My Dilemma, and how to overcome it?
- Thread starter leadsupplier
- Start date
Ugh... wut?
No offense to those true 'architect level' coders out there but...
... your run-of-the-mill "i need my website to do this" coders are a dime a dozen and the digital equivalent of a factory worker. (fiverr.com anyone?)
Code is like content. Why try to learn a second language and produce $0.50/100 quality code.... or just go hire someone that does $15/100 quality work for $5/100
/boggle
Put your own money into.
You'll have more motivation to work hard at making it a success and when you get there the profits will be all yours.
If you value your time, it will cost you more resources in getting the $10k than it would cost you to just pony it up yourself.
In terms of monetizing, something I could see working is having a corporate sponsor. Most businesses want to 'get in on the app thing' but don't have the resources to do so (and the few times they looked for a quote got a 6 digit one). So offer them exclusive advertising rights and a pay-per download system. So if your app is to keep track of the time to feed your goldfish, look for a pet store. Put together a short Power point presentation with nice graphics (management tends to love that kind of useless-but pretty data displays), email them and then get on the phone. Do keep a 'get out clause' in your contract so if facebook decides to throw OPM at you, you can accept it.
You'll have more motivation to work hard at making it a success and when you get there the profits will be all yours.
If you value your time, it will cost you more resources in getting the $10k than it would cost you to just pony it up yourself.
In terms of monetizing, something I could see working is having a corporate sponsor. Most businesses want to 'get in on the app thing' but don't have the resources to do so (and the few times they looked for a quote got a 6 digit one). So offer them exclusive advertising rights and a pay-per download system. So if your app is to keep track of the time to feed your goldfish, look for a pet store. Put together a short Power point presentation with nice graphics (management tends to love that kind of useless-but pretty data displays), email them and then get on the phone. Do keep a 'get out clause' in your contract so if facebook decides to throw OPM at you, you can accept it.
holy moly ok, first, buy this immediately and read the whole damn thing:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/The-Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-By-Step/dp/0984999302]Amazon.com: The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company (9780984999309): Steve Blank, Bob Dorf: Books[/ame]
next, if anyone tells you to write a business plan, tell them "dchuk told me never to talk to you again, sorry" and walk away. This is the internet, so, 1) you can't predict a damn thing about what's gonna happen a year from now and 2) you sure as hell can't predict growth/revenue/etc. So don't even try, it's honestly a waste. Again, study the book I linked to.
You have a few options in terms of "getting it built". you can learn to code, which is technically the "cheapest" and not as hard as people say as long as you have the right resources to work from. If you want to learn to code, I recommend two resources:
[Free] Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example book and screencasts by Michael Hartl
[Free if you know how to google] [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Rails-3-Action-Ryan-Bigg/dp/1935182277]Amazon.com: Rails 3 in Action (9781935182276): Ryan Bigg, Yehuda Katz: Books[/ame]
(NO ONE START A LANGUAGE WAR THATS NOT THE POINT OF THIS REPLY)
Study those books. Type every single character in by hand. Learn it inside and out. Live on Ramen and work 12 hours a day through one of those books and you'll have a very solid foundation for building your own frankenbeast startup.
You could also either hire someone or bring on a technical cofounder. I don't recommend the latter, as we programmers will quickly grow to resent the imbalance of work being done initially and it most of the time doesn't end well. So hire someone is my advice. But you need money. You can try pitching VCs and getting some cash, but every single VC is going to expect a functional demo at the very least unless you're somehow related to Peter Thiel or your last name rhymes with shuckerzerg. So, back to learning how to code. Coding isn't hard, it's just a mindset. It's a powerful thing to know how to do. Don't worry if your code is janky, just build something.
Finally, hit me up on skype: iamdchuk and tell me some details about what you're thinking about. I promise that I'm not interested in taking any ideas, I'll just steer you in the right direction with a lot of this shit. The actual coding of a product is not as bad as people make it out to be, but building something you can safely deploy to the world and market effectively requires a shit ton more steps that most posers don't talk about.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/The-Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-By-Step/dp/0984999302]Amazon.com: The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company (9780984999309): Steve Blank, Bob Dorf: Books[/ame]
next, if anyone tells you to write a business plan, tell them "dchuk told me never to talk to you again, sorry" and walk away. This is the internet, so, 1) you can't predict a damn thing about what's gonna happen a year from now and 2) you sure as hell can't predict growth/revenue/etc. So don't even try, it's honestly a waste. Again, study the book I linked to.
You have a few options in terms of "getting it built". you can learn to code, which is technically the "cheapest" and not as hard as people say as long as you have the right resources to work from. If you want to learn to code, I recommend two resources:
[Free] Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example book and screencasts by Michael Hartl
[Free if you know how to google] [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Rails-3-Action-Ryan-Bigg/dp/1935182277]Amazon.com: Rails 3 in Action (9781935182276): Ryan Bigg, Yehuda Katz: Books[/ame]
(NO ONE START A LANGUAGE WAR THATS NOT THE POINT OF THIS REPLY)
Study those books. Type every single character in by hand. Learn it inside and out. Live on Ramen and work 12 hours a day through one of those books and you'll have a very solid foundation for building your own frankenbeast startup.
You could also either hire someone or bring on a technical cofounder. I don't recommend the latter, as we programmers will quickly grow to resent the imbalance of work being done initially and it most of the time doesn't end well. So hire someone is my advice. But you need money. You can try pitching VCs and getting some cash, but every single VC is going to expect a functional demo at the very least unless you're somehow related to Peter Thiel or your last name rhymes with shuckerzerg. So, back to learning how to code. Coding isn't hard, it's just a mindset. It's a powerful thing to know how to do. Don't worry if your code is janky, just build something.
Finally, hit me up on skype: iamdchuk and tell me some details about what you're thinking about. I promise that I'm not interested in taking any ideas, I'll just steer you in the right direction with a lot of this shit. The actual coding of a product is not as bad as people make it out to be, but building something you can safely deploy to the world and market effectively requires a shit ton more steps that most posers don't talk about.
Almost no investor will talk to you for such a little amount when you haven't already invested a bunch of your own money. Even then they probably won't want to touch it. Coming an investor and saying I have a great idea and lots times usually means nothing to them, because they have other people coming at them with real "skin in the game". Your best option is to bootstrap it yourself, because it sounds like you have the money to do it. If you are short on cash then take a personal loan out at a bank if you have the ability to.
I tell people this all the time. Don't worry about trying to convert non-existent traffic. Get traffic first then figure how to monetize it. It's good to have a basic idea of how you want to monetize (it'll probably completely change after traffic comes in), but going in depth is wasted effort that could be used to build traffic.
If you think you might want to send them newsletters then it's probably a good idea to start collecting them up front even though you don't have much traffic. However, if you do go that route make sure you start emailing them a newsletter from the get go. If you don't you'll have nothing but problems, because people won't recognize the brand and will drive your domain / ip reputation into the ground. You might even find it impossible to maintain an account at a place like iContact, mailchimp, etc. If you decide to wait that's fine too just remember you'll be missing a lot of subscribers.
I tell people this all the time. Don't worry about trying to convert non-existent traffic. Get traffic first then figure how to monetize it. It's good to have a basic idea of how you want to monetize (it'll probably completely change after traffic comes in), but going in depth is wasted effort that could be used to build traffic.
If you think you might want to send them newsletters then it's probably a good idea to start collecting them up front even though you don't have much traffic. However, if you do go that route make sure you start emailing them a newsletter from the get go. If you don't you'll have nothing but problems, because people won't recognize the brand and will drive your domain / ip reputation into the ground. You might even find it impossible to maintain an account at a place like iContact, mailchimp, etc. If you decide to wait that's fine too just remember you'll be missing a lot of subscribers.
Hmm not really. It's not only the internet industry which is unpredictable. However, the point of a business plan should be to have an overview about things you have to do and to pay. You don't create this plan to know what's going on next year because you can't say that. It's just a rough orientation on what could happen. For that reason most business plans have alternative ways.
Once you started a business without knowing what it takes to run it, you'll spend most of your time with nonsense stuff and you'll be worried about the money that you wasted for shit.
That's some good advice and I agree for the most part, however learning to code on your own although I'm not against it is not going to be practical.
It is frustrating as there are a million different ways to do things. Everyone has their own opinion on methods and techniques and anytime you look up best practices for something coding specific you'll understand what I mean. Makes my head spin just thinking about it.
Also if you don't do it right you'll end up with code that is worthless or near it.
I think you would be much better suited as a project manager for this. So with that said, the business plan is not the route I would go. Rather I would create a "Road Map" for your software. Detail out each item you want in your software and every feature. Also do the screens/comps so you can explain CLEARLY what you want and it will make you think it through completely. This is 90% of the battle since most problems with coders arise from not clearly getting what you want across.
Eastern Europe is good for coders, however they are also hard to trust. So always always be on the defensive. They provide the code and you pay, not the other way around (speaking from experience here). Use something like odesk and piece of the system, so you can get different people to work on it.
Also make sure you setup code tracking with something like GitHub so you have a stable history of your code. This will help you down the road.
Your also welcome to hit me up on Skype: nicholasCR
If you have already an idea about potential users/customers of your web app, then do talk with a lot of them, make answers and listen, do this everywhere you can (online and offline), capture tips, ideas, needs; build your own PERSONAS for your site and think exactly like them. People are your customers whatever you do (1 cent or 1 million lead).
My advice: Follow your gut. If you think you can do it, bite the bullet and do it. $10k is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Don't take out any loans or anything -- just dump your own money into it. As nick said, you can always dump $1k/month in over 10 months. Or better yet, $2k/month over 5 months.
And of course, gl bro.
And of course, gl bro.
Bullshit. Passion burns hot, fast, and with great intensity.
Do, don't do it - but stop fucking around asking other people's opinions.
Companies like Facebook and Twitter take years to get traction.
If your idea is good, and you feel passionate about it, you need to get it out there in the simplest possible form you can release in 3 months or less. Once you get some feedback, alter it until it is a viable product for lots of people to use.
If it absolutely requires a shit ton of funding to do right on day 1, then you need to whore this idea out to someone who can access the funds and know-how to do it, because frankly, that's not you right now.
Hopefully you structure it right with some equity and good karma, and it pays off down the line.
If your idea is good, and you feel passionate about it, you need to get it out there in the simplest possible form you can release in 3 months or less. Once you get some feedback, alter it until it is a viable product for lots of people to use.
If it absolutely requires a shit ton of funding to do right on day 1, then you need to whore this idea out to someone who can access the funds and know-how to do it, because frankly, that's not you right now.
Hopefully you structure it right with some equity and good karma, and it pays off down the line.
If your to scared to beg borrow and steel to get $5 k you should forget about it and wait for someone else to do it while your waiting for that to happen you should probably look at getting a nice "safe" job so you don't have to worry about the risk of running a business.
Now if your serious then stop worrying about money if you want this bad enough and commit to it 1000% the money will show up. Some really good advice has been posted in this thread so please use it so I can get my new app installed
Now if your serious then stop worrying about money if you want this bad enough and commit to it 1000% the money will show up. Some really good advice has been posted in this thread so please use it so I can get my new app installed
There's been some good feedback on your situation so far, but one thing I would add is "find some haters." The reason is, you've gotten lots of positive feedback from friends or whatever that has made you more intent on progressing with the idea, but your friends and family will almost always try to give a positive review of something that you are clearly interested in. Any time I get too excited about some idea that I think is great and everyone I tell about it says is great, I call up a couple of my most "negative" friends, and have them pick it apart, and come up with all the "bad" things they can see about it. Otherwise, its human nature to get pumped from all the "positive" feedback you are hearing from the friends who just want to support you, and the idea isn't being challenged by "tough love" criticism. Cheerleaders aren't going to make you face the problems with your idea (and every idea, no matter how brilliant, has negatives) so its worthwhile to actively seek out criticism from people about how your idea wont work, before you invest a lot of time and energy into something that you already know has some real risks and costs.
Without knowing anything about your idea, it's statistically unlikely that a free service will turn into a successful business later on. I'd build something paid first, then if you still want to do the free thing, use the cash from that.
If you don't do it now you will regret it later down the road saying, "damn I knew I should have made an effort to do it!". Or someone will think of your idea and you will kick yourself for your whole life because you didn't take action.
I had a project idea and it took me like a year to actually take action. It was a simple idea but I didn't know code and learned little by little. Even if it means it takes slow to accomplish it, at least start on it little by little.
I had a project idea and it took me like a year to actually take action. It was a simple idea but I didn't know code and learned little by little. Even if it means it takes slow to accomplish it, at least start on it little by little.
$5,000 is not that much. You have to look at the risk/reward scenario if you truly believe what you are onto is good.
I would recommend getting a minimum viable product out there just to test out the response. Any bugs can be fixed later.
You can also monetize the app with ads if you are worried about initial income.
Just make sure you hire the right people, or even better tackle it yourself if possible.
I would recommend getting a minimum viable product out there just to test out the response. Any bugs can be fixed later.
You can also monetize the app with ads if you are worried about initial income.
Just make sure you hire the right people, or even better tackle it yourself if possible.