4 ms·

Ask HN: 14 days off work, help me pick a project

18 points by Nemant 12y ago

I've got 14 days off from work and I want to build a SaaS/app to generate some income to substitute my job. Need help/suggestions on what to build: A) Idea: iOS/Android app that lets you "review" Facebook friends anonymously (imagine Amazon style reviews). Reviews are private, only the recipient can read them. E.g. you smell good but your time-keeping is horrible. Business model: Get acquired. Issue: Difficult marketing. No income for a while until funded. B) Idea: Small entrepreneurs need finance ($5k-$30k to open a local coffee shop), other people have small amounts saved up ($5k-$50k) and don't know where to invest. Solution: Connect these people through a network (imagine linkedIn). Business model: Entrepreneurs get charged to upload a business plans. Investors get charged a monthly fee to view profiles of entrepreneurs and their business plans. Issues: Chicken and egg problem. C) Idea: Replicate FollowGen: http://edu.mkrecny.com/thoughts/twitter-should-shut-me-down This will possibly make me some money until I get shut down, but by then I will have a proper start-up on the side (maybe A or B or other more convoluted ideas). D) Idea: Web based server monitoring tool (CPU, RAM, etc...) with a pretty UI, e.g.: http://dribbble.com/shots/1023229-Ultramarine-Admin?list=searches&tag=dashboard&offset=16 http://dribbble.com/shots/1315388-Dashboard-Web-App-UI-Job-Summary/attachments/184703 Analytics could be stored on the cloud to give web access. Business model: Subscription? Issues: Super small market? Sys admins know their command line stuff, no need to buy extra crap. E) Any other suggestions are appreciated UX/UI: Pay a designer at the end to build a pretty UI with all the latest.js/one page/flat/parallax and other crap. Remember I only have full 14 days and then it's evenings/weekends.

jason_slack 12y ago
I could give you my opinion but I think you should pick what sounds most exciting for you brain. Excitement == motivation to work on it!
- Nemant 12y ago
  I'm motivated to work on all of them! But since there is an experienced audience here I could get some pointers/feedback that I might've overlooked.
allendoerfer 12y ago
You could combine D) with some service products e.g. installation of tool + monitoring of tool. Let the user provide SSH-Credentials and stack together a built system, which automatically logs in and installs some packages with common configuration, the user has chosen before. Make this service free and charge for the monitoring. More complex configuration can be sold later on. Sell it as System-Administration as a Service without a lock-in, this way you can target web designers or business people.
- S4M 12y ago
  I really like idea D and this is really something I could use myself, but I would be wary providing SSH credentials to a 3rd party app. I'd rather have it as a software running from my personal computer and get the state of my server, and possibly make a cron job to have every hour the state of my server.
- Nemant 12y ago
  So you're saying I should make the tool for download free (with all the conf the user specified), but the user needs to pay to visualise the monitoring? But then there is no free option right? Because installing the tool by itself won't do anything. I think I'm missing something.
  - allendoerfer 12y ago
    You can give free packages in both areas, monitoring and system installation/configuration. Bigger packages could be paid and complex ones could be paid by the hour. I did not entirely thought this through, other commentators already mentioned problems with this model. It was just something I hat thought of in the past and seemed to be a way to approach the difficulties of finding the right market.
- stevekemp 12y ago
  I've done system administration for many years, as a remote-worker. Trying to sell expertise in this field is hard, even when you have a lot of knowledge and contacts. The biggest issue is that people don't want to give remote logins to systems, to people far away. I setup a trivial page at http://remote-sysadmin.com/ http://remote-sysadmin.com/ but getting attention has been very hard, even though I got a few contacts along the lines of "Please automate Debian updates", or "Please install plugin Foo for wordpress, plz".
junto 12y ago
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest you go on holiday instead; jump on a flight to somewhere fun, put your feet up and enjoy some sun and interact with some locals and other travellers. You'll come back with a ton of ideas.
- Nemant 12y ago
  Already did that a few times in the past year + I am going on a holiday soon :)
ideaoverload 12y ago
> D) Idea: Web based server monitoring tool (CPU, RAM, etc...) with a pretty UI > Issues: Super small market? This is definitely not a small market and there is plenty of competition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7340001 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7340001 http://blog.dataloop.io/2014/01/30/what-we-learnt-talking-to-60-companies-about-monitoring/ http://blog.dataloop.io/2014/01/30/what-we-learnt-talking-to...
staunch 12y ago
Something you charge money for.
- elwell 12y ago
  I agree, but would add: "and that generates money for your customers".
karterk 12y ago
I think you're approaching this in the wrong way. And, trust me, I have been there and done that over and over again and failed numerous times. People work on a side project for multiple reasons, and give that your reason is simply to augment your primary income, there is only one thing you should be looking for: people who are willing to put down their money to pay for what you want to build for them. Is that easy? No, but there are tonnes of crappy software out there which businesses pay for, and if you replace one of them, you can become ramen profitable pretty soon. What you really need to do is pick an industry (boring the better) that you know well or have good contacts in, and spend some time studying how they work and what you can do to make their life better. You can of course also hypothetically build a product and hope to succeed, but that will be leaving too much to chance.
amac 12y ago
Do you like commerce? I need help with Octopus (octopus.org).

18 points by Nemant 12y ago

jason_slack 12y ago

I could give you my opinion but I think you should pick what sounds most exciting for you brain. Excitement == motivation to work on it!

Nemant 12y ago
I'm motivated to work on all of them! But since there is an experienced audience here I could get some pointers/feedback that I might've overlooked.

allendoerfer 12y ago

You could combine D) with some service products e.g. installation of tool + monitoring of tool. Let the user provide SSH-Credentials and stack together a built system, which automatically logs in and installs some packages with common configuration, the user has chosen before. Make this service free and charge for the monitoring. More complex configuration can be sold later on. Sell it as System-Administration as a Service without a lock-in, this way you can target web designers or business people.

S4M 12y ago
I really like idea D and this is really something I could use myself, but I would be wary providing SSH credentials to a 3rd party app. I'd rather have it as a software running from my personal computer and get the state of my server, and possibly make a cron job to have every hour the state of my server.
Nemant 12y ago
So you're saying I should make the tool for download free (with all the conf the user specified), but the user needs to pay to visualise the monitoring? But then there is no free option right? Because installing the tool by itself won't do anything. I think I'm missing something.
- allendoerfer 12y ago
  You can give free packages in both areas, monitoring and system installation/configuration. Bigger packages could be paid and complex ones could be paid by the hour. I did not entirely thought this through, other commentators already mentioned problems with this model. It was just something I hat thought of in the past and seemed to be a way to approach the difficulties of finding the right market.
stevekemp 12y ago
I've done system administration for many years, as a remote-worker. Trying to sell expertise in this field is hard, even when you have a lot of knowledge and contacts. The biggest issue is that people don't want to give remote logins to systems, to people far away. I setup a trivial page at http://remote-sysadmin.com/ http://remote-sysadmin.com/ but getting attention has been very hard, even though I got a few contacts along the lines of "Please automate Debian updates", or "Please install plugin Foo for wordpress, plz".

junto 12y ago

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest you go on holiday instead; jump on a flight to somewhere fun, put your feet up and enjoy some sun and interact with some locals and other travellers. You'll come back with a ton of ideas.

Nemant 12y ago
Already did that a few times in the past year + I am going on a holiday soon :)

ideaoverload 12y ago

> D) Idea: Web based server monitoring tool (CPU, RAM, etc...) with a pretty UI > Issues: Super small market? This is definitely not a small market and there is plenty of competition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7340001 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7340001 http://blog.dataloop.io/2014/01/30/what-we-learnt-talking-to-60-companies-about-monitoring/ http://blog.dataloop.io/2014/01/30/what-we-learnt-talking-to...

staunch 12y ago

Something you charge money for.

elwell 12y ago
I agree, but would add: "and that generates money for your customers".

karterk 12y ago

I think you're approaching this in the wrong way. And, trust me, I have been there and done that over and over again and failed numerous times. People work on a side project for multiple reasons, and give that your reason is simply to augment your primary income, there is only one thing you should be looking for: people who are willing to put down their money to pay for what you want to build for them. Is that easy? No, but there are tonnes of crappy software out there which businesses pay for, and if you replace one of them, you can become ramen profitable pretty soon. What you really need to do is pick an industry (boring the better) that you know well or have good contacts in, and spend some time studying how they work and what you can do to make their life better. You can of course also hypothetically build a product and hope to succeed, but that will be leaving too much to chance.

amac 12y ago

Do you like commerce? I need help with Octopus (octopus.org).