6 ms·

1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use fo

by krm01 6y ago

1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work. 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app. 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workflow

ipiz0618 6y ago
Quite a nice way to get an idea of what to do. Do you use this for serious products that you feel like releasing? Would you be discouraged when you have found an alternative on the market that fixed the problem for you?
mk89 6y ago
I am doing exactly this right now in my free time. I stopped seeking the idea that was not thought about yet blablablabla. I just want to do something that I can actually use, and if it works out, I hope others can also benefit from it. I did the same about 15 years ago, when I started programming. Ironically, it was the only time that I published something (that is not work and paid) and that people actually used (and thanked me for it). Let's see how it turns out this time.
artembugara 6y ago
My story. I used to use news API services for my side projects. One day, I realized that I can build my own service that will be both, best quality (like real multilanguage support), and cheap. 8 months into it, it is my full-time job and we are releasing our first paid version (post-beta). We have 600 subscribers (beta-testers) and some people claiming they will become paid clients. It is a huge experience in both, business and tech sides. So, I would say the most important things are: * forget "ideas" * resolve your personal problem that you understand well * always make a (side-)project with which you can charge people (making it "free" is just an excuse for not making something of good quality - 99.9% of cases) * to the previous bullet point, you either ship a final solution that has business value for someone, or you are wasting your time (because no one can tell if it is of value or not (by paying)) Product: newscatcherapi.com
- abhishektwr 6y ago
  On side, does newscaptureapi provide author information i.e. name of author bare minimum, email will be great. And also how you tackle copyright issues?
  - artembugara 6y ago
    We provide the author(s) name when possible. No email. Regarding the copyright - no. It looks like a grey area as long as you do not return the full article’s text body
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- fakedang 6y ago
  Thanks for this. This might be something I'm looking for at the moment.
  - artembugara 6y ago
    thx! Do you talk about my kind of philosophy or my product?
clarry 6y ago
Cool! Let's try this. > 1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work. Emacs, vim, xterm, tmux. (I use them all for work. 99% of the time, what you see on my screen is either Emacs, or an xterm running tmux and some instances of vim.) On my phone, alarm clock. (I use it to get up for work) > 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app. In emacs and vim, probably self-insert-command or some basic motion commands. In tmux, switching between windows and panes. In xterm.. uh, just the fact that it's a terminal? Alarm clock. I use it to wake me up in the morning. > 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature Nothing about the most used features above annoy me. Well, terminals annoy me but emulating terminals is the raison detre of a terminal emulator so I don't know if there's much you can do about it.. I also hate alarm clocks but I kinda need one to wake up. > 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workflow Looks like it wasn't that easy :( Something tells me that picking the most used application and the most used feature in it most likely leads to the most solved problem that doesn't need to be solved again...
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  I’ll try this for my phone: 1. Most used apps are the browser, Facebook (marketplace only), Snapchat, Messages, Amazon, and RobinHood. 2. Browsing the web, browsing local listings, messaging people, shopping, trading stocks and options. 3. I wish the browser had better tab management and persona management. I wish Facebook Marketplace had a lot fewer ads and better categories. Also I wish it wasn’t Facebook. I wish there was a way to disable Snapchat notifications about the other person typing. I wish Messages had a way to disable notifications if I am, say watching a video or have some specific apps on (like games). I wish Amazon had a proper filter for “items I can get soon”. I wish RobinHood allowed me to list options bids/asks for longer than a day. 4. Of these the Amazon and RobinHood ones are the only ones that are feasible. There are alternatives to Facebook Marketplace and they are all worse/less popular. I doubt Apple would let me change their apps or OS code. I suppose there is something here with an unofficial RobinHood API. Scraping Amazon is a popular thing to do but I don’t want to develop a complete clone of their app with just a single additional filter.
arcadeparade 6y ago
I had an idea yesterday for an alarm clock that requires a qr code to turn off, checked and there's been one out since 2012 with millions of downloads. Tough to find low hanging fruit.
- dclausen 6y ago
  Right, but doesn't that just prove that there's a market for the product? You could build a similar app with a more attractive/relevant UI, make it easier/quicker/cheaper to use, or market it towards a specific niche.
mersocarlin 6y ago
My story: I was tracking my expenses in a spreadsheet. But it was starting to get really annoying having to keep receipts (I ended up losing most of them) and remembering to open the spreadsheet every time I had a new expense. I created my own expense tracker and I use it to share stuff with my wife :) https://atomicmoney.app https://atomicmoney.app
- andre66r 6y ago
  Hey. Just a suggestion: would be nice to have a feeling of the app before signing in ;)
  - mersocarlin 6y ago
    Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely get that done :)
- margani 6y ago
  Seems nice, but it would be nicer if I can sign in to the app. Sign In With Google doesn't work.

by krm01 6y ago

ipiz0618 6y ago

Quite a nice way to get an idea of what to do. Do you use this for serious products that you feel like releasing? Would you be discouraged when you have found an alternative on the market that fixed the problem for you?

mk89 6y ago

I am doing exactly this right now in my free time. I stopped seeking the idea that was not thought about yet blablablabla. I just want to do something that I can actually use, and if it works out, I hope others can also benefit from it. I did the same about 15 years ago, when I started programming. Ironically, it was the only time that I published something (that is not work and paid) and that people actually used (and thanked me for it). Let's see how it turns out this time.

artembugara 6y ago

My story. I used to use news API services for my side projects. One day, I realized that I can build my own service that will be both, best quality (like real multilanguage support), and cheap. 8 months into it, it is my full-time job and we are releasing our first paid version (post-beta). We have 600 subscribers (beta-testers) and some people claiming they will become paid clients. It is a huge experience in both, business and tech sides. So, I would say the most important things are: * forget "ideas" * resolve your personal problem that you understand well * always make a (side-)project with which you can charge people (making it "free" is just an excuse for not making something of good quality - 99.9% of cases) * to the previous bullet point, you either ship a final solution that has business value for someone, or you are wasting your time (because no one can tell if it is of value or not (by paying)) Product: newscatcherapi.com

abhishektwr 6y ago
On side, does newscaptureapi provide author information i.e. name of author bare minimum, email will be great. And also how you tackle copyright issues?
- artembugara 6y ago
  We provide the author(s) name when possible. No email. Regarding the copyright - no. It looks like a grey area as long as you do not return the full article’s text body
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
fakedang 6y ago
Thanks for this. This might be something I'm looking for at the moment.
- artembugara 6y ago
  thx! Do you talk about my kind of philosophy or my product?

clarry 6y ago

Cool! Let's try this. > 1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work. Emacs, vim, xterm, tmux. (I use them all for work. 99% of the time, what you see on my screen is either Emacs, or an xterm running tmux and some instances of vim.) On my phone, alarm clock. (I use it to get up for work) > 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app. In emacs and vim, probably self-insert-command or some basic motion commands. In tmux, switching between windows and panes. In xterm.. uh, just the fact that it's a terminal? Alarm clock. I use it to wake me up in the morning. > 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature Nothing about the most used features above annoy me. Well, terminals annoy me but emulating terminals is the raison detre of a terminal emulator so I don't know if there's much you can do about it.. I also hate alarm clocks but I kinda need one to wake up. > 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workflow Looks like it wasn't that easy :( Something tells me that picking the most used application and the most used feature in it most likely leads to the most solved problem that doesn't need to be solved again...

IgorPartola 6y ago
I’ll try this for my phone: 1. Most used apps are the browser, Facebook (marketplace only), Snapchat, Messages, Amazon, and RobinHood. 2. Browsing the web, browsing local listings, messaging people, shopping, trading stocks and options. 3. I wish the browser had better tab management and persona management. I wish Facebook Marketplace had a lot fewer ads and better categories. Also I wish it wasn’t Facebook. I wish there was a way to disable Snapchat notifications about the other person typing. I wish Messages had a way to disable notifications if I am, say watching a video or have some specific apps on (like games). I wish Amazon had a proper filter for “items I can get soon”. I wish RobinHood allowed me to list options bids/asks for longer than a day. 4. Of these the Amazon and RobinHood ones are the only ones that are feasible. There are alternatives to Facebook Marketplace and they are all worse/less popular. I doubt Apple would let me change their apps or OS code. I suppose there is something here with an unofficial RobinHood API. Scraping Amazon is a popular thing to do but I don’t want to develop a complete clone of their app with just a single additional filter.

arcadeparade 6y ago

I had an idea yesterday for an alarm clock that requires a qr code to turn off, checked and there's been one out since 2012 with millions of downloads. Tough to find low hanging fruit.

dclausen 6y ago
Right, but doesn't that just prove that there's a market for the product? You could build a similar app with a more attractive/relevant UI, make it easier/quicker/cheaper to use, or market it towards a specific niche.

mersocarlin 6y ago

My story: I was tracking my expenses in a spreadsheet. But it was starting to get really annoying having to keep receipts (I ended up losing most of them) and remembering to open the spreadsheet every time I had a new expense. I created my own expense tracker and I use it to share stuff with my wife :) https://atomicmoney.app https://atomicmoney.app

andre66r 6y ago
Hey. Just a suggestion: would be nice to have a feeling of the app before signing in ;)
- mersocarlin 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely get that done :)
margani 6y ago
Seems nice, but it would be nicer if I can sign in to the app. Sign In With Google doesn't work.