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Ask YC: Pitching your ideas here on YC news a good idea?
I hope to get some feedback on an idea that's keeping me awake at night but it's just an idea now, no code, no prototype nothing but just an url and name.
So my question is - would it be ok to pitch my idea here and get some feedback and just to know that I'm not alone. I'm sure you have heard that pitching your idea to family and friends but this idea of mine needs feedback from hackers
- khangtoh 19y agobut again the fear of someone copying my idea by posting on a public forum creeps in.. ;(
- rms 19y agoYeah. I'm sure you'll get great feedback here, but you do have to put your idea out there. Usually it's said that no one cares about ideas and it's all about execution but still, I certainly understand the values of stealth.
- nostrademons 19y agoI'm reading a good book at the moment - Growing a Business by Paul Hawken. He has this to say about ideas: "The idea itself is just the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg is your life. Don't worry about anyone stealing your idea, because they can't steal your life." That's resonated a lot with my experience so far. I've had to make literally hundreds of decisions, from tiny software architecture ones to big ones like who are we serving and what will our product let people do. I suspect that in mature businesses, that'll grow into thousands or tens of thousands. Each one is an expression of who you are as a founder. Even if you wrote down everything you know about your business and handed it to a competitor, they wouldn't be able to replicate what you're doing, because of all the unspoken assumptions behind your decision-making. This is perhaps why it's so hard to manage employees before you've achieved product-market fit. (I worked as an employee in two other startups, both before product-market fit, before starting my own.) If your competitors don't get it, there's no reason your employees will be able to either, unless you can show them what your doing and how it impacts people's lives.
- chaostheory 19y agoI've posted here before - both my idea and the prototype. You really don't have anything to fear. most people here have more ideas than time and resources to actually implement them (let alone "steal" your idea). not to mention people here consistently give good feedback. typically the brutal, logical feedback is best, though not pleasant
- tstegart 19y agoI'm going to go with find some hacker friends, and you solve the problem. Ok, that was facetious. :) But still, I'm sure if you look you can find some hacker friends you trust, not only to not rip off your idea, but also to give you some pretty good feedback. Maybe some other entrepreneurs you know, a college professor, etc.
- run4yourlives 19y agoYou'd be better off turning the idea into a prototype and asking for advice then. The community here seems pretty good every time a new site is reviewed.
- khangtoh 19y agoJust to give more context, this idea is a social community site, think YC news but its not the same. I know that I would love that such a site exists but I want to know that I'm not alone without having to spend time knocking out a prototype.
- run4yourlives 19y agoAh, I get it. You want someone here to build it for you don't you? Well, I think you're going to be disappointed.