

Ask HN: I've got an idea, but what do I do now? [UK] - cloakactivated

This is my first ever Ask HN, so do be gentle!<p>Anyway, I have an idea that I genuinely believe would translate, given the right kind of TLC, into a viable startup. I don't want to give too much away in this posting for obvious reasons but it's based around non-profit and voluntary organisations, a field I've been working in for around five years.<p>Basically, it's a web-based solution to a number of problems I've come up against repeatedly and frustratingly in my experience working in the field. It's by no means a half-baked idea; it's something I've been thinking a lot about for a good few months now. I've done quite a bit of research and I can't find anything already extant that would duplicate what I'm doing now. From conversations with colleagues in the field and my own observations, I am genuinely and passionately of the view that it'd stand up on its own two feet as a startup were it to be built.<p><i>However</i>, and this is perhaps where I'm likely to lose the HN audience, my technical skills aren't all that. I have a decent and very up-to-date knowledge and understanding of a lot of technical topics (thanks in no small part to HN), I can design websites to a high standard and fit an existing CMS into them and I'm generally a pretty technically-minded person but I've just never had the time to learn to code.<p>I'm not cheeky enough to come on here and say "can someone join me and code this app I've got an idea for?" because that'd just be daft, but I'd love it if someone would hand me a few pointers as to where I might find like-minded people with whom I could discuss things with a view to a possible collaboration (and even application to YC at some point in the future). My actual skills are more design and copywriting than coding. (I'm a trained journalist, but with the bottom falling out of everything media-wise I've ended up doing something completely different.)<p>Where I'm based might be a bit of an issue - in the rural UK (Manchester is the closest place with anything meaningful going on). If I was living in Oakland or Palo Alto things might be a little easier in this respect. (And I'd have a nice tan instead of shivering in the office in my woolly jumper).<p>Thanks in advance for any advice you might like to give. I'll be really grateful for all replies, even if they're "stop dreaming and get back to work"!<p><i>By the way, I'm a fairly seasoned HN member (~600 karma) but I generally post under my real name, hence the "cloak".</i>
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jms
I'm based in Manchester, and can code etc. If you'd like to meet up to discuss
things I'd be happy to catch up for a hot chocolate or beer sometime. Email
me.

Logically you've got 3 choices.

* Learn to code.

* Pay someone to code.

* Partner with someone who can code.

Which you do depends on which you're happiest trading for what you want -
time, money, or equity.

There are some networking events in Manchester that may be useful to you -
geekup may be of interest.

Are any grants available to pay for the initial coding? I know that there are
programmes such as 'Creative Credits' that connects you with universities etc,
so this may be a route to go down.

