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I wandered off and built an IDE

blog.querystorm.com

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Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#211

Post by dhimes »

convolvatron wrote: post #201
rsp1984 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's worth pointing out that in order to "sell" to investors (as opposed to customers), having the product (and the customers!) ready actually is very important. So the proper sequence is: 1. Sell. 2. Build. 3. Pitch to investors. 4. Repeat with more resources. Inexperienced non-technical founders sometimes get the steps 1-3 backwards.

reconciling creativity with the market is a really longstanding problem in lots of areas. so I'm really interested in discussion that leads to any insight. I'm curious about 1 before 2. Any attempt I've made in the past to understand market interest without having something that people can actually touch has always been really squishy. People aren't that interested to talk, when you do they always say something like…

Yeah I tried this too and you're right: people will say they will buy stuff, but when it's time to pull out their wallet it's often a different story.

I think that is why point 1 is "Sell," not "Interview" or "Imaginary sell." For example, some people put up a web page, run some ads, and have a complete signup process that once the CC is entered they get a "thanks for your interest- we'll be in touch when we get it built and by the way we didn't really charge your CC."

We've had discussions before on this board about whether or not that's ethical, IIRC.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#212

Post by xeonoex »

gigatexal wrote: post #148

I hope Microsoft gives you a ton of money and hires you to make Excel like this. VBA is so crap. And this looks amazing.

I hope so too. I've used QueryStorm for a year or so. I try to avoid Excel as much as possible, but when I have to use it, I can spend 4 hour learning the Excel/VBA way to do something, or 1 minute and write it in SQL. It doesn't make sense how this isn't in Excel already.

Seriously. Try to do a join and some simple data manipulation/aggregation in Excel without this. Or try to emulate SQL minus/except. You'll Google for simple answers using the UI, and those probably don't even solve your exact problem, then dig until you find some that seem correct, try to implement them, and then realizes it doesn't work for some unknown reason. Then either give in and write VBA to do it (which also sucks), or pull it out of Excel and put in something that uses a good language.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#213

Post by anakic »

neonate wrote: post #206

Posted seven times before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13114421 (64 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030 (34 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11583488 (111 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10991747 (1 comment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9783022 (64 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9359128 (10 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Yeah, it pretty easy to see it in my history, congrats. I posted about the project multiple times while I was working on it over the last four years. I also mention posting on HackerNews in the article.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#215

Post by anakic »

extrememacaroni wrote: post #210
neonate wrote: post #206

Posted seven times before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13114421 (64 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030 (34 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11583488 (111 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10991747 (1 comment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9783022 (64 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9359128 (10 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

Looks like this attempt is the winner!

Absolutely!:) I didn't expect this at all. I had to write 5 articles as part of my last milestone for HugeThing (accelerator) and share them somewhere. I wrote four technical ones in a day and a half. I then struggled with this one for three days. Had no idea where I'd share it or if I was going to use it at all. Finished it up this morning, and figured what the heck, I'll post it on HN. Probably no one's going to read it. Holy moly, was I wrong. Immediately posted on Reddit too, where it went through the roof.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#216

Post by brianpgordon »

sgc wrote: post #185
bluGill wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes. Most builders work both ways: They one's I've worked with closely seem to be about 3/4ths build to order, 1/4th build for sale after. The spec houses are carefully designed to be cheap to build (without sacrificing quality) and look great on the market so they will sell/close fast. Builders want a good looking spec house to show potential custom buyers.

Even when they build spec houses (sometimes crap), they are paid first / at milestones by a bank or investor group. They don't hesitate to take on the job because they are confident in their capacities, which is my main point.

Building a house is very different from building a product. For example, timeline estimates for building a house can be reasonably ascertained; not so for software.

It's the distinction between building something you've built before and architecting a new bridge or building. The latter is a creative effort with lots of variables that are extraordinarily hard to pin down into estimates that would be acceptable in spec house construction.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#217

Post by stickfigure »

neonate wrote: post #206

Posted seven times before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13114421 (64 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030 (34 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11583488 (111 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10991747 (1 comment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9783022 (64 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9359128 (10 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

This article is not a repeat. You're being unnecessarily dismissive of what is actually a pretty entertaining read.

Congratulations anakic, I hope it takes off.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#218

Post by d6de964 »

xor1 wrote: post #112
akuji1993 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope the ex-girlfriend was either unrelated or a joke, otherwise, i don't really consider OP a good person.. There's only so much time you should spend instead of doing something with your loved ones.. I know, I'd probably drop my project at some point in the evening to get back to my girlfriend or wife.

I would be 100% behind my partner in a similar situation, if she were building something and putting so much time and energy into it. I would love to find someone like that, actually.

I would love to find someone to love, chemistry is a very hard thing.

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#219

Post by mdpye »

brianpgordon wrote: post #216
sgc wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even when they build spec houses (sometimes crap), they are paid first / at milestones by a bank or investor group. They don't hesitate to take on the job because they are confident in their capacities, which is my main point.

Building a house is very different from building a product. For example, timeline estimates for building a house can be reasonably ascertained; not so for software. It's the distinction between building something you've built before and architecting a new bridge or building. The latter is a creative effort with lots of variables that are extraordinarily hard to pin down into estimates that would be acceptable in spec…

So, your spec house is the yet-another-crud-webapp, where the spec is clear and the tech mature... Engineers do those too, but they aren't so much entrepreneurs as jobbing contractors or agencies

Re: I wandered off and built an IDE

#220

Post by humbleMouse »

dhimes wrote: post #53
xyproto wrote: post #17

@anakic That was an enjoyable read! I have also tried qutting my job as a developer, tried making money by working for myself (and focusing on developing features instead of actually making money, same as you), then returning to a "proper job" as an engineer. There were many recognizable moments in the blog post. I once took a course in entrepreneurship, as a distraction from computer science, and the bottom line is…

But, as a developer, it's soul-wrenching and just feels wrong to try to sell something before something proper has even been made. This has been my biggest struggle.

IMO, once you reach a certain level of comfortability as a developer it doesn't feel wrong at all to try to sell something before it's made.

I know I could solve whatever problem it is by leveraging a lot of my existing patterns and code. Once you know enough about a domain the coding and configuration becomes an afterthought.

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