5 ms·
Ask YC: Do I have a chance?
My partner and I have an idea for a website. We are 18 and 17 years old. I thought of idea and do web design, and he has 4 years of programming experience. If we build a prototype or beta do we have enough for an investor to invest in our company/website? Plus I live outside SV.
- davidw 18y agoWhy not try doing it without an investor? Does it absolutely require one? Could you get something going that would generate revenue and then grow it?
- socmoth 18y agoyeah, for your age, you don't need an investor until you need lots of servers. So get lots of users then investors will be easy.
- GrandMasterBirt 18y agoYou need investors when you need heavy funding. For now just live with your parents or wherever and make a prototype. From there you might be able to convince an investor that this is the next big thing. If you are hosting a website, then start it up, and show it off. Hell I am 24 and I am not waiting for an investor to make my company a reality. If it fails, who cares, I got many years to try again :)
- extantproject 18y agoRight on.
- extantproject 18y agoRight. Don't put the carriage before the horse. If you have living expenses taken care of and time to spend then you can create something. It does not take investment to get started. Don't think about it too much and just make something. ... or as Guy Kawasaki put it (http://www.changethis.com/1.ArtOfTheStart http://www.changethis.com/1.ArtOfTheStart): "GET GOING. Start creating and delivering your product or service. Think soldering irons, compilers, hammers, saws, and AutoCAD -— whatever tools you use to build products and services. Don't focus on pitching, writing, and planning." i.e. make something first.
- kyro 18y agoYou'll really never know if you spend your time speculating and hesitating to take a step without 100% certainty. Just do it. See where it goes, and judge accordingly.
- noodle 18y agoif you build it (and its a good idea), they will come. at 17/18, you can (most likely, i'm assuming) live with your parents or do the work in your dorms and not have to worry about making a living while starting your business. find some time and just do it. worry about making money after you have something.
- webwright 18y agoSounds like a good team. What's the idea? Three things I've learned thru the YC experience: 1) Investors like big ideas. If you can't tell a convincing story about how you've got the potential to build a $500m business, almost all investors will pass. 2) Traction wins. Don't build a prototype. Build a product. Prove that users want what you build and show a healthy growth curve BEFORE you take investment. It opens a lot of doors. 3) Distribution wins, too. Have a GREAT story on how you're going to find users without spending a nickel. SEO and viral marketing win. Don't say "word of mouth", "PR", "blogosphere" unless you've proven that your startup has legs there. Regarding, "outside SV"... It depends. Right outside? Or in the Yukon? Where are you? If funding is the path you should follow, not living in a hub is making a REALLY hard game a LOT harder.
- msg 18y agoAlong the lines of this recent thread and article, don't be too afraid of revealing your work outside of your cave. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216614 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216614 A great way to get some real feedback is to make it, then post it as an Ask YC. The community really steps up to give credit and criticism where they are due. Take this recent thread on Dabbleboard as an example. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=202798 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=202798 Don't worry about making money right away. It's more important to see if the idea goes somewhere interesting.
- kennyroo 18y agoSee how far you can get without raising money, even if you have to work part-time on the side. Unless you're building something that requires a lot of storage, bandwidth, or people you can get a lot done without a lot of cash. Your location outside a tech hub won't be a factor until you need to start hiring experienced people or you need to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. By that point you may know if the site is going to be successful or not, and you can move if you need to.
- drawkbox 18y agoYou must build first. It is much easier to sell and you have more pull with a completed or ready system. Also, unless you have real professional experience you can't call that 4 years experience. If I could count my experience back to my C64 days and Apple II days then it would be highly inflated. Experience usually means professional work experience, at 18 you need to prove yourself more. Deliverables help this immensely and once you throw down experience means minimal. The hard part is building and getting noticed, once that happens the investment part is much easier. Truly great business ventures dont' always need lots of investment though, just enough to buy some time to build it or get it in production.
- tsetse-fly 18y agoThe bubble is in full effect. There seem to be a lot of people that think their projects somehow require funding. Your online social alarm clock is not a startup. Stop imagining how you're going to make money off of crappy widgets. Get out there, be curious and build things that solve actual problems.
- noodle 18y agoonline social alarm clock startup? already done: http://www.chumby.com/ http://www.chumby.com/
- tsetse-fly 18y agoChumby is much more than an alarm clock; it's a cool extendable toy that people would buy. I was referring to: http://sleep.fm/ http://sleep.fm/
- noodle 18y agoright, i was looking for something actually cool and useful :) i guess my unspoken point was to try and note that even if an idea kind of sounds stupid, there might be a good way to implement it to achieve success.
- rokhayakebe 18y agoWhat is your argument against sleep.fm, what have you built that solves a problem? I am not attacking you or defending sleep.fm but since you brought it I thought you could share your views.
- boredguy8 18y agoThe monthly "social alarm clock" thread is always entertaining. Let's do it again!
- aswanson 18y agoGet out there, be curious and build things that solve actual problems. Amen. You have the makings of an engineering commencement speech in there.
- alaskamiller 18y agoYou should talk to this guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=markbao http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=markbao
- gojomo 18y agoYes, you have a chance, of either invetment or (even better) market success. A prototype might be enough to approach early-stage investors, mostly angels, and a live beta definitely is -- if either helps confirm a market exists, by demonstrating a compelling experience that attracts real use or a craving from a valuable market. I think you're on the right track: build, build, build first. (Take up some programming yourself to help.) Use that experience to understand the interesting parts of the problem and test the concept either with representative customers or (best of all) real via-the-web users. If you achieve accelerating adoption with users, or even hints of revenue. you have a good story to approach investors -- who exist everywhere, not just SV. (Experienced folks can defer building a bit, because they can raise money based strictly on their proven abilities plus the intended market. But for young first-timers, proving-by-doing can offset that advantage quickly.)
- Hexstream 18y agoIf that project is building something useful for the sake of learning and having fun, do it. Getting rich and/or famous should be seen as bonuses.
- lanej0 18y ago"If we build a prototype or beta do we have enough for an investor to invest in our company/website?" Investors tend to invest in companies/people and less in ideas (unless the idea really is something revolutionary). Get your prototype in order, but also do a little business legwork. Are there competitors? Who is the market? What's the revenue potential? How are you going to market the idea?
- dfranke 18y agoYour ages will be a strike against you; expect problems with that for another two years or so at least. It's not a fatal strike, though, so definitely give it a shot. Apply to YC. Above all, keep building.
- rob 18y agoUmm... there are plenty of 17/18 year olds (probably younger) who make thousands online every month, all without the need for "investors". No offense to YC, but a lot of people on this site seem to think they need to quit their job, lock themselves in a dark closet for 6 months, apply for money, and build a stupid site without making any money at first. Meanwhile there are people (teens, dads, grandmas) building high-quality content sites and making the big $$$ via ads, all without needing "investors".
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- Baltropreneur 18y agoYou don't have to be in the valley to build a successful Internet company! Boston, NYC, Boulder, DC, Philadelphia.. all have current hot startups. There is money to be found too in these areas; more in the valley of course...
- apgwoz 18y agowhich startups are you referring to in Philly?
- PhillyEmpire 18y agoim based in philly with my staryup theres a bit of startup atmosphere here
- apgwoz 18y agoInteresting, I guess I'm not really entrenched in the startup/tech community of Philadelphia. I probably should try to be though...
- innaic 18y agoI'm interested in meeting people in Philly to work on startups in the future. Are there any meetups that you could suggest?
- apgwoz 18y agoas am i, if you find any, ping me at web @ my hackernews name.com
- comatose_kid 18y agoWhy do you need an investor?
- henryw 18y agoYou should do it, but don't expect to get funding. Make your site support itself. Since you are young, you can sink this if it doesn't work out and move on. This may sound pessimistic, but if you are going to fail, fail fast, so you can keep trying more things.
- giles_bowkett 18y agoNo, coward. You have no chance. Hide in your basement and weep. Seriously dude just do it. You're young, fuck it. Asking if you can do it is foolish; people have no idea what you're capable of until you do something.
- Fuca 18y agoWhen asked what would be the main factor for someone to succeed, Bill Gates answer was how young they start their first company, Warren Buffet who really is smart and was sitting next to him agreed. Go for it, if you start now I guarantee you will have your life fixed by 35 yo.