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I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

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Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#71

Post by fauigerzigerk »

ecuzzillo wrote: post #22

This is a bit like saying "I have a great idea for a painting. Will you paint it for me, and then give me half the money you get from selling it?"

ecuzzillo, I've been running the marketing department of a well known retailer for 10 years. I think I have discovered a way to use data from social networking sites to enhance the models we've been using to analyse particular buying patterns. Obviously, I know a few people in the industry and everybody agrees that this idea has huge potential. I'm thinking of starting my own business to explore this further. Would you be willing to join me? I gather you are a great hacker with some maths and statistics skills, is that right? Oh you say you're not going to paint my picture... too bad. I guess I should learn Python ;-)

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#72

Post by SwellJoe »

dorait wrote: post #15

There are several ways you can go about this: 1. Create a simple prototype that demonstrates the core ideas of the concept and show it to a few people (you trust). You may be able to attract some good developers if it appeals to them. 2. Start a blog and talk about how your idea may benefit some potential customers. See whether any one shows interest. 3. Go to one of the startup meet ups (www.meetup.com) in your area…

"6. You can start a project in one of the open source communities like sourceforge put some high level specs and see whether any one will be interested in joining you."

This is a rather persistent myth about Open Source. It's entirely fiction. If you post a working version to sf.net, you'll probably get a few bug reports and a few questions. If you work on it for a year, and do something really valuable to a lot of people, you'll see a few patches. If you work on it for another year, and continue to add value for a large technical audience, you may have a few parties who are interested in joining the project in a serious way.

Open Source software does not spring into existence. Nearly every project has one (or more) extremely dedicated developers pushing it forward every day. A non-programmer wishing something into existence is not going to make anything happen. I promise.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#73

Post by deltapoint »

ecuzzillo wrote: post #22

This is a bit like saying "I have a great idea for a painting. Will you paint it for me, and then give me half the money you get from selling it?"

Thats what art galleries do, but they give the freedom to the artist and then decide whether the painting is "good" enough. This is more like contract work where someone would get payed to do murals or portraits and that too is commonplace. Also a webapp's popularity will mainly have to do with the quality of the idea and how well it is marketed and publicized, much of the programming necessary is relatively elementary.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#74

Post by jamiequint »

stillmotion wrote: post #35
ecuzzillo wrote: post #22

This is a bit like saying "I have a great idea for a painting. Will you paint it for me, and then give me half the money you get from selling it?"

Sounds like Andy Warhol.

or Dale Chihuly (see http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html)

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#75

Post by jamiequint »

ardit33 wrote: post #60
augustus wrote: post #28

The fact that you don't know programming is no big deal. Being a programmer for over 12 years and looking forward to my next startup, what I can tell you is that ideas do matter. Consider this.The same amount of time that Google spend building a billion dollar startup is what a two bit outfit spends generating a million dollars. Or another that goes belly up. In other words ideas and execution equally matter. Maybe e…

That's complete bullsh!t. It is execution that matters. Ideas are a dime a dozen. What google did was excellent execution of an non-original idea (there were lots of search engines at that time). Look at the UConnect vs. Facebook. vs. that other dude that that the same idea. Facebook was able to execute much faster and better and got traction, while Uconnect is just crap, and they have to resort to lawsuits. Sure, if…

Maybe thats true if the idea is "lets make a better search engine" but thats not much of an idea. If the idea is "lets make a better search engine that uses a unique ranking system based on links to estimate the popularity of any given page" then I'd say the idea is worth something.

The probable difference between ConnectU and Facebook? Facebook spammed all of Harvard to get its initial traction, ConnectU didn't.

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#76

Post by chaostheory »

run4yourlives wrote: post #45
ecuzzillo wrote: post #22

This is a bit like saying "I have a great idea for a painting. Will you paint it for me, and then give me half the money you get from selling it?"

Your analogy is apt. What you (like a lot of programmers) fail to realize is that selling a painting is extraordinarily difficult. They didn't coin the phrase "starving artist" for fun.

The problem is unless you're guy kawasaki, kevin rose, or some serial entreprenuer/misc luminary what proof do you have that you can outsell someone who can program?

(hypothetically if this is the case:) it's really hard to convince someone of your value if you can't even sell it to an angel or vc, and have cash as proof

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#77

Post by run4yourlives »

chaostheory wrote: post #76
run4yourlives wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your analogy is apt. What you (like a lot of programmers) fail to realize is that selling a painting is extraordinarily difficult. They didn't coin the phrase "starving artist" for fun.

The problem is unless you're guy kawasaki, kevin rose, or some serial entreprenuer/misc luminary what proof do you have that you can outsell someone who can program? (hypothetically if this is the case:) it's really hard to convince someone of your value if you can't even sell it to an angel or vc, and have cash as proof

Have you ever seem most programmers give a presentation?

Enough said I think. :-)

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#78

Post by chaostheory »

run4yourlives wrote: post #77
chaostheory wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is unless you're guy kawasaki, kevin rose, or some serial entreprenuer/misc luminary what proof do you have that you can outsell someone who can program? (hypothetically if this is the case:) it's really hard to convince someone of your value if you can't even sell it to an angel or vc, and have cash as proof

Have you ever seem most programmers give a presentation? Enough said I think. :-)

that's a stereotype that not all programmers fall into... especially the ones that do it out of the necessity of seeing their idea come to life as opposed to love of puzzles alone

not all business people are too proud to step outside of their comfort zone and learn something new...

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#79

Post by chaostheory »

augustus wrote: post #28

The fact that you don't know programming is no big deal. Being a programmer for over 12 years and looking forward to my next startup, what I can tell you is that ideas do matter. Consider this.The same amount of time that Google spend building a billion dollar startup is what a two bit outfit spends generating a million dollars. Or another that goes belly up. In other words ideas and execution equally matter. Maybe e…

I could be wrong, but referencing the Forbes survey that you cited - the results went against your conclusion...

Idea vs Execution (or which one is more important) votes:

------------------------

Arthur Blank: both

Tim Blixseth: both

Otis Booth: Execution

Mark Cuban: Execution

Gerald Ford: both

Danny Gilbert: Execution

Kennet Hendricks: both

Wayne Huizenga: Execution

George Kaiser: both

Michael llitch: Idea

William Moncrief: Idea

Phillip Ruffin: Idea

Jorge Perez: Execution

James Sorenson: both

------------------------

Both are equally important (tie): 6 votes

Execution: 5 votes

Idea: 3 votes

Conclusion: Execution wins

Re: I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?

#80

Post by joshwa »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #71
ecuzzillo wrote: post #22

This is a bit like saying "I have a great idea for a painting. Will you paint it for me, and then give me half the money you get from selling it?"

ecuzzillo, I've been running the marketing department of a well known retailer for 10 years. I think I have discovered a way to use data from social networking sites to enhance the models we've been using to analyse particular buying patterns. Obviously, I know a few people in the industry and everybody agrees that this idea has huge potential. I'm thinking of starting my own business to explore this further. Would y…

email me... contact info in my profile.
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