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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

#301

Post by konschubert »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #267
stevewodil wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually a very good sales question, I don't find it demeaning at all. If you're on a sales call selling a product that increases user retention and someone says "no we don't need that", you would often reply with "So you have perfect user retention then?" to probe them and re-open the conversation. It could come off as standoffish but when used correctly it's very effective because it gets the person on the oth…

Arg I HATE that angle ! It's like that sales calls.. "Do you like money ?".. if you say no thank you I"m busy... they like... oh so you don't like free money ?

beep beep beep

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

#302

Post by ThePhysicist »

IMHO most articles about medical conditions should be banned or severely downranked by Google, as they create far more problems than they solve. Over the years I've freaked out several times because I googled some symptoms I had and of course was presented with a slew of SEO-optimized articles that associate them with serious diseases. The thing is, those articles are mostly written by marketing folks that rephrase stuff from Wikipedia or medical literature, but without knowing anything about the conditions they write about. The sole purpose of these articles is to increase the page rank of a website and generate page views that can be monetized. Of course it's like that with almost every topic on the Internet, it's still highly unethical though as it incites unwarranted, existential fears in people.

Presenting medical trials and statistics to an uninitiated reader will probably also cause more harm than benefit, so it's good he canned this idea.

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

#303

Post by fasteo »

Not directly. Of course I always have the best interests of my patients in mind, but, you know, it's not like they'll pay more if I prescribe Lexapro instead of Zoloft. They won't come back more often or refer more friends. So I'd sorta just be, like, donating this money if I paid you for this thing, right?

Coming from a Doctor, this is extremely worrisome and borderline inmoral

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

#304

Post by sillysaurusx »

coldtea wrote: post #296
sillysaurusx wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, one failure = the idea is horrible. Another classic trope.

Well, the idea was rejected by patients, advertising revenue, and doctors... I also note the "weasel word" idea. This wasn't just an idea, but an implementation. The same thing might make sense as a value-added feature in a more comprehensive health service (so the "idea" might be good when put in that use). But as an idea for a service based entirely on it, it failed hard. What exactly twist do you have in mind to s…

If you study a lot of history, you start to notice that old ideas are bad until they’re suddenly very good. Cannons sucked for a long time, till Napoleon showed they weren’t so bad.

I think posting haughty words is a lot easier than trying to make something work.

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

#305

Post by netsharc »

gnicholas wrote: post #71

Previously discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21947551 Weird that the blog post is dated Oct 2020 but was apparently discussed on HN in Jan 2020...

IIRC blogs with fresher dates are ranked higher, or maybe people just click them more. Just the author practicing low-level SEO spamming, I guess.

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

#306

Post by splendidHaiku »

coldtea wrote: post #291

> Make something people want. It's Y-Combinator's motto and a maxim of aspiring internet entrepreneurs. The idea is that if you build something truly awesome, you'll figure out a way to make some money off of it. So I built something people wanted. Consumers wanted it, doctors wanted it, I wanted it. Where did I go wrong? I'm not sure he still gets it. He didn't built something people want (even less so want enough t…

Does not always work like that. Did people „want“ cars when there were only horses. Or Facebook when there was just email. Sometimes you build something and only after people realise that they want built thing.

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

#307

Post by username90 »

breakyerself wrote: post #297
coldtea wrote: post #291

> Make something people want. It's Y-Combinator's motto and a maxim of aspiring internet entrepreneurs. The idea is that if you build something truly awesome, you'll figure out a way to make some money off of it. So I built something people wanted. Consumers wanted it, doctors wanted it, I wanted it. Where did I go wrong? I'm not sure he still gets it. He didn't built something people want (even less so want enough t…

If it had succeeded and was ad based I'm certain I would have used it occasionally assuming I knew about it.

Some would like it, however the problem is that you wouldn't use it enough for it to be worth it to him to build it. Quote:

> Turns out the world's biggest health website makes about $0.50/year per user. That is...not enough money to bootstrap GlacierMD.

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

#308

Post by coldtea »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #304
coldtea wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the idea was rejected by patients, advertising revenue, and doctors... I also note the "weasel word" idea. This wasn't just an idea, but an implementation. The same thing might make sense as a value-added feature in a more comprehensive health service (so the "idea" might be good when put in that use). But as an idea for a service based entirely on it, it failed hard. What exactly twist do you have in mind to s…

If you study a lot of history, you start to notice that old ideas are bad until they’re suddenly very good. Cannons sucked for a long time, till Napoleon showed they weren’t so bad. I think posting haughty words is a lot easier than trying to make something work.

>If you study a lot of history, you start to notice that old ideas are bad until they’re suddenly very good.

Also the opposite: dumb ideas are tried again and again to no avail ever.

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

#309

Post by coldtea »

splendidHaiku wrote: post #306
coldtea wrote: post #291

> Make something people want. It's Y-Combinator's motto and a maxim of aspiring internet entrepreneurs. The idea is that if you build something truly awesome, you'll figure out a way to make some money off of it. So I built something people wanted. Consumers wanted it, doctors wanted it, I wanted it. Where did I go wrong? I'm not sure he still gets it. He didn't built something people want (even less so want enough t…

Does not always work like that. Did people „want“ cars when there were only horses. Or Facebook when there was just email. Sometimes you build something and only after people realise that they want built thing.

>Did people „want“ cars when there were only horses.

That's not the right question (as based on the well-known quote).

The right question is: if I showed people a car on actual paved roads, with its load capacity and speed benefits over horses, would they jump for it?

And they did.

But for this thing, they didn't.

This person didn't merely talk about his yet un-made app to some people who couldn't even imagine what could be.

He showcased it, working in full form, and different target audiences could not care less.

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