

Ask HN: Technically interesting vs. a good business - gersh

If something is technically interesting is it likely to make a good business? How do you balance between doing what is technically interesting, and what is profitable?<p>If you have some tool to make programming 10x more efficient, do you have business, or just an open source project? Meanwhile, if you have a new way to do e-commerce, you may have the Groupon?<p>In the current environment, is pure tech devalued while everyone needs good, simple technology? As a hacker do you focus on building tech or a consumer business?
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michaelpinto
The model du jour has been to build dev tools that are open source and then
sell consulting. But you should keep in mind that it wasn't always that way:
Once upon a time there was a company called Borland and they made their money
through dev tools. Also if you really think about it things like databases are
really sold to geeks, so even big shots like Oracle are selling dev tools. And
on the low end even tools like Flash are dev tools too.

So yes if you figure out a new way reinvent programming you can build a
business on that...

