I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

There is more than money or contacts/network as reason to find investment from professionals/incubators; investors will tell you it's not viable or even a completely crazy idea. Even if you think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Re: I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

#5

Post by gabereiser » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 2:27 PM UTC

I would have pivoted and used the opportunity to provide leads to travel partners based on your web traffic to sustain finding that market fit for your product, but that's just me. It's hard. Really hard. When it's yours.

Re: I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

#6

Post by thegreenswede » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

You mention to not build the website, iOS app, and Android app all at once before getting market fit. Which of the three would you start with to quickly iterate and get feedback?

When you mention that you had to often walk into like a scuba shop to try to get a sign on, were people more receptive if you 'had an app for that' already?

Re: I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

#7

Post by 3pt14159 » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 2:30 PM UTC

zdragnar wrote: post #3

cjgustafson222 wrote: post #2

Don't start a marketplace without doing your homework.

Doing your homework is no guarantee of success... It certainly helps, though.

Easiest way to start the marketplace is to be a large part of one side of the market first. It's possible to do it other ways (pivot showcasing working into selling work) but it's usually in a much narrower vertical.

Re: I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

#8

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 2:31 PM UTC

tluyben2 wrote: post #4

There is more than money or contacts/network as reason to find investment from professionals/incubators; investors will tell you it's not viable or even a completely crazy idea. Even if you think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

If it's a good idea - 80% of it is still going to pay off. Just raise money & diversity risk.

Re: I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

#9

Post by blagie » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 2:31 PM UTC

I have a very high level of scepticism towards non-technical founders without deep pockets:

1. There's an agility to being able to change things yourself, at 2am if necessary. That's very important to startups.

2. There's a discipline to not accruing unreasonable technical debt of the type that will sink you two years in that you can't expect from someone who doesn't deeply care.

3. Managing devs generally requires understanding what's going on. Unless you're ready to hire a CTO with a track record, a non-technical person can't do that.

There's also a long tail-end of reasons. For example, prototyping and tinkering nights and weekends is "free," and can contribute a surprising amount of value. It can't be managed, though; you can't just pay other people to play around, and expect that to be focused in ways which might add value.

*Every* time I've personally seen the playbook of a non-tech founders for a tech startup, it didn't end well.

Re: I lost $209k of my own money trying to start a business

#10

Post by andsoitis » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 2:33 PM UTC

The first heading reads “marketplace for last-minute tours and activities”, followed by a paragraph that says “industry where 80% of bookings were still done using pen and paper, months ahead of time”

How is something done both “months ahead of time” and “last-minute”?