4 ms·
> Any input on the concept? For a first foray into business, I'd recommend against building something that requires network effects. http://en.wikipedia.org/w
by lionhearted 17y ago
> Any input on the concept?
For a first foray into business, I'd recommend against building something that requires network effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect
For every Facebook or Yelp, there's hundreds of network-effects-based sites that never gain any steam, and they don't see anything from it. Also, what you're talking about is notoriously hard to get money out of.
For a first business, sell something to people. Take Hacker News' own Patrick McKenzie* (patio11) - he sells Bingo Card Creating Software. His blog is here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/
He sells things to people. If he tries something, he knows right away if it's working - he gets bingo card sales. If no one bought his bingo cards, he would know it's not working and he'd have closed his site. You learn a lot about business by selling things to people, and it's got the most clear and insightful feedback.
- patio11 17y agoMy last name is McKenzie. Kalzumeus is a burrito-loving dragon from a long-forgotten RPG campaign. My business plan in 15 seconds: Find a problem that I could fix which hit a group of people I knew I could address. Develop the minimum salable fix for the problem. Sell it. Then start iterating. Three thousand commits to subversion later...
- lionhearted 17y agoPardon me for mixing you up with a burrito-eating dragon, Mr. McKenzie! I am, none the less, a tremendous admirer of yours, and think you represent very well the highest chance of success for a solo hacker to make a part-time business viable. I reckon you're actually the case study on how to do it to profitability with minimum risk and hassle. The other one to look at would be Peldi Guilizzoni's Balsamiq: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/ http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/ - but he happened to find a really good PR/blogging mix that hit right at home with his audience. I reckon that's a fantastic way of doing things in many markets, though the Bingo Card model would work in almost all direct-to-consumer markets. Fantastic stuffs, and congratulations and thanks for sharing the knowledge.
- 10ren 17y agoIt's like that old joke, that the first telephone was the hardest sell (who ya gonna call?) Joshua Schachter (delicious founder) said something about network effects that really struck me: make something that has network effects, but which is also useful and valuable even if no-one else is using it. There's a related view that's applicable to my startup: make something that useful and valuable on its own, that can have additional network effects if others are using it. BTW: I've searched for where Joshua said that, but I've not been able to find it (there were three points). Anyone know which interview I mean?
- shoesfullofdust 17y agohttp://www.krisjordan.com/2008/09/17/joshua-schachter-lessons-learned-in-scaling-and-building-social-systems http://www.krisjordan.com/2008/09/17/joshua-schachter-lesson... Also this: http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&TRID=432 http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&...
- 10ren 17y agoThanks for the links, though the one I'm thinking of had them as three bullets points. Actually, it sounds like I may be thinking of a slide presentation, not an interview.