

Our most recent startup venture did not just fail, it deserved to fail - WillThisFly
http://willthisfly.net/blog/2013/we-failed-then-something-snapped/

======
btilly
One warning.

It is very easy for people to have bad experiences, decide that they know what
went wrong, then proceed to act on those theories. However hindsight is not
20/20, it is just speculation in the absence of being able to be proven wrong.

Therefore until you've either had feedback from people you trust, or have a
success under your belt, it is wise to temper all "lessons learned" with the
provisional, "I suspect" and the emphatic "I was wrong before, and may be
again." This is difficult, but it is only when we keep track not just of what
we think we know, but how certain we are that we know it, that we truly put
ourselves in a position to actually learn from experience.

Now feedback on the new platform, WTF. Any site which seeks to offer users
feedback from other users, needs to do some careful thinking about how you're
going to attract people who are worth getting feedback from. Else you won't
attract a pool of people giving feedback who are worth listening to. That is
why _Ask HN_ can work - there are a lot of people already here who can offer
good feedback and sometimes do. But they are not here _because_ they want to
offer that feedback 24/7. And if this site became nothing but Ask HN, then
they wouldn't stay.

I can't tell you how to get the people you want involved. You'll need to form
your own theory. I believe there are multiple possible successful strategies.
I also can't tell you how to monetize it. From what I've seen discussion
forums tend to be popular but don't monetize that well. (Though if the
feedback you get allows you to launch a successful parallel startup, maybe
that is good enough for you?) However if you aren't constantly trying/testing
your own theories around those central questions, I guarantee that you'll not
find workable answers.

------
gfodor
tl;dr - author had a bunch of startups that didn't work because they did not
do customer development. (hindsight bias?) author creates site
"willthisfly.net" which is a site for vetting ideas.

this was a rather long-winded post to ultimately plug a project you created.
also, I feel like we get one of these a month, it would be helpful if the post
explained why this one is better than any of the existing and/or failed
attempts to do something like this.

Also, for some real advice, the reason these sites generally do not take off
is despite the chorus of "ideas don't matter", people don't really believe
that when they have what they think is a good idea. If someone has what they
think is a million dollar idea they are apt to keep quiet and not want to tell
anyone about it publically like this, and reveal it only insofar as it
provides tangible benefits to them. Customer Development does not mean
shouting your idea from the rooftops, anyway. There's a gradient between "I
will tell you nothing unless you sign an NDA" and "I will post my idea to the
public on the internet complete with a full explanation as to why it will
work."

~~~
WillThisFly
First of all, thanks for taking the time to provide feedback: Exactly what WTF
was built for.

I agree that there is a gradient and I can tell you that if someone wants you
to sign an NDA then WTF won't really help them but for everyone else, getting
feedback as early in the lifecycle as possible is worth a lot: It could save
you a lot of time and money.

We designed WTF for ourselves in a way. We wanted somewhere we could test out
an idea before committing too much time and resource to it. Somewhere we could
show-off our idea, get feedback, change it accordingly and then re-show it and
so on.

WTF is a guide; It will not be 100% accurate but it might just stop you from
wasting months of your life on something you thought people wanted.

The other side of that coin is that you may find that your "Facebook Killer"
application isn't a total flop: There may be something you could salvage from
it, maybe a particular set of features, and that is what WTF is designed to
help with.

~~~
gfodor
WTF = What The Fuck. Just sayin!

------
filip01
Great post but author really should have said up-front that this text was a
way to promote his new project "willthisfly.net". Probably doesn't affect the
value but it does affect the credibility. Is an outsider's opinion valuable
for startups? Maybe, but as founder of an outsider-opinion-service, you're
biased, which is fine, but I would want to have that in mind reading the
article.

And some feedback to willthisfly.net:

For it to have a chance to fly it need (more obvious) incentives for people to
comment. Something along the lines of having to comment on three projects
before you can submit your own perhaps?

------
inthewoods
The problem I see with sites like willthisfly.net is it is unlikely that the
audience going to that website will represent your target audience.

Example: I'm working on an PDF replacement to support marketing automation.
The people looking at this website may or may not be my target audience. Thus,
the feedback may or may not be useful.

~~~
WillThisFly
Thanks for the feedback.

You are right in that not everyone that comes to the site will be
representative of your audience but "outsiders" can have their own insight
into something that you may not have considered.

All the mechanisms we will be putting in place (comments, voting, project
questions etc.) are designed to help you decide if your project is worth
pursuing: They will not be 100% effective but they will be much more effective
that creating your project in total isolation with no feedback from anyone.

These mechanisms will evolve over time, for example, we may find that straight
up comments may be useless but a scoring system, where other commenters can
vote some up or down, could provide far more value...

WTF is still evolving.

------
namenotrequired
Reminds me of <http://thepitch.co/>

