

How to Launch Your Startup Idea for Less than $5K - ccarella
http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2011/08/01/how-to-launch-your-startup-idea-for-less-than-5k/

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nikcub
If you are a developer you don't even need $5k - you just need the price of a
domain, and personal funding to be able to take as much time off paid work as
possible.

You can host for free on appengine, PR and marketing is just putting the work
in, and you might need a little to spend on design but even then $100 gets you
a long way on sites like 99designs.

The most expensive part is supporting yourself and/or a co-founder, and that
varies a lot depending on where you are based. You could get away with $1k a
month in some places (SF and the valley are probably the most expensive place
to be - and you don't need to be).

Thinking that funding, or entry into YC or a similar program, is a blocker is
a mistake. All that stands between you and a successful product is a lot of
hard work.

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idlewords
My own experience is that when I try to poke holes in my own ideas, I can
rationalize my way out of any objection. In that sense thinking hard about the
product is almost counterproductive.

I think a good test of any idea is to build a small version of it and see if
can break even or make a small profit. That way you don't fool yourself with
any made-up metrics like how many people signed up on your fake homepage.

~~~
kosei
That really depends on the idea. Many ideas can't really run and "break even"
with a small version. Those that immediately tie into a payment system, maybe,
but many, espeically the biggest ideas (say, Groupon, Twitter, Square) I don't
think would ever be able to break even or maintain a small profit if launched
subscale.

~~~
idlewords
The topic of discussion is ideas you can launch for under $5K.

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jarrettcoggin
This was a phenomenal post. My biggest take away was to not ask people whether
they liked the idea, but to ask what was wrong with it, why wouldn't it work,
etc. That concept just blew my mind.

~~~
johnrob
Phrasing the question that way makes it easier for the person to be critical,
since the asker is already implying that there are issues (and is less likely
to be let down).

~~~
cpeterso
My co-worker used to (humorously but effectively) phrase these questions as,
"How can we make this _even_ better?"

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hugh3
Step one: have a really really cheap startup idea.

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nhangen
You sort of gloss over things like your Kickstarter project receiving full
funding, and writing an article for a magazine. It seems like these were a
major portion of your early momentum and I wondered if you think you'd have
the same results if no one knew who you were and/or this was your first gig?

Seems like being able to call on friends from Behance can't hurt?

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jimbobimbo
That's interesting that people now are so amazed with the fact that to start a
product you don't really need "angels and VCs lined up". Personally I am
coming from East-european shareware background. Back in '90s and '00s nobody
would even think about outside capital - people would just start their product
and then either grow it into a viable company or bury it, if it doesn't work.
I have a feeling that now people of the same age can't even imaging starting
anything without financing. Sad...

~~~
fosk
Like GitHub?

<https://github.com/about> under the voice "VC Funding"

~~~
jimbobimbo
Like bazillion other sites.

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czzarr
phenomenal post, thanks for sharing. I really liked the outline of how you
actually executed your idea.

I have a question though, I skimmed through a few more blogposts of yours and
you seem to have a very product-centric approach eventhough a lot of
entrepreneurs/VCs seem to advocate a customer-centric approach. Why did you
choose product, and how do you reconcile those two, assuming you think a
little bit about your customers ? ;)

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codeodor
> 1\. Exploration & Execution.

I found myself really liking this section. Unfortunately, I think it was
because it helped validate my inner fears that manifest as procrastination.

Overall, I liked the article, but be wary of using those early stages as a
excuse on which to continue doing nothing.

~~~
eric-hu
So how do you get around your excuses to do nothing? What have you found to be
most effective and least effective? I have some pretty terrible
procrastination

~~~
codeodor
I'm still learning to identify my sources of procrastination, so I'm not sure
I've found anything effective yet.

On the other hand, I have done a couple of test/soft-launches this year, and
have lost my fear of failing on those. That's more than I had done in the
prior 10 years of being a programmer with aspirations, so it's progress.

I still struggle with probably doing too much before testing an idea, but I
also struggle with doing too little, so I'm trying to find a balance.
Learning, still, really.

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pg_bot
Had the same idea, I own the domain Groupcourse.com built the product and
tested it out in a small area. I was profitable but couldn't retain teachers.
How did you solve the retention problem? The experience taught me a lot but
now I am repurposing the code for a different product.

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icebraining
Coral cache: [http://www.mikekarnj.com.nyud.net/blog/2011/08/01/how-to-
lau...](http://www.mikekarnj.com.nyud.net/blog/2011/08/01/how-to-launch-your-
startup-idea-for-less-than-5k/)

------
christonog
Was all/most of that 5K used on the brand identity?

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mikekarnj
We promised Ed Nacional we would never publicly release the rate but I can say
that the the majority of the $5K was spent on both the brand identity and URL.

While I was going through the process of selecting a designer, I went through
a very long list of portfolios and selected Ed who was an up-and-coming
designer at the time. He's much more expensive today as his portfolio and
design skills have matured.

~~~
bahman2000
refreshing to see definitive idea selection and validation stages in your
process. too much of the if-you-ship-it-they-will-come ideology on hn.

does the $5k price tag factor in the value of time you and your partner spent
on this project? at the minimum you had to live somewhere and eat something...

