

We have a funded startup but no product - danielfrese

We had to kill our original startup idea.<p>Now we have 60K left, we are two founders (Developer &#38; Business) and we have an outstanding advisory/angel board.<p>But we are kind of bummed. It's crazy. And funny. And sad. But we don't know what we should build now.<p>You come up with tons of startup ideas while you're in school, college or working at a company. But when you have to come up with something because you have funding and an awesome team behind you, then there is emptiness.<p>We expected a lot of things when we started our startup, but not this.<p>What can we do?
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mchannon
I call this situation an "empty nest" situation- a company ready to go
gangbusters but with an idea that they know won't work, so they're stuck.

The solution's straightforward- there are hundreds of would-be solo founders
or founder duos that have a brilliant idea, are pitching their heart out, and
not getting any traction.

Network like the dickens for the next 30 days, go to pitch events, etc., and
find people where you can say "they're going to go far" and "I could work with
this person", then pitch _them_ your empty nest.

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teachef
I've been told by a lot of people in my most recent round of fundraising that
a successful start is comprised of: 50% Market, 45% Team, 5% Concept

So, you need to find a Market and Concept. There are a lot of people with
great ideas that need teams for execution. I have a series of ongoing projects
that I could plug-and-play a good team into.

Questions include: 1\. How do you find the people with the great ideas? 2\.
How do you structure the deal? You have taken funding already and are beholden
to your existing stakeholders?

My answers: 1\. Finding Ideas: Hacker News is a good start. Also, you can act
as a contractor-service company and see which projects may be good long-term
fits for you. Try finding these online (odesk/elance) or offline (Berlin has a
burgeoning tech scene looking for CTOs). 2\. Corporate Structure: You need to
be very communicative with your existing stakeholders. Being proactive is
essential in your pivot. Then, be realistic when it comes to the deal: Start
with milestones are are achievable, and move your stake up through
performance.

Time is of the essence! You want to keep your momentum moving forward.

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iamabanana
Coming up with an idea is hard. There are no shortcuts. Your original idea was
not great. Clearly your board and your investors believe in you. Likely in
their heart of hearts, they probably expected the FIRST idea to fail.

Now is exactly when they expect their ROI. So, do what YOU think is right. Get
out of your comfort zone if you have to (maybe you already are). Search,
brainstorm, seek.

You have investors because they believe in you and trust you with their money.
Do not let them regret it. My guess is that you're already well equipped to
pivot and find that next idea.

Tactically: Follow the money. In your previous effort - how did the money
flow? Who paid who and for what? What were the pains or frictions involved
with exchanging money. Solve that problem if it's possible.

Spontaneous meetups are probably reasonable at conferences, or colleges, or
fairs. Can you pivot to a particular niche?

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danielfrese
We haven't found a niche that may be suited better. We'll likely pivot to
something else.

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nurik
Take the money and run....no just kidding of course. Is it possible to pivot
your idea? You must have thought about this I am sure...Your team must be
pretty good, otherwise you would n't have an outstanding angel board and I
assume you wouldnt be able to keep the money. I agree with the approach of
"lifeisstillgood". Can you tell us a bit about your "failed" idea? It might
seem strange at this point but have you considered to apply here?:
<http://ycombinator.com/noidea.html>

~~~
danielfrese
Yeah, maybe we'll apply for the next YC class.

I wrote about our failed idea in another comment

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lifeisstillgood
Take a long weekend, go get drunk, walk along a beach, climb a hill.

Don't touch a laptop or a iphone till Monday.

On monday, walk into the room with all your team, and brainstorm. They will
have ideas. You will have ideas. Some you might like. By Lunchtime Monday,
choose _one_ and run with it. Get the 'enter your email' site up by Monday
9pm, and post a link here.

Here is one for free. :

Dealer app.

You 'throw' yout iphone in a mechanics grip like you are really dealing cards.
THe card flicks out of the iphone display and 'lands' on the display of the
other iphone sitting on the table across from you. Repeat to the phone on his
left etc. Sell the engine to poker sites.

That idea is feasible, but its probably not right for you. But the main thing
is get your of your head, you are probably a little burnt out. Get any idea
that excites you and release _something_ \- you need the endorphins.

~~~
mratzloff
Don't brainstorm. Have everyone take 30-60 minutes and quietly write down a
list of ideas that they have. Then get together and go over those lists.

Brainstorming will only limit the ideas that you come up with.

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mbylstra
Does the 60K need to be spent right away, or can it wait a year? If not, I
suggest you work for a year first. Unfortunately the best ideas seem to come
when you are not trying to think of them - such as when you're at work or at
college. I think we are most creative when we are yearning for something else.

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lookup23713
We have several ideas we can't fund at the moment. If you are interested you
can contact us at contact@nextwave.ro

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niico
Wrote a blog post about it. It could be useful.
[http://www.nico.im/post/26631664931/how-to-overcome-
entrepre...](http://www.nico.im/post/26631664931/how-to-overcome-
entrepreneurs-block)

~~~
danielfrese
Very nice

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opendomain
If you want - I have several business ideas, with some siginifcant customer
validation and branding to match. Contact me at HackerNews AT OpenDomain dot
Org

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debacle
Why did your old idea die, if you don't mind me asking?

~~~
danielfrese
We wanted to make spontaneous meetups happen. However, our real world is not
made for spontaneous meetups. You have to spam about 70 people to find some
people to meet spontaneously. And if you only have 10 friends near you,
chances are not good that a spontaneous meetup will happen.

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nopassrecover
Few rhetorical questions:

* I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that customer-driven development is key, so who were you building this for and why were they interested?

* What are they doing to solve their problem at the moment and how is your solution better?

* What evidence did you have that this was a good idea?

* What evidence do you have now that this is a bad idea?

* Why does it have to be friends - can you facilitate spontaneous meetups with strangers (ideally with similar interests and values)?

* Why does it have to be spontaneous - could it connect people who will agree to meet [sometime today/this week/by the end of month]?

* Why do you "spam" people - why not have people collectively opt-in with a "I'm free" marker (with various [free to anyone|free to friends])? Bonus points if you can align calendars to suggest a free time (why Google doesn't do this I'm not sure).

* Is "spontaneous meetups" the right way to sell the idea? What about [coffee-with-interesting-people/speed-dating-in-your-lunch-hour/try-something-new-every-week/never-eat-alone-again/get-fit-with-strangers]?

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danielfrese
Very good points.

So far we haven't found something promising in the meetup space. We'll
probably pivot somewhere else.

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nurik
Does your idea compete with this one? <http://www.howaboutwe.com/>

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niico
Go to a local coffe shop, listen to other people's conversation about what
they are working on. Build that, faster.

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upgradeind
How the hell did you get get somebody to give you money. I have a product but
no money, want to trade places?

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debacle
You need to know how to play that game. It can be a lot of time investment,
but like my dad always said, "People aren't going to call you and offer you a
job, you need to go to them."

The same is true with VC funds.

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nerd_in_rage
How much did you guys raise initially? How long did you take to figure out the
original idea wouldn't work?

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danielfrese
A few months when it was just a little side project and then 6 weeks fulltime.
We only burnt 6 weeks of salaries.

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botolo
Where are you guys located?

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danielfrese
Berlin

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its_so_on
Do you intend to pay for access, or just go with whatever crap people send you
for free?

