

I've got the next great idea for a social networking site... But now what? - drewbert

So I've got a million dollar idea for a simple social networking site.  The dilemma.. I'm not a developer and I don't know any, or know how to find one thats capable of bringing my idea to fruition.  So whats a guy like me to do?  I've got the money, time and motivation but where do I go from here?
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dolphenstein
I've got a gazillion dollar idea! Eye implants that shoot laser beams! Just
need someone to build the prototype for me....

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zipdog
Draw each screen of your system, describing the function of every element on
the screen. Deascribe what data you want to store and how it relates to any
other data. Then go shopping for a developer (odesk or a local web business)
to make a prototype of what you've just specified. If you've really got the
money you'll want quality people, so pick some websites that are quality, find
out who made them, and get in touch.

If it's a tech co-founder you're after, look out for start-up gatherings or
similar in your town.

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drewbert
Thanks. I've never heard of start-up gatherings so I'll definitely have to
look into it further.

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jefflinwood
I'm going to disagree with a lot of these other comments. What does your
simple social networking site do? Is it a close clone of another site? For
instance, Digg for cat lovers? Twitter for Amiga holdouts? Groupon for Waco,
Texas?

There are commercial and open source clones of most of these sites out there
of all kinds of quality. That doesn't actually matter so much - what matters
is that you can quickly get a prototype of what you want to build in front of
your potential users/customers.

Swap out some colors and images and make your clone script look close to what
you want to build.

If your idea takes off, then you can start looking at building from scratch.

Hope this helps!

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drewbert
How I see the site is probably more like a dating site that connects service
providers with customers based on a geographic location but with a unique
twist. Where might I be able to research these open source clones a bit
further and do you think there is something that may fit in this realm?

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jefflinwood
Hmm, I didn't see a lot of good open source dating scripts. That's probably
because there's a lot of money in the space, and you can charge good money if
you have a clone script.

I saw two commercial options that were a couple of hundred dollars. Search for
"match dating clone" or "match dating script" Can't vouch for them though.
Drupal's usually another non-techie option to build a web site, but dating
support is lacking.

You'll need to get a developer involved if those commercial options don't let
you do what you want.

Here's some inspiration from the author of Mingle2. He spent 66.5 hours to
build his dating site: <http://mingle2.com/blog/view/how-i-built-mingle2>

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JonathanWCurd
Hire a developer or two and build a MVP to test the idea in the wild.

That way you can see if what you think is a great idea really is.

If not rinse and repeat.

If so add to your team to make it better and keep adding to the product.

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JonathanWCurd
And if you are looking for a co-founder zipdog's advice above is a great
starting point.

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3ds
I see this kind of mail/post all the time. Some business guy thinks all that's
necessary for a successful web-startup is a good idea. He then can find a
lowly developer who takes care of those pesky details while he ponders whether
the header should be more blueish or not... I don't mean to be rude, but these
ideas are usually crap and without a technical (co)founder, it's not gonna
happen.

Also: Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.

<http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_value_of_ideas/>

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us
I agreed up until you said ideas are worthless. My stance is similar to this
post which showed up here earlier this year:
[http://blog.assetmap.com/2011/01/social-web/lets-end-the-
ide...](http://blog.assetmap.com/2011/01/social-web/lets-end-the-ideas-are-
worthless-myth/)

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nolite
If you've got the money, you can pay for developers

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drewbert
Exactly, but how do I find someone thats qualified in social networking
development? Is there credentials or skill sets that I should be specifically
looking for?

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maxdemarzi
>>I've got the money <http://www.odesk.com>

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tgrass
If you've got the money, honey, I've got the time...

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noig3
Where are you located? People need to know!

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drewbert
Chicago

