

Show HN: I'm a non-hacker "idea guy" and my weekend project took 1,670 + days  - sunpatel

I am a non-hacker "idea guy" with zero discernible talent.  Like most, the story starts with me doing things the hard way.  I dreamt of a tool that would save me countless hours.  Like most of my ideas, it was supposed to die in a couple of hours, but this one had some legs....<p>"If I needed this, surely others did too" kept looping in my head.  Could I get this built? Could I build it myself? Nah...too lazy to learn how, but before I did anything, I had to promise myself one thing:  No more ideas! If ideas were sit-ups, I would have a six pack instead of this tire.  It was a constant mental exercise. Ideas would peep in, I would spend 5 seconds and if it wasn’t related to THE TOOL, I had to throw it out.  That's it.  Focus achieved. I've been idea sober for 1670 straight days.<p>I was now ready to find the right people that are the exact opposite of me.  Translated: People that actually do stuff.   I went through tons of people, but I finally got the team together:  1 backend, 1 front end, 1 designer and hired an n number of freelancers whenever we needed it.  I paid for this with my consulting day job.<p>We “launched" 18 months ago, got some decent press and yc feedback<p>http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/07/tutorials-made-easy-with-iorad.php
http://lifehacker.com/5584834/iorad-creates-your-step+by+step-computer-instructions-for-others
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1437395<p>Thousands of people signed up, but the tool just sucked and it didn't really work the way it should. This was most definitely my fault. While I've been non-related idea sober for 1670 days, if it was related I had to try it, which means adding half-baked features on top of half-baked features.  Anyway, the only good thing that came out of the whole experience: it validated that lots of people had the same problem and needed this solution.<p>We regrouped and simplified, simplified and then simplified some mo.  The result: www.iorad.com - “instant application instructions”.<p>What the...?  Translation: There's no easy way to show somebody how to do something in an app and share your knowledge.  Screencasting sucks and is hard to follow along.  Copy/pasting/emailing screenshots is painful. Desktop share is hard to schedule.<p>Our goal is to let you create easy to follow instructions (both interactive and print) for your application in minutes so your users know what they’re doing and you can get back to doing things that matter.  Give it a try and let me know what you think, what sucks and if you think it can save you some time.<p>PS if there are other "useless idea guys" mixed in with the YC Hacker community (that actually does shit), and you are semi-interested in some of my story, maybe I can start blogging it.
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hmgauna
I really like the idea of your product, and it seems to do what you promise. I
have not test it in depth, maybe some times I was kind of lost (for a short
moment), I think it can be fine-tuned with a few tests with people. It's only
a design/IA problem issue, as far as I can see.

In the quick tutorial, images are distorted (stretchet) and that gives an
amateurish feeling, you should fix that.

And definitely I would like to see your blog about this journey. It seems that
you really know how to tell things.

Best luck!

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pinojo
Definitely interested in your story - be sure to post if you start a blog.
Best of luck with relaunch!

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prgibbons
same boat - 3 liberal art degrees...from an engineering school.... sigh...

1 year into my project I have a back end developer, designer, graphic artist,
illustrator and startup lawyer... Still a long way to go but I'm amazed how
far the idea has come.

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fourmii
That's an impressive team! Are you bootstrapping?

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prgibbons
yes, with money that was formerly reserved for a downpayment on a house. Just
did a pitch practice at the Vegas Jelly and got great feedback from the
VegasTech community too. We are excited!

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connor
Looks interesting, congrats on getting a product out. A bit of design advice-
stick to 2 font styles on the frontpage. The 4 current styles are too much to
process and take away from your message.

Best of luck!

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INNOgenius
You sound lik me, Let see if I get as far as you did. Looking forward to your
blog.

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armenarmen
I am a useless non-hacker idea guy and would love it if you began blogging

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tangentcity
More than semi-interested, because you're more than semi-funny.

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olegious
Curious, what kind of consulting did you do as an idea guy?

