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Ask HN: Abandoning one project to pursue another

4 points by dholowiski 16y ago

Let's say you've just got the first version of project A working. It has a web site, billing, but no traffic or users. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but you just came up with an idea that you think is 10x better. What kind of criteria do you use when deciding to abandon one project for another? Does always working on your best idea mean a trail of abandoned projects? What if I'm wrong, and my best idea is dumb to someone else?

kls 16y ago
If you have a working version, and you think that it can generate revenue then you should see it through. Revenue helps to generate capacity to pursue future ideas. If you abandon it now, you are guaranteeing that you have the capacity to pursue a single project at least until the next project is done. An item to consider, would be can you box this thing and sell it off to generate revenue? Could you find a web marketing guy and hand it over to him for 20% cut with an agreement that you get the 20% but are only a passive partner, if he generates revenue he must find a technical person to extend it, maybe you stipulate that you must approve of the selection. I imagine if it is a half way decent idea you could find a guy to run with it. Point is you want to ensure that it generates revenue for you or outright fails before you move on. New ideas always have a importance factor that you mind adds weight to so make sure you are not going to fall trap to the newest idea is always the best one. My recommendation would be find a way to see it through to revenue, with as little investment of time as possible. Consider either an outright sale or finding someone that wants to carry the torch.
fezzl 16y ago
We recently been through this exact same situation. We have a working product, billing, but next to no traffic or users... even initially. We pushed on for a while and tried to cram it down people's throats. When the sales cycle got too demoralizing, we simply took a 1-2 week break, during which we pretended as if we have never worked on our first product. We came up with another product and released it in just 10 days (though by reusing some of our old code), and the reception seems better. We of course hope to some day be able to sell our flagship product as well, in hopes of recouping the sunk cost, but we won't need to count on it anymore -- it would just be an added bonus. In this sense, I believe that it can be wise to: 1) Throw a few (well-thought-out-and-validated) things at the wall and see what sticks. 2) Throw quickly-and-easily-prototypable MVPs at the wall in the first place. Anything that requires 3 months to prototype would present a risk that you probably don't have the stomach to bear. E.g. Twitter probably didn't take long to prototype, same with Formspring. If you can prototype things in 2 weeks, and use the next 2 weeks for marketing, you can pursue 12 ideas in a year, thus increasing the probability of you succeeding.

4 points by dholowiski 16y ago

kls 16y ago

If you have a working version, and you think that it can generate revenue then you should see it through. Revenue helps to generate capacity to pursue future ideas. If you abandon it now, you are guaranteeing that you have the capacity to pursue a single project at least until the next project is done. An item to consider, would be can you box this thing and sell it off to generate revenue? Could you find a web marketing guy and hand it over to him for 20% cut with an agreement that you get the 20% but are only a passive partner, if he generates revenue he must find a technical person to extend it, maybe you stipulate that you must approve of the selection. I imagine if it is a half way decent idea you could find a guy to run with it. Point is you want to ensure that it generates revenue for you or outright fails before you move on. New ideas always have a importance factor that you mind adds weight to so make sure you are not going to fall trap to the newest idea is always the best one. My recommendation would be find a way to see it through to revenue, with as little investment of time as possible. Consider either an outright sale or finding someone that wants to carry the torch.

fezzl 16y ago

We recently been through this exact same situation. We have a working product, billing, but next to no traffic or users... even initially. We pushed on for a while and tried to cram it down people's throats. When the sales cycle got too demoralizing, we simply took a 1-2 week break, during which we pretended as if we have never worked on our first product. We came up with another product and released it in just 10 days (though by reusing some of our old code), and the reception seems better. We of course hope to some day be able to sell our flagship product as well, in hopes of recouping the sunk cost, but we won't need to count on it anymore -- it would just be an added bonus. In this sense, I believe that it can be wise to: 1) Throw a few (well-thought-out-and-validated) things at the wall and see what sticks. 2) Throw quickly-and-easily-prototypable MVPs at the wall in the first place. Anything that requires 3 months to prototype would present a risk that you probably don't have the stomach to bear. E.g. Twitter probably didn't take long to prototype, same with Formspring. If you can prototype things in 2 weeks, and use the next 2 weeks for marketing, you can pursue 12 ideas in a year, thus increasing the probability of you succeeding.