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What's your team so far? 1) you: the "idea guy" 2) a designer ("another" designer ... so you're a designer too?) A great hacker is more key to making somethi

by tjic 18y ago

What's your team so far? 1) you: the "idea guy" 2) a designer ("another" designer ... so you're a designer too?) A great hacker is more key to making something great (and profitable) than a great designer. IMO, the team should be either: 1) hacker, hacker 2) hacker, semi-hacker/semi-bizdev/semi-designer 3) hacker, bizdev or something like that. * Hewlett Packard was #1. * Google is #1. * Apple was #2: Woz and Jobs. I think you've got the fundamental mix of your team wrong. Put the idea on hold and start networking to meet hackers. Go to Ruby and Rails get-togethers with a stack of business cards. Look for the crufty kid who looks like he sleeps in a cardboard box with his skateboard. Look for the fat guy with the ponytail and beard. Look for the quiet guy who never talks much. Chat these folks up, give them your card, and find out why they're studs (or, if they're not studs, find out who they regard as studs). Meet these folks for coffee. Throw your idea out there. Listen to their ideas (coming up with ideas is the hard part). As a matter of fact, ignore your idea. Keep networking. Sooner or later you'll find one or two other guys who you click with, and with whom you've got a lot of mutual respect. Then do something with them. It probably won't be the idea you have right now.

plinkplonk 18y ago
"IMO, the team should be either: 1) hacker, hacker 2) hacker, semi-hacker/semi-bizdev/semi-designer 3) hacker, bizdev or something like that." I was planning to reply in detail, but the above expresses most of what I wanted to say very succinctly. I am on the other side of this coin. A lot of "idea people" contact me every day to "do enough coding for a prototype and then we'll make a shitload of money". This is how I separate the serious people from the non serious ones. (a) Do you have (some) funding? If you don't have sufficient money to cover my expenses for a few months (and being in Bangalore, I can get by on significantly less than I could in the United States say, but otoh I get the more kooky "idea people") you have nothing to trade with. This question eliminates 90 % of the "I have a cool idea" folks (b) Do you have deep domain knowledge? If you've worked in an industry 20 years you are much more credible when thinking of a killer product than if you are a freshly minted MBA with no record of having done anything significant in life but has ideas about " a twitter for insurance" or whatever. (c) What risk are you taking? I get a lot of "offers" from people holding down corporate jobs who want me to work fulltime (of course with zero or minimal compensation) on the "idea",but who will hold on to their jobs till "the idea gets some traction". :-) (d) If I build a prototype for you in the next 3 months (say) what makes you think you can sell it or raise money? Are you just hoping or do you have customers lined up (read Steven Blank's "epiphany" book for the kind of customer you need). Do you know any venture capitalists or angel investors personally? So in a nutshell, if you have enough money to fund my lifestyle for a few months while I work on the idea, if you have a really good idea, based on deep domain knowledge, if you can market/sell the idea, and you are working fulltime for your startup then you get my attention. Look at it this way. Most hackers add value by being able to build anything they can conceive of / believe in. They could be building anything. Why should they build your idea? The good ones are probably working on other interesting/profitable things already. Oh yeah don't please outsource unless you know the person to be a really good programmer. As mentioned above it is hard for a non programmer to judge programmers. Good Luck.
jamesbritt 18y ago
"Look for the crufty kid who looks like he sleeps in a cardboard box with his skateboard. Look for the fat guy with the ponytail and beard. Look for the quiet guy who never talks much. " Look for the person who can express themselves coherently. If you're going to partner up with someone in a business, good communication is essential.

by tjic 18y ago

plinkplonk 18y ago

"IMO, the team should be either: 1) hacker, hacker 2) hacker, semi-hacker/semi-bizdev/semi-designer 3) hacker, bizdev or something like that." I was planning to reply in detail, but the above expresses most of what I wanted to say very succinctly. I am on the other side of this coin. A lot of "idea people" contact me every day to "do enough coding for a prototype and then we'll make a shitload of money". This is how I separate the serious people from the non serious ones. (a) Do you have (some) funding? If you don't have sufficient money to cover my expenses for a few months (and being in Bangalore, I can get by on significantly less than I could in the United States say, but otoh I get the more kooky "idea people") you have nothing to trade with. This question eliminates 90 % of the "I have a cool idea" folks (b) Do you have deep domain knowledge? If you've worked in an industry 20 years you are much more credible when thinking of a killer product than if you are a freshly minted MBA with no record of having done anything significant in life but has ideas about " a twitter for insurance" or whatever. (c) What risk are you taking? I get a lot of "offers" from people holding down corporate jobs who want me to work fulltime (of course with zero or minimal compensation) on the "idea",but who will hold on to their jobs till "the idea gets some traction". :-) (d) If I build a prototype for you in the next 3 months (say) what makes you think you can sell it or raise money? Are you just hoping or do you have customers lined up (read Steven Blank's "epiphany" book for the kind of customer you need). Do you know any venture capitalists or angel investors personally? So in a nutshell, if you have enough money to fund my lifestyle for a few months while I work on the idea, if you have a really good idea, based on deep domain knowledge, if you can market/sell the idea, and you are working fulltime for your startup then you get my attention. Look at it this way. Most hackers add value by being able to build anything they can conceive of / believe in. They could be building anything. Why should they build your idea? The good ones are probably working on other interesting/profitable things already. Oh yeah don't please outsource unless you know the person to be a really good programmer. As mentioned above it is hard for a non programmer to judge programmers. Good Luck.

jamesbritt 18y ago

"Look for the crufty kid who looks like he sleeps in a cardboard box with his skateboard. Look for the fat guy with the ponytail and beard. Look for the quiet guy who never talks much. " Look for the person who can express themselves coherently. If you're going to partner up with someone in a business, good communication is essential.