27 ms·

Zero to Startup in 10 weeks

46 points by davnicwil 7y ago

davnicwil 7y ago
Hi HN - OP here, thought this would be entertaining and hopefully useful for fellow hackers / bootstrappers in the community. Follow along if you're interested, I'll be posting progress daily (even when there is none ;-) And hi to all the other people doing Startup School this year, hope to meet a lot of you over the next 10 weeks!
- sansnomme 7y ago
  Livestream it!
  - davnicwil 7y ago
    You mean for the coding? As terrifying as this sounds I would definitely be up for this.. can't imagine a better way to avoid perfectionism and going down rabbit holes while writing the code. Going to investigate how easy this would be to set up for a first timer, and will totally do it if it makes sense. Great idea!
- pretendgeneer 7y ago
  Hi do you have an RSS feed you will post updates on?
  - davnicwil 7y ago
    Great idea, I'll look into adding one!
  - davnicwil 7y ago
    The RSS feed is now live - subscribe link at the top - let me know if any issues (it's RSS 2.0 and I just wrote the XML manually)
- zrobotics 7y ago
  Following this, as I have an idea I am working on that is suffering from 'perfectionism syndrome' and this might be the encouragement I need to actually ship. Nonetheless, good luck on your journey!
  - davnicwil 7y ago
    Thanks :-) Yeah, I'm with you! This is probably the main driver for me trying this, I want to do everything possible to not make those mistakes. Hoping following the program and posting progress in public will give me the constant reminder to just do the simplest thing possible every day to move closer to shipping!
nhorob67 7y ago
Good luck! I'll be following as I'm in the middle doing something similar but a bit longer in length....Starting a Software Company in 100 Days via a daily video journal. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBrSVYhydBgazekw-YixSA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBrSVYhydBgazekw-YixSA
- davnicwil 7y ago
  Ah, cool - just checked out the first one and I'll definitely catch up and be following back. Vlog updates is a really good idea, too, I might try this for some of my updates. Good luck to you too!
dang 7y ago
This is not a Show HN, so we took that out of the title. Please read the rules: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.
- davnicwil 7y ago
  Ah, sure, makes sense. A bit meta I guess but I was thinking the experiment itself might be enough of a 'thing' to warrant a Show HN -- I'll definitely be back with a Show HN when I ship the product :-)
adyus 7y ago
> Day 1 > What have you learned from users? > Nothing yet, haven't talked to any There's your problem. You're building a pet/side project, not a startup.
- davnicwil 7y ago
  I started on this on day 1 - it's quite literally from zero. It's an idea I got quite recently, and haven't done any work on it until starting this experiment. I guess every startup has a day 1 where you can't have spoken to any potential customers yet when you start :-) But you're totally right, I should have spent day 1 speaking to people, instead of/before even starting building any of the prototype. Already trying to set that lesson into action and starting day 2 by talking to people about the idea!
arvidkahl 7y ago
Good luck with your project! Others have already told you to talk to your future customers, so I'll skip that part. What I do want to impress is to think about not just who your users are, but who will be the stakeholder and purchasing decision-maker. Once you have a running product, it will have to both work well technically but also be a sensible (and safe) purchase for whoever makes that decision. As they will certainly research the company, I would make (planning/engineering for) operational stability and scalability a central part of your messaging :) And, most of all... have fun building both a product and a business.
- davnicwil 7y ago
  This is great advice, thankyou for taking the time, and for your kind words

46 points by davnicwil 7y ago

Hi HN - OP here, thought this would be entertaining and hopefully useful for fellow hackers / bootstrappers in the community. Follow along if you're interested, I'll be posting progress daily (even when there is none ;-) And hi to all the other people doing Startup School this year, hope to meet a lot of you over the next 10 weeks!

sansnomme 7y ago
Livestream it!
- davnicwil 7y ago
  You mean for the coding? As terrifying as this sounds I would definitely be up for this.. can't imagine a better way to avoid perfectionism and going down rabbit holes while writing the code. Going to investigate how easy this would be to set up for a first timer, and will totally do it if it makes sense. Great idea!
pretendgeneer 7y ago
Hi do you have an RSS feed you will post updates on?
- davnicwil 7y ago
  Great idea, I'll look into adding one!
- davnicwil 7y ago
  The RSS feed is now live - subscribe link at the top - let me know if any issues (it's RSS 2.0 and I just wrote the XML manually)
zrobotics 7y ago
Following this, as I have an idea I am working on that is suffering from 'perfectionism syndrome' and this might be the encouragement I need to actually ship. Nonetheless, good luck on your journey!
- davnicwil 7y ago
  Thanks :-) Yeah, I'm with you! This is probably the main driver for me trying this, I want to do everything possible to not make those mistakes. Hoping following the program and posting progress in public will give me the constant reminder to just do the simplest thing possible every day to move closer to shipping!

nhorob67 7y ago

Good luck! I'll be following as I'm in the middle doing something similar but a bit longer in length....Starting a Software Company in 100 Days via a daily video journal. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBrSVYhydBgazekw-YixSA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBrSVYhydBgazekw-YixSA

davnicwil 7y ago
Ah, cool - just checked out the first one and I'll definitely catch up and be following back. Vlog updates is a really good idea, too, I might try this for some of my updates. Good luck to you too!

dang 7y ago

This is not a Show HN, so we took that out of the title. Please read the rules: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

davnicwil 7y ago
Ah, sure, makes sense. A bit meta I guess but I was thinking the experiment itself might be enough of a 'thing' to warrant a Show HN -- I'll definitely be back with a Show HN when I ship the product :-)

adyus 7y ago

> Day 1 > What have you learned from users? > Nothing yet, haven't talked to any There's your problem. You're building a pet/side project, not a startup.

davnicwil 7y ago
I started on this on day 1 - it's quite literally from zero. It's an idea I got quite recently, and haven't done any work on it until starting this experiment. I guess every startup has a day 1 where you can't have spoken to any potential customers yet when you start :-) But you're totally right, I should have spent day 1 speaking to people, instead of/before even starting building any of the prototype. Already trying to set that lesson into action and starting day 2 by talking to people about the idea!

arvidkahl 7y ago

Good luck with your project! Others have already told you to talk to your future customers, so I'll skip that part. What I do want to impress is to think about not just who your users are, but who will be the stakeholder and purchasing decision-maker. Once you have a running product, it will have to both work well technically but also be a sensible (and safe) purchase for whoever makes that decision. As they will certainly research the company, I would make (planning/engineering for) operational stability and scalability a central part of your messaging :) And, most of all... have fun building both a product and a business.

davnicwil 7y ago
This is great advice, thankyou for taking the time, and for your kind words