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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

#381

Post by hef19898 »

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.

Nitpic on Napoleon, cannons were used centuries before him in sieges. People knew they were good all along.

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

#382

Post by acvny »

Yes, I read this article several years ago. Why is it reposted with a recent date?

Anyway, besides all the BS the author wrote, I didn't see the business model. What was the basic - dumb business model?

So you find which is the best painkiller. So what? How do you charge users for this? This is one-time info. Once we all agree which is the best, why would anyone pay you for this?

And why the fuck did you draw diagrams on your parents' windows? Have you watched the facebook movie too many times?

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

#383

Post by acvny »

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.

Yes, they wanted cars before the cars got invented. The wanted greater speed, more comfort, less trouble. People didn't care whether it took the shape of a "car" or of a "sdflkjsdkj". As long as the invention satisfied their needs, people were willing to pay for it. This stands true always.

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

#385

Post by hef19898 »

cko wrote: post #263
nickjj wrote: post #9

That was a fun read. I wish the author mentioned how much he was trying to sell the service for. It could have been $59 a month or $599 a month and with doctors you could potentially expect the same answer. I'm not a psychologist but some of the author's quoted text came off extremely demeaning in written form. If the author happens to read this, did you really say those things directly to them? For example, Susan (p…

It was indeed a fun read. As a pharmacist I had a similar 'idea' years ago and got two other pharmacists excited. We were sick of seeing prescribers not follow 'Evidence based medicine' and thought maybe something that took Cochrane Meta Analyses and UpToDate info in a nice interface would be amazing. > I started babbling about network meta-analyses, statistical power, and p-values, but he cut me off. > "Yeah okay th…

It also sonds a lot like more than one tech / data scientist I met. Applying statistics and tch to a domain they have zero experience in. Kind of giving calculators to 1st grades and hope they know whether or not the results are correct.

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

#386

Post by hef19898 »

yunohn wrote: post #45
nickjj wrote: post #9

That was a fun read. I wish the author mentioned how much he was trying to sell the service for. It could have been $59 a month or $599 a month and with doctors you could potentially expect the same answer. I'm not a psychologist but some of the author's quoted text came off extremely demeaning in written form. If the author happens to read this, did you really say those things directly to them? For example, Susan (p…

You’d be surprised how many doctors neglect the state of the art in medicine... That’s also why second opinions are a thing. Medicine is a science and hence, an ever changing field.

A second opinion is a mainly a thing because different people have different approaches. And they can be both correct.

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

#387

Post by hef19898 »

Aeolun wrote: post #266
nickjj wrote: post #9

That was a fun read. I wish the author mentioned how much he was trying to sell the service for. It could have been $59 a month or $599 a month and with doctors you could potentially expect the same answer. I'm not a psychologist but some of the author's quoted text came off extremely demeaning in written form. If the author happens to read this, did you really say those things directly to them? For example, Susan (p…

Just because someone spends 30 years learning something does not mean they learned the right thing.

Just because you didn't have 30 years of learning doesn't mean you know better.

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

#388

Post by DanBC »

mattowen_uk wrote: post #345
GordonS wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll just prescribe what I normally do, since I'm comfortable with it This is actually something that drives me absolutely nuts about doctors in the UK (I presume they are the same elsewhere) - inertia . It's like doctors leave medical school with "best practices" about what they should prescribe - like they are glorified, human decision trees - and then across their 40-year career, they never read a paper, never r…

There is also the 'NHS approved medication' list that they can only prescribe from, which restricts whats available to you, and it takes years for something newish to make it onto that list (for reasons...) If you want better options, the only choice in the UK is private healthcare. But yeah, I do still agree with you - GPs don't seem to even be up-to speed on the latest info with regard to a patients condition - sur…

None of this is true.

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

#389

Post by jacobr1 »

overscore wrote: post #321
conductr wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big chunk of that $20B is on high cost ads to the general public, which doesn’t occur in many other parts of the world. It’s a backwards system when a patient is told to ask their doctor for a prescription to a medication by the company that manufactures said medication.

Yes, one of the few culture shocks when I lived in America was pharmaceutical advertising to the public. Another was constant political advertising on TV.

It is also a source of culture shock for Americans like me who visit friends and relatives that watch television. I mean, I watch netflix, but haven't ever had a cable subscription, and while I have a digital antena, I pretty much never use it. Visiting a home where the TV is on constantly is shocking, with all the ads and the viewpoints presented. It really shows how much the media fracturing is helping drive the political divide in the country too. I can't really imagine having those messages constantly pounded into my head.

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

#390

Post by perl4ever »

jacobion wrote: post #335
perl4ever wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, people seem to have evolved to consider nicotine products (for instance) more opposed to the abstract mission of a drugstore than homeopathic products. I have never smoked or vaped or anything, but it's the homeopathic OTC meds that viscerally upset me, that they should be allowed on the shelves.

Isn't there a social benefit in letting the 10% (or whatever) of people that believe in them get a safe and effective placebo, for many conditions where that's all that's needed?

I see belief in the "placebo effect" as a mind virus. Because it is not just a justification for lying to patients, but entails medical people lying to themselves.

I get tired trying to explain, and if I'm not convincing anyone, maybe it's me who doesn't understand...but, I feel like the key is to ask yourself, if the placebo effect is something that you can scientifically demonstrate, how would you arrange a control group?

Failure to identify a reason for an apparent effect cannot be turned into proof that "nothing" has an effect. It's just a mental short circuit that people get trapped in.

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