

Ideas Without Time/Money - How Can I Make Them Happen? - Rust

I have a few ideas that I think are potentially very good ones (i.e. currently uncommon, lucrative in the right market, socially engaging, etc.) but lack the time and money to really get any further than basic planning and peer discussion.<p>Or I'll start and then my wife gets angry that I spend so much time in front of the computer outside of my day-job (also in front of a computer), and I end up having to leave it half-done or less. This has happened a couple of times - sorry, if you were one of the users. It's on my list and I will get another release out.<p>I would like to see these ideas done up while still retaining some limited say in their implementation and management, but again the lack of capital makes actual hiring impossible.<p>The question is, should I just give up on these and release them into the wild and hope for the best? Should I take a stand, find some (so far unavailable) financing and hire a couple of people to work with me on them (and leave the day job and hope I can still pay my rent)? Should I leverage (or develop - same risk as above though) a crowd-sourced development system (GitHub, etc.) and find a way to equitably split any income with contributors? Should I move to a more tech-centric area with more educated investors? Find a risk-taking dev and start hitting the incubators (although my wife will probably not like that idea)?<p>I am open to all suggestions at this point. I would prefer to be a part of whatever develops, but I also have a strong desire to see at least a few of these actually happen no matter what.<p>None of them are small ideas (from a man-hours perspective), but I think a pair of good web devs and a designer could probably bang each of them out in 3 to 6 weeks. Except the one which is probably a good 4 to 6 months.<p>Thanks in advance, HN!
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kolinko
Either publish your ideas as proof of concepts and encourage others to take
over (with no shares for you) or prepare better (don't plan just code, plan
execution - how much time will you spend after work & discuss with your wife)
or make sure that you have cash for 6-12 months and your wife is ready for 4
years of struggle (and I'm serious about the amounts of time I mentioned)

What won't work - finding somebody more motivated and giving him 80%... if you
have 20% then you will be a cofounder and long nights and plenty of work will
be required of you. Also getting money an hiring people won't work - as a CEO
you will still have plenty of work and it will be even harder because you will
need to coordinate their work - if your wife tells you to go to bed then you
cannot finish that spec for a designer and he will not do his job. One or two
times like that and you will lose speed.

Finally, a thing that helps - having users (and paid users even more). Get
stuff out of the door as fast as possible. Asap = 2 weeks if we're talking
software.

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kjksf
You don't have time and money problem. You have priorities problem. You do
have time, you just choose to spend it on things other than turning your ideas
into products (for one, you're reading Hacker News).

You claim that some of those projects could be done by 2 people in 3-6 weeks.
So 1 person (e.g. you) could do it in 6-12 weeks.

Guess what, I've been working on my side project, on and off, for 4 years. I
have exactly the same amount of hours in a day and a full-time job.

If you can't muster the energy and will power to sacrifice your other time
consuming activities and focus for 3 months on finishing something, then no
amount of additional time will help you. You're just not made for this game.

If you can't convince yourself that your "very good ideas" are worth a little
bit of sacrifice to finish them, then why should anyone else believe that? Why
would any investor believe that?

~~~
rguzman
> You claim that some of those projects could be done by 2 people in 3-6
> weeks. So 1 person (e.g. you) could do it in 6-12 weeks.

And 9 women can give birth to 1 baby in 1 month. I agree that prioritizing is
important, but there is a lot more to morale and motivation than that. In my
experience, having someone to work with is one of the key motivators.
Prioritizing becomes easy after you are in it with someone else.

~~~
kolinko
Having started three businesses with partners and now going solo I can say
that this is not true.

Surely, a partner can help you out when you're in an emotional pit, but it
doesn't mean you need a partner. The most healthy relationships are the ones
that consist of people who don't have problems with themselves.

As for myself - I wouldn't start a business with anybody who has motivation
problems. Sorry.

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woid
Prepare for sacrifices and it will hurt. You need to re-acquire your time
back. That is your capital. We all have 24hrs/day, right?

My story: I'm 31, I left comfortable game-engine programmer seat at AAA gaming
company because I wanted to build my own products (have been already hacking
on browser extensions during evenings for past 8 months). Had savings just for
3-4months. Reduced my burn rate by moving to a very cheap rent. Started doing
web-dev freelancing to save money, my goal was to have at least 1 year of
runway. After 8 months of cheap life, I finally stated working on my own
startup idea (it was basically <http://about.me>, but with more technical page
builder). My GF left me after 2 months and after next 8 moths I started to
have some disputes with my co-founder and few weeks later I gave up. I started
to work remotely for SF-based startup. The goal was to learn how to "do it
right" and to earn money for my next trial. It took it to me next 6 months to
recover financially (and socially a bit). After then I started hacking on
TotalFinder during the evenings and one year later finally I made it.

You may read about my last year here: <http://blog.binaryage.com/the-second-
year-of-binaryage>

Unfortunately I have to add, that with non-entrepreneurial spouse it would be
probably much harder to take it off the ground. It makes sense. Most women
expect your time/money investment into partnership/family. Also most of them
is averse to risk taking. Why she should stay with you when she would do
better with fine salaried non-stressed guy who works 8to5? Better he hates his
job, because he will be rushing home for recovery.

You need to make your wife co-investor/partner in building your product, she
must invest at least your time she acquired by marriage or she has to help out
other way to make similar contribution. So we reduced this problem to the
problem of looking for the right co-founder, which is very hard problem to
solve anyway :-)

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mbyrne
Your wife wouldn't be angry at you if your projects made money. Your track
record so far is spending a lot of time on projects that you don't complete,
so why wouldn't she be angry?

Pick ONE smaller project that adds enough value to a user that he will pay for
it. Drop everything else. Try to find the right partner, but don't wait
around. Have a timeline and income projections you can show to your wife (and
yourself). As long as you meet your targets, then everything will be fine.
Actually finish it without quitting. Make money. All else is denial.

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jasonmcalacanis
Ideas are not important, execution is.

Everyone has good ideas, and most of the smart folks i meet have a million-
dollar idea a day, and a $100M idea every month.

You're overvaluing your ideas in all likelihood.... which makes you think
you're missing some opportunity. You're not, part of being an entrepreneur is
selecting between multiple GREAT ideas, or pivoting between them.

In terms of risk, you miss 100% of shots you don't take....

.... and most folks over-estimate the down side risk. Save up $50k, quit your
job and try for a year. If it doesn't work out then you go back to being a
working stiff for another year or two while you save up another $50k and try
again.

If you ask investors for money for your idea they won't give it you... you
have to create something with potential, show it to them and ask for advice.
If it's good they will then give you money.

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kljensen
Give them away to friends -- ideas are generally worthless, execution is
everything. Be wary of your wife's laments, problems at home will sink your
start up(s) very quickly.

~~~
joeguilmette
I've had at least 10 ideas that i saw others pursue to great success. I'm not
unique. We've all had such ideas. It's not the idea. How many sub-optimal
ideas have you seen turn into successful businesses with multi-million dollar
payouts?

Like many other smarter people have said - it's not the idea. it's what you do
with the idea. and it sounds like, as is the case with 99.9% of the
population, you're not in a position to do much with your idea.

so come up with an idea that you can execute yourself :)

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IdeaGuy
Actually there is this very fresh website. <http://www.thinksharebuild.com>
which may solve your problem. Basically, you drop your ideas off, and other
people can work on them with/without you depending on your preference.

I hope it can help. Although its still in its infancy.

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antonioe
I'd suggest for you to do some office jujitsu (work on the project while at
work). If the project is tech one and you don't have the skill sets yourself,
outsource via getacoder/elance. For less then a 1k you probably can get a
working alpha for your product.

The key though as nolite mentioned is passion. You cannot be a successful
entrepreneur without it. If your wife yell at you and you are passionate
enough about what you are doing, yell back.

This is your dream. Make it happen.

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zotron
I highly recommend that you read "The 4-Hour Workweek" book by Tim Ferriss:
[http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-
Cutti...](http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-
Edge/dp/0307465357)

I was in your same situation. Once I managed to find a way to work remotely
now I'm able to organize my time more efficiently and find time for my side
projects/ideas.

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elliottcarlson
You could find a partner to work on the projects with you - giving you the
majority ownership of the project, while giving a major chunk away still to
the co-founder. You will get some additional insight to the projects (with the
final say still) as well as some additional manpower to get it done. Nothing
wrong with two technical founders imho.

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rrival
Read The Four Steps to the Epiphany, do a SWOT analysis on these ideas.
Determine, with some degree of confidence, your ability to reach the markets
your services target, the costs involved, and their propensity to spend on
your solution once the technology is actually implemented. Then focus on the
solution that has the greatest potential.

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nolite
I'm sure there are people out there with the talent and skills to execute, but
no ideas. Usually you need time or money, but when you lack both, it seems
like your only hope is passionately selling your ideas to convince someone to
execute for/with you for free, on a partnership basis. So yeah, its time to
throw them out into the wild

~~~
skmurphy
I have yet to meet someone with talent and skills to execute who did not have
ideas of their own.

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Anman
Ideas are worthless. Check out this article by Paul Graham:
<http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html>

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petervandijck
Your best bet to move these things forward is to share your ideas.

Without ability to execute, telling no-one about your ideas won't do you any
good.

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abinoda
I love hearing new ideas and partnering with people to build them. Hit me up
(contact info is in my profile).

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jtchang
I am a developer and would love to hear about some of your ideas. Hit me up.

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Mz
It sounds to me like you don't have a time problem so much as you have a wife
problem. Here are a few thoughts (from a former wife, fwiw):

1\. Find out what she wants and needs from the relationship and make sure she
gets it. That is probably the best way to get a spouse off your back about
something. (My ex husband and I could have saved thousands of dollars on
furniture if he had just been willing to talk to me and pay attention to me. I
really wanted his attention, not a new couch, but couldn't get it unless we
were doing something like shopping for furniture.)

2\. Work on rearranging your life so other stuff doesn't suck up so much time.
Maybe shorten your commute, hire a maid, or in some other way make more time
so you can pay attention to the wife and also work on your ideas.

3\. You also might check out this previous discussion:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1527830>

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kapauldo
This is why web startups are mostly done by single 20 somethings. They're
mostly lottery tickets and most fail. I suggest you only work on projects that
make money right away and leave the twitter type ideas for the young
bachelors. Wives are far more tolerant when you're making money. Best of luck!

