
Small town, big ideas, no one to talk to - macu
I&#x27;m a junior software developer from a small town in Nova Scotia. I&#x27;ve always had great ambition, but most of my ideas were either too grand or too fanciful to pursue.<p>Lately I&#x27;ve been developing an idea for a startup. It&#x27;s very exciting but I don&#x27;t know how to proceed. The technical feasibility is good, the market seems available, and the potential value seems enormous. It&#x27;s a perfect fit for my personality, and it&#x27;s something I would love to see exist.<p>The catch is that I live in a bubble, don&#x27;t have any professional connections, and don&#x27;t know who to talk to. Somehow I ended up living like a recluse. My coworkers smirk when I talk about the future. I believe in my ideas, and want to act on them, but &quot;Silicon Valley&quot; is a foggy and faraway land.<p>How do people proceed from this position? Would you focus on networking and save your ideas until you felt like you were part of the world? Would you focus on saving money, and plan to move and get a foothold in California? Would you ask for time off work and develop a prototype in private? What would you do when you had a working prototype?<p>These questions may be difficult to answer, but I am looking to decide whether to continue, or whether to let it go.
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pedalpete
My background is somewhat similar to yours. I'm from a small(ish) Canadian
town as well (Whistler, BC). I've always had big ideas, didn't know how to get
them out there.

I was fortunate that I had been working back and forth in LA, and was exposed
to some people and expertise, but for my first start-up, I was in Whislter,
teaching myself how to code, no other programmers locally, no tech community
etc etc. I think in some ways it can be a benefit more than a hindrance. You
get to focus on your idea and just get it done.

I've spent a lot of time in the Valley, as well as other start-up hubs, and I
can tell you, a lot of the people in these places are just full of talk, a lot
of it is just a bubble and echo chamber.

On the flip side, it's great to have a sounding board of knowledgeable people,
that's what's so great about getting feedback from HN.

However, if you look where you are, you've probably got better access than you
think. You don't have to run all the way to California, Montreal, Boston and
NYC all have great tech communities, and you don't have to move there. Find
interesting meetups that are around the area you're idea is, and go for a
night or two (assuming you can get the time off work). If your market is as
large as you think, you might even find something in Halifax.

The Valley is cool and all, but I was very surprised the last time I went to
the HTML5 conference, most of the people there where actually quite behind on
the technology stack/experience compared to the people I work with in Sydney,
Australia.

One thing to consider, when you think about the faraway magical land of
Silicon Valley, though the valley has a large number of unique technologies
and businesses, most people are still working on your basic I/O type apps.

~~~
daveslash
This, absolutely agree. I am from an extremely small town in northern-coastal
Maine that very often felt like an episode of "Trailer Park Boys". California
was always a magical and far off land, and I ended up here mostly by accident.
I don't think I'm as experienced as pedalpete (I've only worked in Southern
California), but I can relate to the "from a small town, moved to California"
thing.

I've worked for three startups, a mid sized company, and a large corporation,
as well as have done a little freelance work. I'm currently starting my own
.com company with one other person. I've attended events within the startup
community, hacker community, and as events typically thought of as
"corporatey".

Much of the startup community is, as pedalpete said, an echo chamber. However,
there are great people and I'm very grateful to have such close contact with
them and even call some of them personal friends.

I don't know the specifics of your situation, but based on reflection of my
own background, you probably are in a better position than you realize.

Macu, if you're interested in setting up a skype or hangout call some time I'd
be more than happy to be a sounding board for some of your questions in more
detail. Even if I can't bring solid advice to the table, I'd be more than
happy to tell you where I've made mistakes.

------
doctorwho
Ignore your co-workers. Don't wait. Just get started.

Waiting kills startups.

Put up a landing page, build 1.0, start figuring out if anyone would really
buy your product/service. If you can't get anyone to bite, maybe the idea
isn't ready. If you get any traction then you know the market is there.

Living in "small town" NS has some advantages. You probably have a decent
internet connection and your current paycheque goes a LOT further than it
would in the big city. If you decide to quit your job and dive into your
startup full time you'll have a longer runway.

You are NOT alone. You ARE part of the world. You can make connections HERE
(you've already started) or reddit or just about any other place where other
people in the same situation as you hang out.

~~~
sharemywin
I agree with this. I built a free landing page on unbounce built an adwords
ad. Just to see if anyone would click the get started button. Ran the add for
3 days, cost was like $50 all in. Then added a free lead page with wuffoo. for
people to sign up. still risky but you know people will bite then.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
...and? Don't leave us hanging, what happened?

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canterburry
I am in Silicon Valley and Silicon Valley won't help you much. What does help
is talking to anyone who is your target customer...unless the early adopter
Silicon Valley crowd is your target market.

Find where your target customer hangs out, maybe forums, blogs etc and
approach them there. Start blogging about your idea and people will be able to
find you easier. You'd be surprised what kind of opportunities may come your
way if you just start putting your thoughts out there.

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rhubarbcustard
You don't need to wait for permission to build this thing.

Start now.

Building a product and marketing it are two completely different things. Most
of your concerns are connected to the marketing aspect (no connections etc)
but there doesn't seem to be anything stopping your from building it?

If you build this thing and it is a flop then you still come out with a few
wins: you show yourself to be someone capable of building a complete/ussable
system and you have something to put onto your CV. You'll also probably learn
a bunch of new things and come out a better developer.

Once you've built a proof of concept/MVP then you are in a better position to
attract some people: showing your work to people is going to get more interest
than "I've got this idea but I've done nothing with it" will.

Sales and marketing are a whole different ballgame and are fricking hard but I
don't think you need to worry about those yet. Build the thing first, then
worry. You have nothing to lose from building it and everything to gain.

"Would you focus on networking and save your ideas until you felt like you
were part of the world? Would you focus on saving money, and plan to move and
get a foothold in California? Would you ask for time off work and develop a
prototype in private?"

None of those, I would build the prototype in my spare time, the safest option
as you still have your status quo if the product does not take off. The Web
gives us freedom to start companies for next to no money from anywhere in the
world, the fact you are not in Silicon Valley does not hold you back at all.

Stop looking for excuses and getting to work!

Good luck.

~~~
macu
Spot on. I'll keep working with this attitude, that any outcome will be
positive, and work toward MVP while most other concerns can wait. This brought
me back to thinking clearly.

~~~
doctorwho
Beware of letting your excitement about your idea work against you.

Your marketing effort should start BEFORE the product gets built. If you start
with the product, you run the risk of building something that almost nobody
needs.

It's that "almost" that will get you.

You can build just about anything and find people who think it's great. The
feedback from this group of early adopters will be infectious but it may not
be a market.

The trick is to find something that a lot of people think is great, that's a
market and you can build a company on that.

[http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/resources/stop-
perfuming-t...](http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/resources/stop-perfuming-
the-pig-why-real-marketing-is-done-before-the-product-is-created-)

~~~
macu
"Your marketing effort should start BEFORE the product gets built" is in
contrast to others' comments (like "use your spare time to build") but I think
you may be right. There is certainly risk, and the likelihood that enough
people will be interested (and have the time) is difficult to assess. That's
exactly why I need to start discussing the idea with people who know better
than I do. Marketing is a completely new challenge to me. I'll have to think
about this further, but for now my primary concern is to finish the design
documents, at which point I'll have something tangible to offer up for
feedback. Thanks for keeping the mammoth task of marketing on my radar.

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xpto123
I would try to launch the first version of the product on your free time and
take it from there. Take a week of holiday to work full time on it, maybe on a
quiet week at work with a holiday on on the middle of the week.

With one week full time, you will probably give it a huge boost. This is the
least risk path.

If your employer is open to unpaid leave, take one month without pay. That
goes in a flash at work and its easier to sell to management.

With one month of solid work full time on it, you would give it even a further
boost, then take it from there depending on the reaction.

You mention you are a junior developer. You should likely try to become a
freelance with your own company as soon as possible, that would give some
funds, equipment and a company. I don't know if that is feasible in your local
market or somewhere near.

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japhyr
Have you ever attended a conference? I live in a small town in Alaska, and I
don't know anyone else in my town who writes code. I started attending Pycon,
and it opened up a world of connections for me. Pycon is in Montreal again in
April, if you're interested in Python at all.

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coralreef
One thing to consider is you can't just move to the US. You need a proper
visa, which as a Canadian means either a TN or H1B most likely. So you'd need
to get a job first, and you'd need the proper experience or degree
qualifications for that visa. Unless your business was already successful and
qualified under another type of visa.

If you're okay with moving, consider moving to Montreal or Toronto.

Why not just build the first iteration of the product in your spare time and
see where that takes you first?

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tonyarkles
How far are you from Halifax? I seem to remember hearing about at least a
startup coworking space there. It would at a minimum give you an opportunity
to meet some like minded people.

When I think about it, I'm pretty blown away by how much is going on here in
Saskatoon. When I first moved here, there was a lot of biggish companies but
not much of a startup scene, but it's really grown in the last 10 years.

~~~
macu
Around 100km. I might move there next spring after fulfilling my current
lease. It should offer more chances to meet like-minded people anyway. Small
cities can be surprising.

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JSeymourATL
> don't have any professional connections, and don't know who to talk to...

Search HN posts, news stories, blog posts, and Linkedin for potentially
interesting contacts working in and around your space. Reach out to them on a
professional networking basis. You'll be surprised how many folks will be
receptive to your call/email.

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frozenport
Use the free time and isolation to build.

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gphilip
Off topic: It may be a good idea to prepend an "Ask HN:" to the title to get
more visibility.

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kjs3
There are any number of people who have shown that by leveraging the Internet,
they can build and launch almost anywhere. Build on-line relationships,
leverage on-line communities and see what you can accomplish. Then, if it
still doesn't work out, move.

