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Good people of HN, could anyone tell me why buying an MVP of a social network for $10K from a Belarusian contractor on Upwork (it couldn’t cost much more, it’s

Good people of HN, could anyone tell me why buying an MVP of a social network for $10K from a Belarusian contractor on Upwork (it couldn’t cost much more, it’s like five SQL tables and a web CRUD) and then charging users $2/month to use it wouldn’t work? Why does the author need to moan about how morally destructive it was to raise VC? Just run your social network from your bedroom, while asking ChatGPT how to rewrite the landing page in React.

ec109685 1y ago
Because social networks are boring without users.
- smikhanov 1y ago
  How in the world is it easier to attract people to some new VC-funded nonsense?
  - Jensson 1y ago
    VC-funded means you have money for marketing.
    - smikhanov 1y ago
      But for a paid social network you can do marketing too. All you need is for CLV to be higher than CAC.
      - satvikpendem 1y ago
        Where will you get the initial money to do said marketing, if you have no (paying) users yet?
      - esperent 1y ago
        Only if people pay. Which they won't when there's nobody else on there. How do you get your first 100k users? You might say, well, start with 1000 users. But 1000, or 10,000 isn't enough to make a social network interesting. Maybe you could get around this by making it about a specific niche to start with. But that probably won't work, and if it does, you'll end up stuck in that niche. On the other hand, I don't think this idea is as impossible as people say it is. It's just highly unlikely to be successful, and far more complicated than simply paying someone on Upwork to make it for you.
- jrib 1y ago
  what if we mention AI somewhere???
quonn 1y ago
How do you get everyone to join - which is the important part?
- smikhanov 1y ago
  How in the world is it easier to attract people to some new VC-funded nonsense?
  - pathsjs 1y ago
    For one thing you can use VC money to pay for ads
    - smikhanov 1y ago
      But for a paid social network you can do that too. All you need is for CLV to be higher than CAC.
      - SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
        If you want to launch a big viral marketing campaign, you also need someone who's willing to trade your predictions of future revenue for cash today, and VCs are by definition the people interested in making that trade. For something that depends on network effects, slowly trickling out one new ad every time you get 10 new signups isn't going to work.
Kudos 1y ago
There are several mature open source social network stacks. The barrier isn't technology.
Aurornis 1y ago
> and then charging users $2/month to use it wouldn’t work? Commenters all across the internet will say they’d pay good money for a site that does something specific that sounds like a good idea. Then when the site is built, you will discover that they will not, in fact, pay any money for it at all. You will continue to add the features they request and the goalposts will continue to move. Social networks are even more difficult to bootstrap because they’re not worth paying for if you can’t find people to socialize with. Nobody wants to sign up for an empty social network. Even the free social networks have a hard time getting started. There were dozens of Twitter competitors created after Twitter was acquired, but most of them languished. The few that have survived have their own problems that are driving many of their own fans away.
- smikhanov 1y ago
  You description is probably spot on, but boy I’d love to have a version of Instagram where I could just pay $5/month and get a time-sorted stream of photos of my friends’ babies, Piña coladas with a beach background, and sweaty mirror selfies in a gym without any stupid ads in the middle.
  - Velorivox 1y ago
    You can do that in some places: https://help.instagram.com/923021729404927?helpref=faq_content https://help.instagram.com/923021729404927?helpref=faq_conte...
- dehrmann 1y ago
  Kagi just passed 50k users: https://kagi.com/stats?stat=members https://kagi.com/stats?stat=members They claim to be profitable, but the TAM for services people are used to thinking of as "free" is small.
  - _Algernon_ 1y ago
    Kagi doesn't have network effects stacked against them. If your friends don't use Kagi, you still benefit from it. The same is not true for social media.
skybrian 1y ago
If you’re not trying to make a business out of it, you don’t even need that much money. You could set up a Mastodon server and invite your friends. It might not get a lot of attention, but it will work.
bravesoul2 1y ago
It works for a niche (probably a professional one) but not for general population. You'd be hard pushed to get mum and pop to pay for this when FB is free and already has everyone on there. To them your new network seems inferior. It is more expensive and has less friends. As a fun fact this existed circa 2002 in a big way in the UK. The site was friendsreunited. I'd love to have that back (along with associated hype a 5 quid a year pricing)

ec109685 1y ago

Because social networks are boring without users.

smikhanov 1y ago
How in the world is it easier to attract people to some new VC-funded nonsense?
- Jensson 1y ago
  VC-funded means you have money for marketing.
  - smikhanov 1y ago
    But for a paid social network you can do marketing too. All you need is for CLV to be higher than CAC.
    - satvikpendem 1y ago
      Where will you get the initial money to do said marketing, if you have no (paying) users yet?
    - esperent 1y ago
      Only if people pay. Which they won't when there's nobody else on there. How do you get your first 100k users? You might say, well, start with 1000 users. But 1000, or 10,000 isn't enough to make a social network interesting. Maybe you could get around this by making it about a specific niche to start with. But that probably won't work, and if it does, you'll end up stuck in that niche. On the other hand, I don't think this idea is as impossible as people say it is. It's just highly unlikely to be successful, and far more complicated than simply paying someone on Upwork to make it for you.
jrib 1y ago
what if we mention AI somewhere???

quonn 1y ago

How do you get everyone to join - which is the important part?

smikhanov 1y ago
How in the world is it easier to attract people to some new VC-funded nonsense?
- pathsjs 1y ago
  For one thing you can use VC money to pay for ads
  - smikhanov 1y ago
    But for a paid social network you can do that too. All you need is for CLV to be higher than CAC.
    - SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
      If you want to launch a big viral marketing campaign, you also need someone who's willing to trade your predictions of future revenue for cash today, and VCs are by definition the people interested in making that trade. For something that depends on network effects, slowly trickling out one new ad every time you get 10 new signups isn't going to work.

Kudos 1y ago

There are several mature open source social network stacks. The barrier isn't technology.

Aurornis 1y ago

> and then charging users $2/month to use it wouldn’t work? Commenters all across the internet will say they’d pay good money for a site that does something specific that sounds like a good idea. Then when the site is built, you will discover that they will not, in fact, pay any money for it at all. You will continue to add the features they request and the goalposts will continue to move. Social networks are even more difficult to bootstrap because they’re not worth paying for if you can’t find people to socialize with. Nobody wants to sign up for an empty social network. Even the free social networks have a hard time getting started. There were dozens of Twitter competitors created after Twitter was acquired, but most of them languished. The few that have survived have their own problems that are driving many of their own fans away.

smikhanov 1y ago
You description is probably spot on, but boy I’d love to have a version of Instagram where I could just pay $5/month and get a time-sorted stream of photos of my friends’ babies, Piña coladas with a beach background, and sweaty mirror selfies in a gym without any stupid ads in the middle.
- Velorivox 1y ago
  You can do that in some places: https://help.instagram.com/923021729404927?helpref=faq_content https://help.instagram.com/923021729404927?helpref=faq_conte...
dehrmann 1y ago
Kagi just passed 50k users: https://kagi.com/stats?stat=members https://kagi.com/stats?stat=members They claim to be profitable, but the TAM for services people are used to thinking of as "free" is small.
- _Algernon_ 1y ago
  Kagi doesn't have network effects stacked against them. If your friends don't use Kagi, you still benefit from it. The same is not true for social media.

skybrian 1y ago

If you’re not trying to make a business out of it, you don’t even need that much money. You could set up a Mastodon server and invite your friends. It might not get a lot of attention, but it will work.

bravesoul2 1y ago

It works for a niche (probably a professional one) but not for general population. You'd be hard pushed to get mum and pop to pay for this when FB is free and already has everyone on there. To them your new network seems inferior. It is more expensive and has less friends. As a fun fact this existed circa 2002 in a big way in the UK. The site was friendsreunited. I'd love to have that back (along with associated hype a 5 quid a year pricing)