
How to be 100% sure your startup idea is good - LeBlanc
http://upstartly.com/
======
allwein
I can't believe how many people are belittling this idea or strawmanning it as
a couple of dollars or $5. What the page is getting at is if you can get a few
customers to actually commit real money, then you've got an actionable idea on
your hands. This is so much better than any wishy-washy "that's a good idea"
or "I'd buy that". This is a full fledged, "Here's my money, I _am_ buying
this right now." sort of decision.

~~~
a5seo
Evidenced by the fact that about 50% of the profiles are in stealth, I think
this service clearly solves a problem for the founder that wants validation
without revealing their idea to the whole world.

<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/30>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/29>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/28>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/27>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/26>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/25>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/24>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/23>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/22>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/21>
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/20>

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dkarl
Want to be 100% sure your startup idea is good? Wait until somebody else
succeeds with it.

~~~
j_baker
Or wait until _you've_ succeeded with it of course. I see your point and agree
with it though. It's better just to dive in and see if it's successful than to
try to make absolutely sure it's good and see someone else take off with it.

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shawndrost
Hey Andrew! I hope you work on this more, but it's not ready for general
consumption yet. Specifics:

Social proof is a big part of why kickstarter works. The startup pages should
prominently display something like "X people have committed $Y".

Discoverability is also key. It should be easy to find your users, but I can
only find you.

If you haven't implemented the above because you don't have any content,
that's also a big problem. If you don't seed a site like this with content
(from friends, family, cold calls, whatever) it causes all kinds of problems.
For one, it makes it harder to see what the site does, because content is what
happens when the site is doing things. It's also really unappealing at a basic
human level, like an empty room. There's not much to look at, and you want to
leave.

Your users' potential users don't want to "Validate this startup!". Your copy
and design should align more with their needs.

The "Pledge" buttons are broken.

Your branding must be much weaker on pages like
<http://upstartly.com/startups/view/1>. I would move all upstartly-specific
content to the footer.

Hope that helps!

~~~
LeBlanc
There was an issue with the pledge buttons - it's fixed now.

Thanks for the advice though, I think it's spot on. I'm going to put in "X
people have committed $Y" ASAP.

~~~
slay2k
Also, fix the typo on the about page -- 'lot of arcticles'

------
swombat
I think "100% sure" might be overselling it... Interesting how many meta-
startups are emerging, though.

~~~
acangiano
Selling pickaxes, my friend.

~~~
sachinag
I'd be astonished if any of us ever realized any significant revenue. Projects
!= startups

~~~
acangiano
See, that's the problem. You ought to sell pickaxes, not give them away. :)

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biggitybones
It's funny/interesting how trends emerge on HN. I feel like I've seen at least
5 of what I'd call "meta" projects/startups on the front page over the last
week - sites that help a minor piece of the puzzle for a startup.

~~~
Silhouette
> I feel like I've seen at least 5 of what I'd call "meta" projects/startups
> on the front page over the last week - sites that help a minor piece of the
> puzzle for a startup.

There have definitely been a lot of start-ups about start-ups floating around.
Whether they actually help any other start-ups remains to be seen in most/all
cases.

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richcollins
The danger with this approach is that you'll restrict yourself to products
that people know that they want to buy before you even build it. It would be
great you could validate every product this way, but sadly many products have
to be used before people are willing to pay.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
This hardly a "danger" though. I realize it's fashionable around here to
create brilliant new ideas for startups, but the overwhelming majority of
successful companies are selling "products that people know they want to buy."

One of the most useful pieces of knowledge I got from a longtime entrepreneur
was "don't build anything until you have an order for at least one." A lot of
important details emerge from that statement once you analyze it.

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hammock
(Warning: outsider perspective coming) Why do all of these startup ideas
always have similar web layouts? It may be "cool" in YC-land but that's no way
to stand out. The idea is intriguing though.

~~~
phugoid
I posted something to that effect a while ago, and got some _very_ interesting
responses. They opened my eyes to css grid frameworks and other goodies, that
underpin much of the new minimalist designs.

<http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1604693>

------
foxylad
How to be 90% sure your startup idea is good: ask a woman.

I've had lots of "brilliant" ideas, and my wife pooh-poohed them all except
one. Guess which one really took off?

I think women are less likely to be impressed by the cool tech, and see the
actual need (or lack of it!).

~~~
stretchwithme
I guess this might be true if women were all the same.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
they're not?! _furiously rewrites plans_

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InfinityX0
Anybody see the inherent irony in this?

~~~
KMStraub
Are you talking about the fact that it's CHARGING people to VALIDATE your
idea? I get what they're trying to do, and I was actually on board for the
first three points. But then I got to #4, and it was like slamming into a
wall. So you're going to celebrate your launch by grubbing money from the
people who helped you get there? Surely, there must be a better way. I say,
keep thinking...

~~~
treo
If I got it right, then point #4 is that they actually only get charged when
there is a product to deliver, i.e. they get the product and you get the
money.

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nckpark
This doesn't prove anything about the quality of a 'startup idea' It just
proves that you are able to convince a small number of people to drop five
bucks. I don't see how that has a correlation to the future success of a
business.

This would be much more interesting if it were pitched as a way to build a
group of active early adopters. Pledging to an idea should give the user some
perks from the start, and you should make it easy for the companies collecting
pledges to incentivize these users.

~~~
PedroCandeias
You're completely right, and also just described Kickstarter.com :)

Although... kickstarter does seem a bit more oriented to creative and
industrial endeavors than, say web app startups.

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marcamillion
Could this be a funding hack? It creates an economic incentive for the founder
of the startup to give each of his friends $5 (say give 20 friends), to
'prove' that he has traction.

For $100, he can secure an angel/seed round of $100K.

Wouldn't be surprised if that is one of those unintended consequences that
further inflates, what honestly looks like is becoming, the resurgence of a
new bubble.

Good idea though, just wondering about the macro implications.

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wesleyzhao
Very funny idea (not sure if it is meant to be) but I do agree with nckpark in
that getting 5 people to drop a couple bucks doesn't mean much for the quality
of the idea. Especially when knowing that most people aren't successful
entrepreneurs that know what will work, and even if they are, 5 people doesn't
give you a majority. Also I feel a big thing VCs preach is being "contrarian"
so having mass belief in an idea would be contrarian to contrarian (Upstartly
likes recursion right?).

Either way, really fun idea and Goodluck!

~~~
cmontgomeryb
> Especially when knowing that most people aren't successful entrepreneurs
> that know what will work,

But surely that isn't the point? Most Amazon customers, most Walmart
customers, most McDonalds customers aren't succesful entrepreneurs that know
what will work - but they're the guys spending the money. Hopefully on
something; (on something that they presumably want, or see some value in) that
will make _you_ succesful.

------
veb
I'm trying to set up Amazon with my account... I can't seem to change from the
United States?

P.S. <http://upstartly.com/startups/view/23>

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plehoux
Wouldn't it be interesting if people could comment on the startup page and
give feedback on the general idea... exactly like we are doing for
upstartly.com in this thread.

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clare
Interesting idea. Although compare this to a survey (most commonly used idea
research tool): even with a survey with hundreds of responses, there is the
question of the sample's representativeness. Here the sample base is so small
that the results (positive or negative) just cannot be regarded as
statistically significant. It may be used as a complementary tool to measure
the "virality", but cannot give me a 100% confidence level within 0% margin of
error.

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jonschwartz
It would be helpful to know how many others believe its a good idea. I might
be on the cusp of thinking an idea is good, but I don't want to back a dead
horse.

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dralison
Provocative idea. Agree (and upvoted swombat) that 100% is inaccurate. Here's
the thing: how many applications do you use today that if they used the model
upstartly.com is providing YOU would have invested in. I spend a huge amount
of time in Clicky (web analytics) today and am a paying customer, but I
wouldn't have given them $5 to build it. I needed to see it working—and try
it—before I made that commitment.

~~~
Ntagg
Well said, this is especially true of sites that require a lot of users before
they become useful (dating sites, classifieds, etc).

------
alexknight
Interesting idea for sure. On a side note, I'd implore you to use SSL for your
signup form/login area.

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Macsenour
Tell me I'm wrong, but my concern would be floating my idea out there where
someone faster, I'm working on it as a side project, would beat me to the
punch and launch before me.

Valid concern or no?

~~~
LeBlanc
That is very valid concern. I built in 'stealth mode' so your startup is only
available to people you send a special link (with a generated key) to. Check
'stealth mode' when you create a startup.

~~~
Macsenour
I saw that checkbox. But if I'm sending the link to people I know, why not
just send an email and avoid this site completely?

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dshankar
This works for some startups, but not all.

More importantly, WHO those five are is very important. I could get five best
friends to give me five dollars. That's meaningless in evaluating your idea.

~~~
JanezStupar
Thats why they're offering to do it via WEB. If you go and ask your friends to
go and pay via the site - that doesn't make much sense does it?

~~~
dshankar
How many times have you built something cool/had a cool idea that you show
your friends? Everytime.

I still think this is a good product, I'm just pointing out the importance of
WHO/HOW to get meaningful people to pay.

This + adwords targeted at your target demo will be a smart way to test

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eeagerdeveloper
I put my startup on the service. One thing I have a problem with is that it
exposes my personal email by default. I think you should make it private by
default.

~~~
LeBlanc
Good point. Email addresses are now only shown to the actual user. Also, I
made it so if you choose to make your startup stealth on signup, your user
will be stealth too.

------
keiferski
Or, to simplify:

Does it solve a relevant problem for people who have money? If so, you're
probably in the clear.

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acconrad
So I guess Google, Facebook and Wikipedia wouldn't work?

~~~
muhfuhkuh
"Google" - A search engine that is better than others because it doesn't rely
on keyword frequency but rather other sites that reference it.

"Facebook" - A social network that relies on exclusivity through both signup
and connecting to others to engage customers. Stickiness is applied via user's
updating their status, linking to sites or subjects of interest, discussing
upcoming local events, and various methods of social graphing (i.e., how users
are connected to the people they want to connect to and the people those
connections are connected to).

"Wikipedia" - An online encyclopedia that is created, edited, modified, and
updated by Everyone. Accuracy is mostly preserved by off-page discussion and
off-site citation. It's goal will be a recreation of the Library of Alexandria
[<\-- that's the stinger selling point.]

~~~
chucknthem
Facebook didn't start that way. Everyone had a wall and could upload photos,
and only college students could sign up. That was pretty much it.

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kennywinker
isn't kickstarter the kickerstarter for startups?

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mkramlich
Great idea. Simple and elegant. Which are also usually the hallmarks of a
great idea. :)

