

Show HN: Thinkerous - Collaborative ideation and think tank - aaronz8
http://www.thinkero.us/landing?1

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sunnybunny
I wish people would start focusing their efforts on "ideas" and start focusing
on solving problems people are willing to pay for. Every StartupWeekend I
coach at, I see a handful of ideas that people work on that solve no problem,
and no purpose. They don't have a shot because they have no reason for
existing.

So maybe if this were to be adjusted so that it was more of a place to talk
about problems you wish people would solve. PG wrote a good post where he
briefly talked with problems, and he wished people would solve them. Why not
structure it as a place for people to complain about inefficiencies.

I'll start right now with a complaint of my own:

Startups are best started by people who can build things themselves.
Unfortunately, people also tend to work on problems they know really well. As
a result, a lot of startups are focused on tech-focused problems, and
completely ignore broader world problems. Create a place for regular people to
complain about issues in their business they wish worked better, and you'll
allow builders of technology to understand problems they never would have
encountered.

~~~
shawnreilly
I see where you're coming from, and I've also seen similar results at local
StartupWeekend Events. But to me it's more than just the idea and the problem
they're solving; It's having the right Team. I've seen many "Builders" do a
Startup with a Great Idea, a Product that people would pay for, and the
ability to Execute. These all seem like a recepie for success, but then
somehow they overlook something. Maybe it's the importance of the Business
aspect. Or the Marketing aspect. Or the <insert whatever here> aspect. Anyway,
not trying to downplay what is being said here, but I do believe the Team is
key. And building the right Team is probably one of the hardest things to do.
Anyone interested should check out BOSI

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aaronz8
Currently, it takes multiple services and much knowledge to be able to
successfully realize an idea into a working concept or product alone or as a
team.

Thinkerous provides a creative, social platform to help people network and
collaborate as teams to create and realize great projects or products that
would otherwise be difficult to do alone. And not only tech related ideas! We
aim to answer questions like "What can a chef, medic, and police officer
create together to increase high school graduation rate?"

We'd appreciate any and all feedback!

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shawnreilly
I really identify with this project. This is actually a super hard problem to
solve, and I commend you guys for taking it on. Here is some genuine feedback
/ constructive criticism; If you want to attract quality Idea Guys, you should
probably address Intellectual Property (IP). I hate to generalize, but most of
the Idea Guys I know are somewhat protective of their Ideas, because they
don't want them to be "stolen" (which may or may not be a misconception). If
you can figure out how to solve this (perceived) problem, you're probably
going to end up with more quality Ideas. Another thing here is the potential
for white noise. Most of the Developers I know are too busy to scroll through
multiple pages of ideas, especially if the quality is inconsistent (great
idea, fart app, great idea, fart app, etc). Maybe consider implementing an
upvote / downvote system similar to what they do here at HN, or at
StackOverflow. This would allow the community to dictate what ideas they think
kick ass, which not only validates the ideas, but helps the Developers
identify the good ideas. Keep up the good work!

~~~
aaronz8
Hey thanks! Those are some really great tips. Currently we are trying to
utilize this equilibrium of { share more: get more feedback and possibly great
allies } vs. { share less: no feedback, no exposure, it doesn't even appear on
the homepage } but as this is untested, we'll see how it goes. I definitely
agree with you though, the IP issue is huge and is/will be one of the biggest
things we'll have to deal with. Regarding the upvote/downvotes, I agree also!
I just pushed it up on my task list. :)

~~~
ippisl
Regarding IP:

The important and hard part(if you want this to solve problems and create
businesses) is to expose creators/entrepreneurs to good problems , and connect
them with domain experts and the relevant knowledge.

This way, you leave the details of the solution(IP) private, which should help
motivate the creation of a product and a business

By making it as a business creation platform, and highlighting the companies
it started, or even the groups that that formed and are working through this,
you create a very strong incentive to domain experts(which are usually very
busy people, think doctors, lawyers, etc) to publish problems on the platform,
preferably in some detailed, and interesting way.

And by having interesting content about really good problems, you gather high
quality entrepreneurs and creators, which also post resumes and details about
themselfs, to make creating good connections easier.

And by making you're content interesting, you could get much wider
readership(which helps with marketing), also among people who are not
entrepreneurs but might hold useful knowledge. If you'll figure someway to
incentivise them to contribute, the better, but you'll have to be very
carefull with signal to noise.

EDIT:also , by creating a different stream of important problems, you create
stuff for bloggers/journalists to write about , which is great for marketing.

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Alex3917
This makes launching a new startup/project seem as easy as creating a grocery
list. But it's not.

This app is certainly pretty, but I think the real value is in solving hard
problems, whereas this looks like it's just making easy things slightly
easier. If it solves any hard problems, I'm certainly not seeing it based on
the landing page or video.

That said, there's something cool about this and it looks like it could be the
foundation of something interesting.

edit: Also, don't limit passwords to 20 characters.

~~~
aaronz8
We totally get what you're coming from, since we had to go through the process
to get the project to work (and we're still in the process).

One of the motivating factors for Thinkerous was that in the beginning, I had
an idea that I thought was interesting. But... I had no clue how to start.
Would people laugh at me if I revealed my idea? What kind of people do I need
to get started? Wtf is Node.js?

All in all, we're not going to solve hard problems for our users. But we'd
really like to make it easier to start, to GO FOR IT instead of "nah it
probably won't even work anyways."

Thanks for your feedback!

Edit: We've also upped the password max to 100 characters.

~~~
cheeyoonlee
100 char passwords woot!

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feniv
Oh wow! This looks awesome. It's basically a collaboration/connection platform
for developers, designers and businessmen. I've seen a lot of other sites
attempt to do this, but they fall short of their goal and ends up being
incredibly complex (Example: Hit Record by the actor Joseph Gordon Levitt).
Based on what I can see (great use of the animated example BTW) thinkerus has
a clearer vision and better execution to maybe make this work.

Good luck! I've signed up and look forward to using it.

~~~
aaronz8
Not only is it for developers, designers, and businessmen, but it's also for
comedians, chefs, and cab drivers too! (And that's just the C's)

We're hoping that with a little less friction and a lot more diversity, some
incredible things can me made.

Thanks so much!

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cheeyoonlee
Hey HN, just a heads up: The interface design is still a work in progress! I
would say it's about 50% there from the current mockup. If you'd like to refer
to it and comment on the UI/UX in prettier form, you're welcome to check out
the mockup:
[http://thinkerous.businesscatalyst.com/ideas.html](http://thinkerous.businesscatalyst.com/ideas.html)

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labpdx
"Mobile site is not available at this time Please browse the full site on your
desktop."

No option to use the desktop/full version via my mobile device? Maybe some
information about your offerings that compel users to open their laptops and
check it out would be beneficial.

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csense
Did you try spoofing your user-agent? IMHO mobile browsers should have a
"pretend to the server I'm not accessing this website from a mobile device"
button...

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reginaldjcooper
I'd advise against it; the converse, pretending to the server that you are
accessing from a mobile device, is apparently a felony.

~~~
csense
[Citation needed]

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cdvonstinkpot
I don't see the feedback link anywhere so I have to tell you here.

I signed up then went to add my real name to my profile from the 'settings'
link, but it kicked me out when I tried to save it. Now it won't let me log
back in. I use the same username as I do on HN.

I use Lastpass & it has my password correct in it's settings, but it doesn't
look like the field is allowing it to all be entered into the field- some
characters are missing.

If I log out of Lastpass I can log in.

~~~
cheeyoonlee
We're looking into it right now, thanks for reporting! If for some reason the
header login doesn't work, try

[http://www.thinkero.us/login](http://www.thinkero.us/login)

~~~
cdvonstinkpot
I put the issues into the 'Issues' section. but I see other stuff there that
leads me to believe that's the wrong place. Is that where beta issues belong?

When I update my user info it doesn't display on the profile either.

~~~
cheeyoonlee
We don't have a section for beta issues/feedback reporting, so writing here
would be great.

Issues section is for posting civic or other issues you find in day-to-day
life that can be solved through community involvement or discussion.

As for the info not showing up when you view your profile, we're aware of the
issue and will fix it as soon as possible!

~~~
cdvonstinkpot
Ok, thanks for clarifying that. I've posted more here.

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mikeg8
Looks cool. My little feedback point: I clicked contact and it directs to a
page with a button that is just a mailto link. Unless you plan on re-doing the
contact page soon, skip the extra click and page request and just have the
contact link be the mailto. Not super insightful on my part but something I
noticed.

~~~
cheeyoonlee
Good point! Design is still early stage but that'll work for now

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neuromancer2701
Yeah, I tried something similar a couple years back. Could not get anyone to
help on the website design. I think I went too much with the "social"
aspect(buddypress) when I really wanted an engineering collaboration website.
All ready signed up and submitted an idea :)

~~~
aaronz8
Thanks for joining!

"Could not get anyone to help on the website design" is a HUGE problem for so
many startups, even this one when we just started. Hopefully we'll be able to
help you find some help on your next project!

~~~
neuromancer2701
yeah, one of my motivation was a friend of mine who wrote a comic book in
collaboration with an artist in Argentina. Man I need a mechanical engineer
wouldn't it be great if someone could partner with me( an Electrical Engineer)
to build an awesome project.

~~~
jjsz
Arrange a meetup at the most prestigious school in your area.

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angelohuang
You can work with LaunchSky.com to facilitate ideas. Both sites help good
ideas happen. I can see people use LaunchSky to get feedback and Thinkerous to
find resources.

[http://launchsky.com](http://launchsky.com)

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cdvonstinkpot
I don't see where I can add tags after I add an idea, from the 'Edit' dialog.
If I forget from the start I can't add tags after the fact it seems. That's a
real bummer.

~~~
aaronz8
We'll let you know once we add that. (Which will be soon since it's literally
the second thing on our Asana task list!) Thanks for your in depth feedback!
Glad you were able to log in. We'll be testing that some more to make sure
it's smooth for everyone.

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wasd
I love the design. It seems incredibly well polished for an MVP. How many
people are you using Thinkerous currently?

~~~
aaronz8
Thanks! We're currently 3 people, with Chris and me being engineers and
Cheeyoon being the designer.

~~~
wasd
Ahhhhh, I meant how many users are using it now. As in using the product.

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quizotic
I like it. Wish it was a little further along... so you must be doing
something right.

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arcameron
I really like the UI, beautiful design.

Interesting concept

