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I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

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Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#281

Post by f6v »

dan-robertson wrote: post #64
xivzgrev wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that was the point. The point was better healthcare doesn’t necessarily translate to more revenue. Healthcare is weird like that - you get paid a flat fee for visits. There might be an argument to be made that better prescriptions = happier patients = more retention, but it’s a stretch. If your practice is already booked full what’s the point? This biz was clearly made for consumers but yea ads are toug…

Yeah I agree that’s the point of the article. I think what I wrote would still be a reason even if it is rationalised differently. The argument that “patients won’t know the difference so I can just do whatever” must break down at some point (hopefully before malpractice) but I think an argument of “I’ll just keep doing what I did before, it’s worked fine so far” doesn’t encourage worsening treatment or paying for mo…

As somebody said here, first line drug is prescribed since it’s know to work based on experience. Any experimentation puts too much unwanted responsibility on the doctor.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#282

Post by wartijn_ »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #255
Gatsky wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article was posted before several years ago. The whole premise is bumptious - "I can copy data out of a bunch of papers [which I am in no position to screen for quality or relevance], run a canned 'gold standard' analysis in R [the idea that there is one true way to generate valid data is ridiculous], and then go tell the professionals what they are doing wrong." He even brags that his meta-analysis for depressi…

With all the negative pushback this is getting, it’s making me think he was onto something. The exact same criticisms would apply to Airbnb, for example. “They have not the slightest idea how the hotel industry works. This is a very professional industry with a lot of legal hurdles...”

Aren't you falling for the survivorship bias trap? Sure, people have said that about Airbnb. But I think there are loads of that startups that failed because they didn't understand the industry they were in, or because of legal hurdles.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#284

Post by ascar »

JanisL wrote: post #260
sxg wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I believe your experience, and I think it highlights the issues we have with communication in medicine. While it may look like your doctor is just blindly Googling something, I would imagine they're probably using it as more of a reference source (at least that's what I often do). I regularly use radiopaedia.org just to look up a quick fact or find alternative examples of a diagnosis I'm working with. It's like…

> Obviously no programmer is solely relying on StackOverflow to do their job I've encountered a few people who were doing something very close to this. I really hope that doesn't happen in medicine too.

That's down to the (obvious) fact that job performance and working ethics is not equal but distributed among practitioners.

I think this is especially visible in software "engineering" with people joining the craft after a few weeks of boot camp. (think engineering vs programming)

However, we put doctors through an especially rigorous and long training and certification process to minimize the amount of unqualified practitioners.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#285

Post by jitix »

I think it's a great idea but looking at the product I'd say that the value proposition isn't enough for anyone to buy a subscription. Maybe an ad supported website (like WebMD) that licensed professionals could check to validate their own assertions.

Also "$0.50/year per user" is actually a great amount if the site was made for a global audience.

And as an AWS cloud engineer I'm actually curious at the AWS cost breakdown. If done properly this kind of data processing and site hosting costs would be trivial.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#287

Post by jeanlucas »

jitix wrote: post #285

I think it's a great idea but looking at the product I'd say that the value proposition isn't enough for anyone to buy a subscription. Maybe an ad supported website (like WebMD) that licensed professionals could check to validate their own assertions. Also "$0.50/year per user" is actually a great amount if the site was made for a global audience. And as an AWS cloud engineer I'm actually curious at the AWS cost brea…

Yeah, this is the kind of project that could fly really well as an "indie hacker" style. Just one person running it all. Today's cloud tools allow that.

edit: but I don't think that's what the author wanted. Not really sure what they wanted, to have full success by month #8? Drop it all for an idea not even tested yet sounds very very amateur.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#289

Post by jeanlucas »

abiogenesis wrote: post #152
chadash wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$40K is not much to put into a business. You'd likely be putting down more than that just to open a convenience store. Sure you need to spend a lot of money to grow a $1B+ business, but the same is true for a $100M business or a $10M business and even most $1M businesses.

$40K is not much to put into a business but it's a lot to spend before you validate your idea.

40K is a lot to spend on an idea you didn't even try to sell or check how to make money on it.

Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea

#290

Post by ddorian43 »

perl4ever wrote: post #226
ddorian43 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do they have such fragile egos that they can't have someone showing them the "new Google for doctors" without feeling offended? It's very hard to understand their thinking without being yourself a patient or doctor. TLDR: You need to spend 1K hours as a doctor, or shadowing, or something similar. When you are responsible for people with psychosis your perspective changes. Can't play nosql games with people's lives.

One has to be accepting that medical professionals are not superhuman and don't have magic bullets for chronic illness. But I don't know where you are coming from with such a pompous statement about being "responsible" for psychosis. The minimum "responsibility" that I can imagine being taken for a patient who has a crisis would be to move a regular appointment up after (or before) they land in the ER, and in the hea…

It's nothing special, just a job. But people are perplexed and they can't imagine why doctors are like that. I said you have to do the hours to understand, nothing special.
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