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Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

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Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#1
I always knew that I'm no native hacker.

As I observe more and more projects announced here that were made during a weekend or in 6 hours, I know for sure:

I will never be able to create a side project in a few hours, setup a website and build the accompanying app to have it all sold before my next monday morning post at HN.

I think, I wouldn't even try this...

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#5
No one has ever created a "startup" over the weekend.

A startup is a company, attempting to figure out a scalable business model, by creating a product, marketing it, generating revenue, earning profit, etc.

Something created over a weekend, or 6 hours, may be a cool app, or a neat product idea, but is certainly not a startup.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#6
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Michael Jordan.

"Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?" -- your title suggests that you've tried, but your words say you haven't.

Don't disqualify yourself before you try, because until you try, you really never know

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#7
For one thing, you should take phrases like "weekend project" with a grain of salt. People who share their projects on HN know they're facing a tough crowd, and understating their time investment is one way to deflect the inevitable nitpicks. Add to that the typical hacker bravado factor, and you can assume the real figure is well more than whatever you read.

That's not to say that anyone is being deliberately dishonest. Most "weekend" projects borrow code from weekday jobs, layouts from ThemeForest, and ideas from weeks of idle brainstorming. It's easy to forget in retrospect all of the time that went into laying that groundwork.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#8
I feel building a project from scratch with nothing in a weekend is no hugely likely. Most people I figure have all there ducks lined up so they are ready to hit the ground running 6pm Friday night.

An idea, maybe a rough wireframe all IDE's and tools ready to go.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#9
Keep in mind that the number of "weekend" startups compared to the number of people hacking on the weekend is very small. The quantity of successful weekend projects is even smaller.

Every now and then someone gets a good idea that is quick to implement and they are prepared/experienced enough to execute it well, but it doesn't happen as often as your post implies.

Stop beating yourself up! Get back to making something you think is cool!

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. -- Thomas Edison.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only one who can't create a startup at the weekend?

#10
Most semi-competent developers can build SOMEthing in a weekend, but the trick is making something that actually works at scale, or works for more than a single user, or providing any kind of audit trail. In short, almost all weekend projects are a hack.

The big features that people like, the UI/UX polish that makes it easy to use, the scalable backend that lets it work under load -- those things aren't generally even considered for a weekend project.

That's not to say that there aren't some people who don't produce brilliance over a weekend, but it really is the exception, not the rule.

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