4 ms·

I'm not going to get involved in a flame war, but I'll just say 99% of the time ideas are worthless. Execution is what matters.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
tjholowaychuk 9y ago
Not when you have to actually make money haha. Can't really execute without money, that's the entire point of startups, starve out the little guy with your free offerings until you can sell the team and hype.
- nodesocket 9y ago
  Well, as somebody who tried building a bootstrapped and self funded Node.js PaaS competing against Heroku, Dotcloud, and Marak back in 2010[1][2] (the good ole'days) I am certainly sympathetic to the struggle competing against well funded companies. Ultimately though, I prefer lifestyle businesses these days. Funded companies tend to slow down, carry ridiculous baggage, politics, and usually result in less money in the founders pockets. Being self-funded and thus moving fast and agile is an advantage. [1] - https://www.google.com/amp/s/venturebeat.com/2011/08/10/nodesocket/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/venturebeat.com/2011/08/10/node... [2] - https://www.google.com/amp/s/readwrite.com/2011/12/01/first-look-at-nodesocket-nodej/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/readwrite.com/2011/12/01/first-...
  - tjholowaychuk 9y ago
    Totally agree, but when someone is going to copy you and make it free, not a lot I can do in that case, at least not to my knowledge.
    - nodesocket 9y ago
      Send me an e-mail (in HN profile), I may have some ideas.
- conanbatt 9y ago
  Im sympathetic to your money-disadvantaged position in this pursuit, but its just what it is. You got out-monied in this and have to continue looking for a feature that wont be copied down easily. It's not a defensible position if a competitor can copy it immediately.
ineedasername 9y ago
Much what i was going to say, until he mentioned the continuous conversation over the ensuing 3 years. That's still no slam dunk. Semi-regular emails fleshing out an idea are still far from actual "execution", but we don't have more info and the nature of the collaboration, so i withhold judgment. I'll say this as a more general comment on this sort of thing: I work more within the realm of academia, and of course in that realm there is a very strong requirement and culture of citing all sources, influences etc. In that context, this issue might not appear, or not as much. Giving credit as a tertiary contributor is both easy and "free". That's harder in the startup world because boundaries if activties are more blurred, and giving any sort of formal recognition of influence or minor collaboration can cost a lot in terms of equity etc. At least, that's my impression, from the academia end of things.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

tjholowaychuk 9y ago

Not when you have to actually make money haha. Can't really execute without money, that's the entire point of startups, starve out the little guy with your free offerings until you can sell the team and hype.

nodesocket 9y ago
Well, as somebody who tried building a bootstrapped and self funded Node.js PaaS competing against Heroku, Dotcloud, and Marak back in 2010[1][2] (the good ole'days) I am certainly sympathetic to the struggle competing against well funded companies. Ultimately though, I prefer lifestyle businesses these days. Funded companies tend to slow down, carry ridiculous baggage, politics, and usually result in less money in the founders pockets. Being self-funded and thus moving fast and agile is an advantage. [1] - https://www.google.com/amp/s/venturebeat.com/2011/08/10/nodesocket/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/venturebeat.com/2011/08/10/node... [2] - https://www.google.com/amp/s/readwrite.com/2011/12/01/first-look-at-nodesocket-nodej/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/readwrite.com/2011/12/01/first-...
- tjholowaychuk 9y ago
  Totally agree, but when someone is going to copy you and make it free, not a lot I can do in that case, at least not to my knowledge.
  - nodesocket 9y ago
    Send me an e-mail (in HN profile), I may have some ideas.
conanbatt 9y ago
Im sympathetic to your money-disadvantaged position in this pursuit, but its just what it is. You got out-monied in this and have to continue looking for a feature that wont be copied down easily. It's not a defensible position if a competitor can copy it immediately.

ineedasername 9y ago

Much what i was going to say, until he mentioned the continuous conversation over the ensuing 3 years. That's still no slam dunk. Semi-regular emails fleshing out an idea are still far from actual "execution", but we don't have more info and the nature of the collaboration, so i withhold judgment. I'll say this as a more general comment on this sort of thing: I work more within the realm of academia, and of course in that realm there is a very strong requirement and culture of citing all sources, influences etc. In that context, this issue might not appear, or not as much. Giving credit as a tertiary contributor is both easy and "free". That's harder in the startup world because boundaries if activties are more blurred, and giving any sort of formal recognition of influence or minor collaboration can cost a lot in terms of equity etc. At least, that's my impression, from the academia end of things.