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I'm also curious about the bank integration issue, but I'm tired of people saying things like why app x or website y "couldn't be functional in the first week".

by Xyik 10y ago

I'm also curious about the bank integration issue, but I'm tired of people saying things like why app x or website y "couldn't be functional in the first week". have you launched an app that you expect to build a company out of? it takes a lot more work than most people think. people love to over-simplify building software by saying 'its just an app', oh, twitter is just a list of sorted strings, seriously try building a solid, fleshed out product you expect thousands of users to use in 1 week. it's not that easy.

xigency 10y ago
Fair points. I really am commenting as an outsider, so don't think that I speak from experience. As a programmer, though, I am much more interested in seeing something built than in selling it or seeing it become popular, which fair enough are the next two places a startup can fail. "One week" is also hyperbole because it isn't possible to deploy anything in that amount of time, so maybe in the first six-months is a fairer comparison.
- lmm 10y ago
  > "One week" is also hyperbole because it isn't possible to deploy anything in that amount of time, so maybe in the first six-months is a fairer comparison. Not true. One week is plenty of time to plonk down a website in a basic CMS with an email form, or even a bit of code that sends you a daily spreadsheet of orders or whatever. Often that's all you need to validate the idea.
  - schwarrrtz 10y ago
    Yup, and you can even spend $50 on AdWords and estimate your CAC by measuring conversion rates.
xigency 10y ago
Reading a bit more into the financial side of things — PayPal users must be 18 or must be using their parent's account. Adults can have one personal and one business account, so that wouldn't really work. It also isn't easy to get a plastic PayPal card. I hadn't thought about the minor accounts which obviously complicates things. It would have been harder to pitch but easier to start with small payments between friends in the app and work back around to the chores/PiggyBank idea. Still seems reasonable to expect a parent to set up a bank account for their child and then facilitate PayPal deposits into an account. ACH deposits have low fees but they're delayed one or two days. Was instant gratification the blocking factor? Why not use Bitcoin, for the hell of it. So I don't see what the problem is with — supply your own debit card, child's bank account, and adult PayPal account — then sign-up and press on.
galistoca 10y ago
It is true that it's not easy. But one's job as a founder is to find a way to "make it functional in the first week". They even have a whole startup jargon for it--"Lean startup/MVP". You can sit and just complain how difficult it is and not do anything about it, or you can find a way to validate your hypothesis little by little. Again, I know this is not easy, but the OP should at least realize the reason he failed was not because the world fucked him up, it was because he couldn't come up with a clever way to validate his vision despite the difficulty. The better approach in this case would have been to figure out a way to release an MVP without trying to rely on an assumption that the bank deal will go through. There could have been many approaches like others pointed out in this thread.
morgante 10y ago
> it's not that easy. It really is. I do a lot of contracting for startups and the vast majority of launchable MVPs can be built in a week.

by Xyik 10y ago

xigency 10y ago

Fair points. I really am commenting as an outsider, so don't think that I speak from experience. As a programmer, though, I am much more interested in seeing something built than in selling it or seeing it become popular, which fair enough are the next two places a startup can fail. "One week" is also hyperbole because it isn't possible to deploy anything in that amount of time, so maybe in the first six-months is a fairer comparison.

lmm 10y ago
> "One week" is also hyperbole because it isn't possible to deploy anything in that amount of time, so maybe in the first six-months is a fairer comparison. Not true. One week is plenty of time to plonk down a website in a basic CMS with an email form, or even a bit of code that sends you a daily spreadsheet of orders or whatever. Often that's all you need to validate the idea.
- schwarrrtz 10y ago
  Yup, and you can even spend $50 on AdWords and estimate your CAC by measuring conversion rates.

xigency 10y ago

Reading a bit more into the financial side of things — PayPal users must be 18 or must be using their parent's account. Adults can have one personal and one business account, so that wouldn't really work. It also isn't easy to get a plastic PayPal card. I hadn't thought about the minor accounts which obviously complicates things. It would have been harder to pitch but easier to start with small payments between friends in the app and work back around to the chores/PiggyBank idea. Still seems reasonable to expect a parent to set up a bank account for their child and then facilitate PayPal deposits into an account. ACH deposits have low fees but they're delayed one or two days. Was instant gratification the blocking factor? Why not use Bitcoin, for the hell of it. So I don't see what the problem is with — supply your own debit card, child's bank account, and adult PayPal account — then sign-up and press on.

galistoca 10y ago

It is true that it's not easy. But one's job as a founder is to find a way to "make it functional in the first week". They even have a whole startup jargon for it--"Lean startup/MVP". You can sit and just complain how difficult it is and not do anything about it, or you can find a way to validate your hypothesis little by little. Again, I know this is not easy, but the OP should at least realize the reason he failed was not because the world fucked him up, it was because he couldn't come up with a clever way to validate his vision despite the difficulty. The better approach in this case would have been to figure out a way to release an MVP without trying to rely on an assumption that the bank deal will go through. There could have been many approaches like others pointed out in this thread.

morgante 10y ago

> it's not that easy. It really is. I do a lot of contracting for startups and the vast majority of launchable MVPs can be built in a week.