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I believe there are two powers for seeing the umpteenth smiling kitten-apps getting funded. One reason is the team behind the app has already proven its worth.

I believe there are two powers for seeing the umpteenth smiling kitten-apps getting funded. One reason is the team behind the app has already proven its worth. So while the angel or VC probably won't be crazy about the idea, he/she will count on the fact that the team will either get acquihired by another, bigger fish, or will pivot into something with better chances of success. The other power is that for every smiling kitten-app you see on TC, there are hundreds that won't make it. You just don't read about them, so you're biased. It's comparable to aspiring actors moving to LA, where they end up serving meals. The truth is getting funded is hard, even harder if you're new to the game, and damn near impossible if you're new and haven't got traction (read: users) yet. I suffer from the same idea-overload as you. But I force myself to write the ideas down, and keep working on something until I finish it. So my advice would be to pick an idea you're passionate about, keep working on it relentlessly, and cut down on reading tech news.

rfnslyr 13y ago
> So my advice would be to pick an idea you're passionate about, keep working on it relentlessly, and cut down on reading tech news. Exactly this. There is no better advice.
jamesbritt 13y ago
So my advice would be to pick an idea you're passionate about, keep working on it relentlessly, and cut down on reading tech news. OK, great, but what if there is no market for it? This advice sounds just like, "Do what you love and the money will follow." I'm deeply skeptical. It sounds like magical thinking. Somewhere is this are all sorts of assumptions about marketing and sales that just sort of happens.
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  Not at all. The more projects you have attached to your name, the more you are worth. If you spend two years writing apps that don't go anywhere, but you finish them, and you can preview them, and you throw them on your portofolio and market yourself you can land a really good job. I really don't see a downside, this is the worst case scenario.
  - jamesbritt 13y ago
    ... and you throw them on your portofolio and market yourself you can land a really good job. The whole point of this is to avoid having a "really good job" and to have a business instead. I had no problem getting really good jobs. I can get one today. I no longer want to work for other people.
    - rfnslyr 13y ago
      Godspeed!
- dirktheman 13y ago
  I'm a marketer/coder myself, I should have elaborated! You're right. If you want to build a succesful business there is a massive amount of validating, marketing and PR involved. In fact, building your app is the easiest part...
alok-g 13y ago
>> One reason is the team behind the app has already proven its worth. I just heard of a startup raising money at a few million dollar valuation with something any programmer could create in one month or so. Surely they understood a business need (which I later found referred to in a two-year old news article) that I was not aware of before. Yet, x million valuation for it?! To make it worse, the founder says that he'll hire about fifteen-twenty folks and that by itself will raise valuation to a few tens of millions. Someone else also told me that the people who are involved in due diligence for a company's valuation are often merely comparing it to previous startup exits in the same space and at the current size of the company (plus of course largely made up projections). Looks like there are not so commonly known rules of thumb used for valuation that are being exploited by those who know.

rfnslyr 13y ago

> So my advice would be to pick an idea you're passionate about, keep working on it relentlessly, and cut down on reading tech news. Exactly this. There is no better advice.

jamesbritt 13y ago

So my advice would be to pick an idea you're passionate about, keep working on it relentlessly, and cut down on reading tech news. OK, great, but what if there is no market for it? This advice sounds just like, "Do what you love and the money will follow." I'm deeply skeptical. It sounds like magical thinking. Somewhere is this are all sorts of assumptions about marketing and sales that just sort of happens.

rfnslyr 13y ago
Not at all. The more projects you have attached to your name, the more you are worth. If you spend two years writing apps that don't go anywhere, but you finish them, and you can preview them, and you throw them on your portofolio and market yourself you can land a really good job. I really don't see a downside, this is the worst case scenario.
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  ... and you throw them on your portofolio and market yourself you can land a really good job. The whole point of this is to avoid having a "really good job" and to have a business instead. I had no problem getting really good jobs. I can get one today. I no longer want to work for other people.
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    Godspeed!
dirktheman 13y ago
I'm a marketer/coder myself, I should have elaborated! You're right. If you want to build a succesful business there is a massive amount of validating, marketing and PR involved. In fact, building your app is the easiest part...

alok-g 13y ago

>> One reason is the team behind the app has already proven its worth. I just heard of a startup raising money at a few million dollar valuation with something any programmer could create in one month or so. Surely they understood a business need (which I later found referred to in a two-year old news article) that I was not aware of before. Yet, x million valuation for it?! To make it worse, the founder says that he'll hire about fifteen-twenty folks and that by itself will raise valuation to a few tens of millions. Someone else also told me that the people who are involved in due diligence for a company's valuation are often merely comparing it to previous startup exits in the same space and at the current size of the company (plus of course largely made up projections). Looks like there are not so commonly known rules of thumb used for valuation that are being exploited by those who know.