Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#21

Post by adventured » Sat, Aug 16, 2014, 9:05 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #16

chatmasta wrote: post #14

This is a two sided market, and many people see that as a challenge. However, one side of the market is unemployed people, who are generally desperate and willing to submit their resume just about anywhere. (Apologies if that sounds insensitive to anyone, but it's true in the general case.) Here's your strategy, at a high level: > 1. Acquire as many employee leads as possible. > 2. Sell the leads to companies. So you…

> feel free to lie about how many companies you have signed up. Say it's something like 1000. Is this really the sort of advice we give here?

It's a complicated line sometimes to walk.

Reddit for example faked their user base to get started, and have admitted such, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmeDzx4SUME

This is a common approach to demonstrating a product early on when there's little to no traction. If users show up and it's a ghost town, they will leave.

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#22

Post by chatmasta » Sat, Aug 16, 2014, 9:15 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #16

chatmasta wrote: post #14

This is a two sided market, and many people see that as a challenge. However, one side of the market is unemployed people, who are generally desperate and willing to submit their resume just about anywhere. (Apologies if that sounds insensitive to anyone, but it's true in the general case.) Here's your strategy, at a high level: > 1. Acquire as many employee leads as possible. > 2. Sell the leads to companies. So you…

> feel free to lie about how many companies you have signed up. Say it's something like 1000. Is this really the sort of advice we give here?

Lying is not always bad. In this case, it actually works out better for the employee:

OP lies -> More employee leads -> More companies interested

Employees want as many companies on board as possible, so they win.

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#23

Post by apinstein » Sat, Aug 16, 2014, 9:39 PM UTC

Competition isn't bad. Markets are huge, don't let that part scare you.

However, two-sided market startups are very, very hard. Unless your business model works before having a liquid market form, you're probably doomed. Especially as a 1-man startup, it just sounds crazy. The thing with 2-sided market business is that the more you succeed, the more you have to grow the business, and it's usually not profitable at first.

Unless you're willing to get external funding and be in it for the long-haul and be OK with a largely binary outcome in terms of success (complete failure or big success), this is the type of business scenario I'd advise against being the best place to apply your efforts.

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#24

Post by rl3 » Sat, Aug 16, 2014, 11:56 PM UTC

Generally speaking, large companies tend to suck at executing on anything but their core products. Other startups are a far greater threat, simply because they tend to move faster and with greater focus, usually with a much higher-quality product.

In this case though, I'd say the threat is about equal since eHarmony has a massive amount of users. Keep in mind that many startups looking to foster a two-sided market fail because they can't reach the minimum threshold of initial growth required for their product to work as intended.

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#25

Post by matt_panaro » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 2:24 PM UTC

Thanks a lot, everybody, for taking the time to read & respond. I'm grateful for the advice & encouragement.

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#26

Post by tptacek » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 7:10 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #21

afarrell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> feel free to lie about how many companies you have signed up. Say it's something like 1000. Is this really the sort of advice we give here?

It's a complicated line sometimes to walk. Reddit for example faked their user base to get started, and have admitted such, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmeDzx4SUME This is a common approach to demonstrating a product early on when there's little to no traction. If users show up and it's a ghost town, they will leave.

It's really not that complicated.

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#27

Post by afarrell » Tue, Aug 19, 2014, 11:58 PM UTC

chatmasta wrote: post #22

afarrell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> feel free to lie about how many companies you have signed up. Say it's something like 1000. Is this really the sort of advice we give here?

Lying is not always bad. In this case, it actually works out better for the employee: OP lies -> More employee leads -> More companies interested Employees want as many companies on board as possible, so they win.

If the OP is successful. If not, then the job-seeker just wasted effort. Which is fine if 1 OP does it, but if many people copycat...

Re: Ask HN: Established company planning same thing as 1-man startup – please advise

#28

Post by orionblastar » Wed, Aug 20, 2014, 1:51 AM UTC

Hire a lawyer, file IP for your code and invention, backdate it to the time you started and show the logs of your Git account as evidence.

Write the other company a C&D letter, that references you IP.

You need two things when you first start out a lawyer to file IP and an accountant to figure out your money flow and forms.