

Ask HN: 14 days off work, help me pick a project - Nemant

I&#x27;ve got 14 days off from work and I want to build a SaaS&#x2F;app to generate some income to substitute my job.<p>Need help&#x2F;suggestions on what to build:<p>A)
Idea: iOS&#x2F;Android app that lets you &quot;review&quot; Facebook friends anonymously (imagine Amazon style reviews). Reviews are private, only the recipient can read them. E.g. you smell good but your time-keeping is horrible.<p>Business model: Get acquired.<p>Issue: Difficult marketing. No income for a while until funded.<p>B)
Idea: Small entrepreneurs need finance ($5k-$30k to open a local coffee shop), other people have small amounts saved up ($5k-$50k) and don&#x27;t know where to invest. Solution: Connect these people through a network (imagine linkedIn).<p>Business model: Entrepreneurs get charged to upload a business plans. Investors get charged a monthly fee to view profiles of entrepreneurs and their business plans.<p>Issues: Chicken and egg problem.<p>C)
Idea: Replicate FollowGen:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;edu.mkrecny.com&#x2F;thoughts&#x2F;twitter-should-shut-me-down<p>This will possibly make me some money until I get shut down, but by then I will have a proper start-up on the side (maybe A or B or other more convoluted ideas).<p>D)
Idea: Web based server monitoring tool (CPU, RAM, etc...) with a pretty UI, e.g.:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dribbble.com&#x2F;shots&#x2F;1023229-Ultramarine-Admin?list=searches&amp;tag=dashboard&amp;offset=16<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dribbble.com&#x2F;shots&#x2F;1315388-Dashboard-Web-App-UI-Job-Summary&#x2F;attachments&#x2F;184703<p>Analytics could be stored on the cloud to give web access.<p>Business model: Subscription?<p>Issues: Super small market? Sys admins know their command line stuff, no need to buy extra crap.<p>E) Any other suggestions are appreciated<p>UX&#x2F;UI: Pay a designer at the end to build a pretty UI with all the latest.js&#x2F;one page&#x2F;flat&#x2F;parallax and other crap.<p>Remember I only have full 14 days and then it&#x27;s evenings&#x2F;weekends.
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junto
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest you go on holiday instead; jump
on a flight to somewhere fun, put your feet up and enjoy some sun and interact
with some locals and other travellers. You'll come back with a ton of ideas.

~~~
Nemant
Already did that a few times in the past year + I am going on a holiday soon
:)

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karterk
I think you're approaching this in the wrong way. And, trust me, I have been
there and done that over and over again and failed numerous times. People work
on a side project for multiple reasons, and give that your reason is simply to
augment your primary income, there is only one thing you should be looking
for: people who are willing to put down their money to pay for what you want
to build for them. Is that easy? No, but there are tonnes of crappy software
out there which businesses pay for, and if you replace one of them, you can
become ramen profitable pretty soon. What you really need to do is pick an
industry (boring the better) that you know well or have good contacts in, and
spend some time studying how they work and what you can do to make their life
better.

You can of course also hypothetically build a product and hope to succeed, but
that will be leaving too much to chance.

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ideaoverload
> D) Idea: Web based server monitoring tool (CPU, RAM, etc...) with a pretty
> UI

> Issues: Super small market?

This is definitely not a small market and there is plenty of competition:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7340001](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7340001)

[http://blog.dataloop.io/2014/01/30/what-we-learnt-talking-
to...](http://blog.dataloop.io/2014/01/30/what-we-learnt-talking-
to-60-companies-about-monitoring/)

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allendoerfer
You could combine D) with some service products e.g. installation of tool +
monitoring of tool. Let the user provide SSH-Credentials and stack together a
built system, which automatically logs in and installs some packages with
common configuration, the user has chosen before. Make this service free and
charge for the monitoring. More complex configuration can be sold later on.

Sell it as System-Administration as a Service without a lock-in, this way you
can target web designers or business people.

~~~
stevekemp
I've done system administration for many years, as a remote-worker.

Trying to sell expertise in this field is hard, even when you have a lot of
knowledge and contacts. The biggest issue is that people don't want to give
remote logins to systems, to people far away.

I setup a trivial page at [http://remote-sysadmin.com/](http://remote-
sysadmin.com/) but getting attention has been very hard, even though I got a
few contacts along the lines of "Please automate Debian updates", or "Please
install plugin Foo for wordpress, plz".

~~~
allendoerfer
Well, if that is the problem, why not add a photo of you wearing a suit, an
address, a short resume and some customer photos/logos with feedback?

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jason_slack
I could give you my opinion but I think you should pick what sounds most
exciting for you brain.

Excitement == motivation to work on it!

~~~
Nemant
I'm motivated to work on all of them! But since there is an experienced
audience here I could get some pointers/feedback that I might've overlooked.

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staunch
Something you charge money for.

~~~
elwell
I agree, but would add: "and that generates money for your customers".

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amac
Do you like commerce? I need help with Octopus (octopus.org).

