please? :)

I was just thinking the same thing, but it's a bit like kickstarter without the cash pledges. Which means all someone has to do to endorse your idea is click a button (potentially), which is no means an intent to buy the finished product.

Secondly I'd be pretty pissed if I put my idea up on a service like this, demand for it skyrockets, then someone steals it and develops it before me.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#22

Post by Mz » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:12 PM UTC

btipling wrote: post #17

Nope, because: (engineer * number of engineers) - (average monthly payment * number of customers) An engineer's salary at a small startup is at the very least $50,000, let's just round that down to $5,000 a month, so how long do you think it would take you to reach $15,000 a month in recurring revenue at what are probably $5 a month plans (this does not include any other costs such as office, servers etc). That's abo…

Not to disagree with your overall point, but $5k/month x 12 months = $60,000/year, not $50,000/year.

(Perhaps you were rounding up rather than down?)

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#23

Post by gilrain » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:14 PM UTC

bonzoesc wrote: post #19

Nope, because you didn't believe in it enough to build it, instead choosing to waste time posting on websites. Zuckerberg didn't ask if he should build Facebook, the GitHub founders didn't ask if they should make GitHub, and Jason Fried didn't ask if he should build 37signals.

Your conception of entrepreneurship sounds more like religious faith.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#24

Post by ed209 » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:18 PM UTC

1. There are already services to "backup" your socially posted content http://jolicloud.com http://socialfolders.me/

2. Cross posting to multiple services is really, really hard. Each service has a different number of fields. You would have to get the user to complete the full information for each service in one go. Technically you could map all these fields, but from a UX point of view it's really hard.

3. Most services cross post between other services already. At least in a way that matters to most. And there are various ways that are "good enough"

Having said that, yes there is a demand for this. I've heard it direct from my customers. I actually work the other way in that I aggregate what you already post socially.

But I would look very hard at the financial side on this, I'm not sure you'll make enough money to warrant the effort.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#25

Post by fideloper » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

mebymyself wrote: post #16

vividmind wrote: post #9

Guys, I really love the "shouldwebuild" this concept! This is a great way to validate an idea. Can I borrow it for my concept please? :)

Should we build a "Should We Build ..." service? A service for validating business ideas?

Here's a flavor of the same idea: http://launchsky.com/ (I think posted on HN not too long ago)

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#26

Post by ed209 » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

bonzoesc wrote: post #19

Nope, because you didn't believe in it enough to build it, instead choosing to waste time posting on websites. Zuckerberg didn't ask if he should build Facebook, the GitHub founders didn't ask if they should make GitHub, and Jason Fried didn't ask if he should build 37signals.

You're saying it's better to invest months of time, thousands of dollars only to find nobody wants it?

For every Facebook you quote me, I'll show you 10,000 others that didn't succeed and instead wasted time and effort when they could have done some customer research exactly like this.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#27

Post by mnicole » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

If you're going to ask visitors to answer questions, don't force them to read over things they don't need to know before getting to the meat of it. Just say "Here are some concepts for a _______ app/service, based on these screenshots, would you actively use this tool? If no, what features would you need to use it?"

That said, the response will be from so many different people with different ideas of their ideal solution to this that it shouldn't used to determine the worth. People will try something if it exists, and they'd rather waste their time trying to use it than answering questions about what it is.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#28

Post by nate_martin » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

btipling wrote: post #17

Nope, because: (engineer * number of engineers) - (average monthly payment * number of customers) An engineer's salary at a small startup is at the very least $50,000, let's just round that down to $5,000 a month, so how long do you think it would take you to reach $15,000 a month in recurring revenue at what are probably $5 a month plans (this does not include any other costs such as office, servers etc). That's abo…

That's what VC is for.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#29

Post by RyanZAG » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:24 PM UTC

You should build this if you want to build it. It's something you can point to and say "Look, I built something awesome!".

But, chances are this will not be able to make money as it (1) requires user setup (2) will be fairly difficult to build - api integration is not that easy (3) most users simply don't care about what happens to their data until it is gone.

(3, my experience) goes directly against your Thesis #2. (1) goes against your Thesis #3 - users generally are not forward thinking enough to do something now that will only benefit them later. I'd say start on actually trying to test your Thesis #1-#3 before assuming them correct.

Re: diary.io - should we build this?

#30

Post by slovette » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 5:26 PM UTC

I would use it and I know a ton of other people who would too. Is it the next industry dominating creation? No, but I believe any service built on the backs of other services hardly ever are. The product path isn't unique enough and in the end you always rely on another business for yours to do well. Blah... It would be a ton of fun to build though and you’d make a lot of people very happy to have it, which is really why we all do what we do. Official label suggestion from me: Hobby Side Project. Build the cortex and open it up to the community for tweaks.