

Ask HN: I have a good idea and money. How should I start? - zeynalov

I have an idea, which I think 99% will be a successful startup. I'm medical student now in Germany, and I can't code. I saved up money in last year in amount of I think is enough to hire 1-2 people (such as coders, designers).<p>But I don't know how to start, where to start, what to do in the beginning.<p>Should I just hire a hacker? Should I find a technical co-founder? Should I do it myself at the beginning and then grow slowly? or apply for incubators? (I've heard here in Germany are also some of them) or speak to someone? I appreciate any kind of advice.
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helen842000
For now, pretend you don't have money.

Sit down with paper and draw each screen out, exact words, page names, prices
etc.

Get to this stage before you involve anyone else. Best thing is that it's
almost free to do and ensures you document your original ideas before you get
overwhelmed with information & ideas. It will also save you money so that when
you do hire a team they can get started straight away & things will be well
communicated.

Best of luck with your project!

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mion
Have you considered learning how to code? How hard is your idea to implement?
I know people who were not coders at first but learned how to do it just so
they could build prototypes and simple versions of the product. Check out
codeacademy.com And also this interview with YC partner Harjeet Taggar, he
talks about learning how to code among other interesting stuff:
[http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/30/y-combinator-harj-taggar-
in...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/30/y-combinator-harj-taggar-interview-
video-tctv/)

You should also be careful with that "99%" statement. I don't wanna discourage
you or anything, but you should definitely think about validating all your
assumptions before investing money and time into building your startup. I
strongly recommend reading The Lean Startup.

And IMHO you should definitely have a technical co-founder. Even if you
managed to save money and you can hire some decent programmers (which would be
quite expensive for a student), you'll have no idea of how long it takes for
something to done.

~~~
zeynalov
Thanks for reply. I've already read The Lean Startup. The reason why I say 99%
I'm sure that it'll be successful, is I talk to 23 of my potential costumers
and 22 of them said Yes I would definitely buy your product, I like it and I
need it. One of them said, mmm I must see the software now I can't tell
anything. It's related to medicine, and because me too have this kind of
problem and all other my doctor friends, I think it will work.

Some time ago I've tried to learn Ruby on Rails but in my first week I saw
that it's not that easy. I've learned how to make a website, blog etc., but
making complex softwares are too hard for me. I need some time, which I don't
have. Every workday I must be at the clinic and I have too many patients, I
come home very tired, even though I work on my startup.

One thing I don't understand, why should one learn to code, if he has enough
money to hire someone to code? I always see everywhere that founders must
learn to code. Why? I understand that it will save money and you can do
whatever you want, you'll have freedom by coding. But is it worth it? To be
able to code as an average hacker you should spend at least 3 month to learn
to code.

~~~
mion
You're welcome! :) Ah I see, then you're in much better shape than I thought.
But still, one can never be that sure about a startup, you have to be really
careful with that. Put some fake screenshots together and tell your potential
customers your product is ready and ask them to buy it. If they reply "ok send
me your bank account" you're good. I say this because I've experienced it
firsthand: you may find out that your assumptions are not that well-validated.
But that's just a quick tip, now back to the topic.

I don't think learning how to code is a must if you have a technical co-
founder, someone that you can trust and will handle all the coding while you
handle other business related issues. That usually works well.

That's what I would do in your place, since you're finding it too hard to code
it yourself. In my opinion, why is it bad to "just hire" some programmers
(instead of giving them/him equity and thus having a co-founder):

\- Since you don't know how to code, you can't really tell if they're giving
you what you paid for (is this shitty code or not?);

\- Your runway will be a lot shorter since you have to spend money paying
them. Also, if you're willing to invest your money in your startup, think
about the fact that, for example, with $1000/month you can only hire a lesser
programmer but you could pay for a badass server with huge bandwidth, etc;

\- Startups are also about passion. Hired programmers wouldn't come close to
the dedication needed at the early stages of a startup. Unless you were
willing to spend a serious amount of cash and hire some seriously good hackers
with +- $100k/year;

\- And theoretically, there's nothing to stop them from "stealing" your idea;

There you go, my thoughts on the subject.

~~~
zeynalov
Your last point is my biggest problem. The reason why I can't decide if I
should hire someone to code, that he can easily take it to himself, it consist
of codes and it's just a software and actually he did everything. Why should
he not steal the idea and the code?! This also applies to tech-cofounders
which are strangers that I know from HN willing to start the startup with me.

Your first point about showing screenshot to the potential costumers, seeing
if they would buy it, remembers me Bill Gates selling his software when he
even didn't start to build it :). I'll try to do it, good idea.

~~~
mion
Yea, finding a co-founder can be really hard! The team itself is a very
important part of the startup (if not the most important). For instance, there
are questions in the YC application form about that and they give it a lot of
attention.

So I think it's crucial that your co-founder be someone you know fairly well
or at least someone that you may become friends with. Try asking your friends
if they have friends who are programmers!

~~~
zeynalov
thanks for your advices, really appreciate

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matthewphiong
With all due respect, I don't think there is such thing that "you think" your
idea is 99% successful. You will never know until you try it out. Go to
meetups and talk to others about your idea. Also joining Startup Weekend might
be a good thing too. Finally, if the technical aspect of it is not overly
complicated, try to learn to code. I have a friend that is a doctor turned
hacker. Never too late.

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relizarr
I am open to listen to your ideas in more detail. I was an advisor for a
Medical Startup for 2 years here in the USA. And I have the technical know-
how. I am interested in the Health industry and I would be open to be a co-
founder with you depending on the specifics and the potential of a good
relationship. If you are very zeoulous about your "idea" I recommend you to
hire someone. Think about it and email me with more details if you are open in
exploring this option. Good luck. robertesoto@yahoo.com

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lumberjack
Find a hacker or a small software house and have them build a prototype. A
lone guy is probably better for you, cheaper and probably easier to deal with.

Now, importantly, don't project it as the next startup idea. Instead make it
seem like it's just some mundane task that's common in your line of work that
your fictional employer would like to automate. From what I can tell this is
not some idea that is common knowledge outside of the medical field right? I
don't think you need to worry that much.

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ssylee
Have you tried testing your idea without coding or hiring people? Most ideas
in start-up founders' heads usually aren't any good in terms of making money.
It's not until the pivots when they found profitable models.

You've mentioned you've talked to over 20 people and they said they would buy
your product. However, getting them to pull out their wallets when you
actually have the product could be a different endeavor. Not sure if the
problems you're solving are painful enough.

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dchuk
since you have some money saved up, you can hire someone to build you a
working prototype for cheap off of like odesk or elance. Once you have that,
you can start demoing it and improving it based on user feedback and then
possibly team up with someone who has technical skills to turn it into a full
fledged product.

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eytanlevit
Check out <http://validationboard.com/> before you start getting people write
code for you, and do what it says.

It will save you huge amounts of time, money and grief.

