
Ask HN: How to Do a Startup in 2020? - evo_9
So I stumbled onto an idea for a &#x27;app&#x27; that I think is pretty big. I&#x27;ve run it by a few people that are exceedingly cynical and the response was somewhat shocking (they both loved it). Having many years in this industry I understand that a good, new and original idea is pretty rare so I&#x27;ve naturally gotten pretty excited to develop this thing. However laying in bed last night with this all buzzing around I realized I don&#x27;t know how to go about it in 2020. I did a number of startups in the early 2000&#x27;s (non &#x27;made it&#x27;) and back then your options were basically to bootstrap it yourself or try an incubator.<p>My question is this - in 2020 what&#x27;s the best, most viable way to develop and bring to market a good&#x2F;serious idea that you want to make a serious run at?  It used to be you&#x27;d build a prototype or even the full website&#x2F;app, etc and along with a pitch-deck you&#x27;d try to raise money or give an incubator a shot.<p>A bit more about the idea... it&#x27;s big enough where I think it would need the backing of something like ycombinator, techcrunch or techstars to really reach it&#x27;s potential. Reason being, it would compete in an existing space where there are already huge, well funded players (I know this is typically the way things are). To put it into better perspective, it would be something on the level of a linked-in, indeed or maybe tinder, bumble are better examples. To be clear I&#x27;m not saying it&#x27;s either of those niches, just saying it would be similar to those and I&#x27;d be dealing with breaking into that kind of established space.<p>Just wondering what the best approach is for &#x27;going for it&#x27; in 2020 for your dream-shot, retire and buy an island idea.<p>Thanks!
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slap_shot
It's the same as it's always been: build something people want and acquire
customers.

> I think it would need the backing of something like ycombinator, techcrunch
> or techstars

That's a bad mindset, imo, and probably just a distraction. If it's such a
great idea that you think it is, build it and acquire users.

I think it's worth glancing at
[https://www.ycombinator.com/resources/](https://www.ycombinator.com/resources/)
\- but I think more people use this as an alternative to building things and
getting users.

~~~
inkeddeveloper
Back to the basics. Just build something people want.

~~~
freehunter
Thousands of companies build things people want every year. Almost all of them
go out of business without any customers. Building something people want is
not nearly enough, not by far. You also have to sell it to them, keep them
using it, and outcompete other companies in the same space. This takes wildly
different talents, and if you don't have those talents, it takes a lot of
money.

Saying "just build something people want" is reductionist well past the point
of being useless, it's almost actively insulting. Customer acquisition is the
death of almost every failed company.

~~~
tnolet
You are correct. “Build something people want” should be followed by “don’t
die” and “find an audience”. In that order.

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muzani
Startups are still the same thing as they have been for 10, 20, even 100
years. You build something of value, and try to convert that value into
assets. Acquiring companies won't look so much at your cashflow, but rather
you as an asset that complements their existing processes. So the goal is
basically to build as much asset as fast as possible, take it as far as you
can, and sell that to someone who can take it further.

Bootstrapping is tough for tech, because the curve is usually exponential. If
you were selling lasagna, you could easily make $1000 profit the first week,
and bootstrapping is easy.

With tech, it's quite common to spend a year trying to get to $1000/week, and
then make $30k/week the next year.

You also have to consider competition. There are many kinds of ideas. Making a
Tinder for X might not have too much competition, but if you do something that
Google/Amazon/Facebook is building, you'll get crushed if you move too slowly.

This is usually where venture backing comes in - investors are happy at
getting good returns, and you're happy at skipping years of consulting, etc to
pay the bills.

Don't spend too much time negotiating or optimizing; you're aiming for 3300%
annual growth and a 20% better deal isn't worth your time. Paul Graham/Viaweb
started at 10% for $10k.
([http://www.paulgraham.com/ycstart.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/ycstart.html))
It seems unfair, but it was still a good deal for both sides.

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1337n008
well, you answered your own question - bootstrap it yourself. i know exactly
where you're at, unfortunately.

my advice is - go with backend as api and separate frontend. define the
api(protobuf+swagger plugin, not raw anonymous json because you will get lost
in fluid schema later on and with 10+ routes you will go crazy without schema)
and strict interfaces. so you know how data will flow. just pure basics, not
all the functionality you have in your mind/vision. avoid DRY, copy code all
over the place, go with kiss and most importantly YAGNI. use tech you know,
not what is fancy right now.

then proceed to implement it in the fastest way possible. the end result
should be a MVP with the worst code you can imagine. I myself have never been
able to execute it, unfortunately. Each programmer strives for perfection
which in this stage means time wasted not delivering the end product. I am
certain that this way, no matter the size of the project, you should be able
to produce something usable within 3 months.

You WILL be struggling with authN but mostly authZ(unsolved problem) so go for
the simplest solution you can think of.

Next important thing is to do a monolith first. NO EXCEPTION. Forget
microservices or SOA at this stage. I too fell into this trap and kinda keep
repeating this mistake over and over. People like to use too much abstraction.
Just brute-force it.

Then make sure you run one single VPS. No cloud, not kubernetes, no docker,
nothing. Run it as close to metal as possible without any infra mumbojumbo
fancy scheduler...tech..whatnot. And avoid cloud VPS. Look at OVH, Hetzner, DO
or whatever. Just not cloud VPS because they are crazy expensive. Don't go for
bare metal just yet(and avoid cloud altogether, it will bankrupt you in the
long run, bare metal is where it's at).

Once you get the MVP up and running, look for first paid customer(s) and
listen to their feedback. That feedback is free and no one else can give you
better information than actual users. Also don't bother promoting the project
on forums looking for people to test it for free. That is a dead end, trust
me. Spend few bucks on some basic presentation page and some ads. Most notably
it should be immediately clear on the website what your product does. I'd say
80% of companies these days fail at this horribly.

When you take payments, always upfront and annually will be better than
monthly.

Once you get there, let us now :)

Good luck soldier.

~~~
evo_9
Thanks man super solid across the board and mirroring what I've already kinda
decided on almost all this. Good reminders too (aka use what you know, kiss,
etc). Good stuff!

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funfunfunction
It really does depend on the idea. Is it a consumer product? B2B? In the last
few years I’ve seen a growing number of companies start with little or no seed
funding and grow to a respectable size. If you’re technical, I would start by
building a prototype and trying to get a few paying customers to prove it
something people are willing to pay for.

I’m curious to learn more. Reach out to me at sam@sellout.io if you want to
chat.

~~~
evo_9
It is a consumer facing product. Like the sites I mentioned
(employment/dating, etc) it's driven by connecting people with a unique twist.
I'm a little reluctant to discuss it more than this because I really do think
this is the kind of idea when you hear it you think 'oh shit, yeah I'm
surprised nobody thought of that already!' In fact I had this idea originally
in 2005 but didn't have the confidence to try to go against the existing
players (I also didn't know anything about incubators, or any of that world
yet either).

So yeah I would reach out but I also don't really want to disclose any details
until I've got something running and hopefully users using it. Of course there
are NDA's but I've always wondered if those are worth anything.

Thanks for the response either way, appreciate the offer.

~~~
ahpearce
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is what matters.

Is your idea building "Tinder for job search"?

I don't say that to discourage you. Quite the opposite. If you're passionate
about it, do it. As others have said, at the end of the day, it's quite a
simple formula: build X, get people to use X.

Even more simply, "solve problem Y for lots of people".

~~~
evo_9
Totally get it, and agree (and I have started building it - I am always down
for a new fun, exciting side project).

But this one feels different... and no it's not 'tinder for job search', I was
just trying to use something to compare my idea market/space, etc without
giving away anything (I'm paranoid that way).

I have bootstrapped a few apps... most notably a signup system to manage pick-
up hockey games... I knew writing it it was a niche 'product' and didn't
expect to make any money off of it and mostly just wanted it to cure a bunch
of personal pain points of running pick-up/drop-in hockey games. Truthfully I
thought I could get rinks to adopt it but after meeting with 3 rinks all owned
by local muni's that idea fizzled out quickly. I did get one privately owned
rink to use it (and they still do and love it), so it's fine, I make a little
off it every few months (like 50-100 bucks) and it made/makes running my
skates a breeze so all good.

Which is why I am trying to avoid that same fate... aka if I bootstrap this
idea, there is no way I'm going to be able to get the level of users to
compete with a Linked-In or a Tinder. To me that requires something like
Ycombinator getting onboard and throwing their weight and resources behind it.

So I guess I'm saying I am pretty realistic about this idea... it's not a rink
management or drop-in/pick-up management type thing that is very limited in
the scope/scale. That idea never had the potential of truly blowing up.

This idea is more like a linked-in, tinder, facebook, instagram, giant,
massive, holy fuck type of idea... and yeah ideas are a dime a dozen, but to
me that's only true when that idea is coming from a friend, an uncle, a
buddies wife... aka someone that doesn't really know how to qualify an idea
like this.

I think I have my decision though, I feel that apply for Ycombinator is the
right way to go; I'm convinced it's that level idea, that warrants that level
support to get it to world domination levels.

Thanks for the reply.

~~~
Kevin_S
I think aiming for YC long term is smart, but YC doesn't really take ideas
anymore as far as I know. To increase your odds of getting in you still need
to do all the things that you would do anyway: build a prototype, get some
users (preferably paid). You have to show the ability to execute to get YC on
board these days.

~~~
evo_9
Thanks - I would never apply with just an idea. I'm a senior software engineer
and I've already started building the prototype.

My bigger challenge is whether to try to find 2 people to partner with, and if
so who/what roles that would be. I know generally speaking solo founder
startups are less likely to be picked up. Debating bringing on a designer or
maybe a mobile dev(s) (I do back-end/db/web so I have that covered).

