
Ask HN: How would you develop your next “big idea” if you were alone? - bobnarizes
I have a new project idea, which obviously for me is like “the idea”, but it’s kind of complicated to do it for just one person (me). Also if you consider that it can take a really long time to do that it could end in frustration and nothing... Please also note that I have a 7 hour job.<p>My first though was to try to find someone which might be also interested (preferably no one from the company I’m working at), but since I’m pretty new in the city that I’m living, I basically don’t know anyone outside the office.<p>The problem to find someone from some meetup group, is that I’m afraid that my idea get stolen.<p>Note that I would no have problems to spend some money for this project. Like paying for an external company to help me with the development. Would you do that? Do you know any company&#x2F;startup which will do that, preferably located in Germany?<p>How can I make this idea to happen?
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jayajay
Your idea will get stolen, _if_ it's good. Most likely, it's _not_ good and
your idea won't get stolen because no one gives a fuck about you and your
problems, which is a _good_ thing.

If you _are_ in the .1%, then you probably don't need to getting regurgitated
advice from the rest of the 99.9% (i.e. the retards like me that use this
website who have no idea what the fuck they are talking about).

How many people use this site monthly, like 100k? Maybe 10k of those people
have been in real startups and maybe 1k of those people have gotten non-
trivial funding. Out of those 1k, 950 are retards. Out of the 50 people who
can give you great advice, they all have other things they would rather be
doing, and might not even login for a few weeks.

Shut the hell up and get to work, dude.

~~~
mjurczyk
> Shut the hell up and get to work, dude.

As simple as it gets.

Start working on it. Create something, a simple MVP, to test your idea. Then
worry about the details. If you do it before you even begin with your project,
you will end up with a hundred reasons not to start it at all.

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WhitneyLand
Unless you are famous, no one will steal your idea. The truth is it will be
very difficult to get anyone to even care about your idea. Google, E-Bay were
rejected many times, no one cared. The positive side to this is you can
sharpen your pitch. Once you get strong positive (honest) feedback you know
your story is getting stronger.

Do not pay for $1 of development until you have done lots of validation. Have
you talked to experts in the industry? How many potential customers said
they'd be willing to buy? Have you spec'd out an MVP? Have you had someone
who's run a successful startup review your business model?

Once your ready to hire developers, you again need to plan carefully. There
are 100 ways to get burned. Also it takes skill to manage their effort and
know when things are going wrong.

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stray
Build a teensy tiny part of it. Then build another. And another.

~~~
andymurd
Eat that elephant one bite at a time.

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forgottenacc57
You have to write it yourself. Stop giving reasons why that can't be done.

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GFischer
_" I’m afraid that my idea get stolen"_

You should find someone trustworthy and share it with them. I've had a few
ideas which I think can be turned into huge companies - at first I was afraid
to share, and after sharing, first with friends and family, and later with my
university's startup office, I realized that no, they aren't interested in
stealing your idea (the startup office actually advised the largest startup in
the country, and they obviously didn't steal the idea, even though it wasn't
too hard to duplicate on paper).

Obviously don't divulge it to people who can become competitors (like people
here) before having executed at least a bit.

Nobody will be as enthusiastic as you. Heck, you'll have to explain your idea
over and over, and shout it to the four corners of the earth once you want to
start selling!

[http://cdixon.org/2009/08/22/why-you-shouldnt-keep-your-
star...](http://cdixon.org/2009/08/22/why-you-shouldnt-keep-your-startup-idea-
secret/)

I don't know what the startup scene is in Germany, but if you're in a large
city, there are hacker spaces, coworking spaces, meetups, etc. Not knowing
anyone shouldn't be a problem, it would be ideal if you can enter a hackathon
and establish some rapport and work together.

Speaking from experience, you have to be willing to work hard to make it
succeed - my own project is languishing because I don't put in the hours (I
work 10 hours a day). But put yourself out there, and validate early. Get it
in front of customers.

I hired a freelance programmer and it didn't go all that well due to different
expectations of his commitment. It would be great if you can build a crude
prototype yourself.

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sharemywin
for me it all starts with marketing. how are you getting the word out about
it? if you can't:

1\. Build a landing page and collect names of people that are interested then
it's going to be hard to market.

2\. if it's B2B, generate leads from advertising or SEO trouble.

~~~
patrics123
+1 on this one. Try to find 3 customers first. Ask what they actually need and
charge for solving their pain.

And on getting ideas stolen... Most people dont even enough time for their own
ideas. But Feedback helps a Lot.

Which city are you living in? Any Start-Up/Meetups or Dev Meetups you could
Swing by?

------
mfrye0
I'm doing the same thing. Been working on it for a year now and I'm solo.

Not going to lie, it's fucking hard sometimes. It's definitely not for
everyone. Some days I want to give up and some days when things come together
I feel that it's all worth it. That's the life you have to be prepared for -
drastic ups and downs.

Since I'm bootstrapping the company I just don't have the money to hire full-
time people yet. So what I did is bring on a few advisors who can help out in
exchange for equity. Mainly in the areas that I'm not very strong skill wise.
If anything they are someone to talk to. It can get lonely being solo.

As far as meetups and presenting it, that's usually better after you have
something. If you already have something and have traction, people are often
more interested in joining you rather than competing. Before then talk to
prospective customers and make sure people actually want what you have.

Good luck!

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ashleypt
hmm. on my own without much money to bootstrap with I'm just focusing on
getting the mvp out. if it fails, I'll just write another app/pivot based on
both feedback and empirical testing. I think that's the conventional wisdom
for keeping a startup lean and not getting too invested in one big idea.

as for creating the code with less effort, I'd say either a good
microframework _OR_ a more monolithic one - both have advantages and
disadvantages for a small project. the advantage with a node/express backend
vs meteor for example is that you can just write the API and only add the
components you need googling as you go. if I only want an android app that
uses VERY simple auth and a very simple db that sequelize can map, I can then
have more flexibility and not have to learn as much. there is less code to
maintain often, not as much autogenerated code. I can also write a native
android or react native app instead of being nudged towards a cordova/phone
gap solution. the con is that if you're new or especially if you haven't
worked a tech job before your code can get disorganized or buggy, especially
if you don't know TDD (I still want to learn). also meteor has easy deploy
solutions and a lot of magic.

similar dynamic applies to sinatra vs rails, django vs flask, etc.

as for sharing ideas, this doesn't scare me at all if it's just a chat with
friends or likeminded people - actually I don't worry much at all. if someone
else can make it /better/ and /faster/ than me then I just picked the wrong
niche, I'll just need to pick one where I'm the best next time. I think it's
better if my app can succeed in a market with perfect information because then
I'm specializing to the best of my ability.

I'm still learning but this is the wisdom I've got from reading about how to
do this stuff on your own and trying and just doing the work. I'm curious to
get feedback on my way of thinking about this as I'm sure I could improve even
further

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coldshower
If your idea isn't worth failing spectacularly for, then it's not worth doing.

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Brightwise
Break it down and let freelancers develop the building blocks which you
integrate by yourself into the final solution.

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ergot
> I’m afraid that my idea get stolen

[https://sivers.org/multiply](https://sivers.org/multiply)

