

Help/Advice needed with starting a startup  - shubhodeep

I've pretty much conceptualized all aspects of a new web application that I'm rather excited about. (I know that kinda sounds like what everyone does these days, but I have!) I've talked to a few people about the idea (mostly entrepreneurs themselves) and they've advised me to go ahead with it without wasting time.<p>However, the major problem is this: I have mainly had an education in Business Management with some programming experience interspersed in between simply because I enjoy it as a hobby (a few questions on Project Euler as and when time permitted). But because I have treated programming as a hobby, I'm afraid I don't find myself competent enough to develop a relatively advanced web app on my own.<p>So what I'd like advice on is this: Do you recommend I learn the skills first and start development before looking for co-founders to help with development (there's no way I can do this alone anyway) or just look for an interested programmer/designer first and learn with him on the go? (The reason I say designer is that my conceputalisation pays a lot of emphasis on UI and UX).<p>Would appreciate some advice!
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pemulis
I was in a similar position three months ago. I had an idea for a website that
I was incredibly excited about, but no programming experience. (And no
business experience, either! My major is creative writing.) At first I did the
natural thing for a "non-technical co-founder": I asked every programmer I
could find if they wanted to build the product for me in exchange for equity
in my unfunded company. Needless to say, this did not work out.

I decided to teach myself how to do it, which meant starting from the very
beginning. I bought a "For Dummies" book on HTML, CSS and JavaScript (Yes, it
was really that bad! Back when I took a web design course in high school, they
were still teaching us to format with tables.) and worked my way up to more
serious books on MySQL, PHP, and jQuery, all the while working on my website.
I now have a beta version of the site online, and I'm testing it with friends
and family. I've also learned enough about programming to get a part-time job
as a developer at another company. (Not the highest-paying developer job, but
still! Real US currency, and the beta version of my website was my only
resume.) There are still tons of things that I want to add to my website that
I don't know how to build yet, and many aspects of the design that I'm not
happy with, but that's okay! Only three months ago I didn't even know CSS! At
least now I have a working demo that I can show to potential team members,
investors, and future clients.

If you're already programming as a hobby, you'll probably love programming as
a job, and you're a lot further along than I was when I started. The only way
to build a web app is to build it. And I promise you that until you start
building it you have not even _begun_ to conceptualize it! Don't underestimate
the difficulty of the intellectual challenges you're going to face.

But don't be daunted by the challenges, either. I can speak as someone who
started with literally "just an idea". I think you'll be surprised by how much
you'll be able to build in just six months.

~~~
shubhodeep
Whoa! This seems absolutely like my position. Great job! Would love to have a
look at your website (if you'd care to share the link).

Thanks for the advice - hugely helpful!

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tastefulwords
I would advise you get started coding as soon as possible. And there's two
reasons I'm giving you this advice:

(1) no "learning experience" in the world compares to actually _having_ to do
something to your app's code -- I've been doing development for 10 years, and
this is basically how I "learned" everything; by actually having to do it.

(2) your idea will probably change once you start working on it; they always
do.

And don't worry: it's very unlikely that someone will just decide, out of the
blue, to execute the exact same idea as you. And even if they do, the thing to
remember is that it's the _execution_ that matters, not the idea itself.

~~~
shubhodeep
Yeah, I understand that point - but I'm still a bit unsure how to hit the
ground running - you know, the initial qualms, what's the point that I start
at? Do I just dive in and learn on the go? Or learn a bit, create, learn more
and develop and so on.. ? Glad to have some pros provide some great advice!

~~~
tastefulwords
What I would do -- what I actually do do, as a matter of fact -- is dive right
in and learn on the go.

Necessity is the mother of invention -- or, in our case, the mother of
resourcefulness. I.e. nothing will make you learn something faster, and
better, than having your website crash/not-work if that particular something
isn't done right.

That being said, don't go overboard; or be overconfident. Do practice the
basics, before diving head first into your new website/app. And by "the
basics" I mean getting a website up and running.

Then, you take that and you run with it -- as fast and for as long as you can.
There; that's the secret to startups, right there :)

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redredraider
I would get cracking on web development if I were you. You can definitely do
it alone for a while. That way you're not at the mercy of a programmer and you
will have learned a useful skill in the likely event your idea doesn't make
it.

~~~
shubhodeep
Appreciate the advice, but I primarily wanted to know how much importance to
give to the "time factor" - you know, I could spend 6 months developing skills
for something I wanted to do only to realise that someone's get their foot
into the hole I had my eyes on? I'm sorry if this sounds puerile or naive, but
it's just the first time I've had an exciting idea for a startup so I really
want to see this come to fruition soon!

~~~
redredraider
I think it depends how much money you have to spend. If you have money then
see about finding a developer. If you don't have money and you don't expect
investment then I would say take your time. 6 months is not that long. Unless
you're idea is fully developed it will probably take that long to figure out
what it is you're really going to end up building based on feedback.

~~~
shubhodeep
Yeah, I think more than money, the reason I am actually considering learning
development myself is that it gives me some sort of "ownership security" - you
know, the feeling that I didn't just have an idea but I own what I made of
that idea rather than having got it done by others. Thanks for your advice!

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JoshKalkbrenner
<http://www.axure.com/tour.aspx> \-- secret is -- they will give it to you for
free if you're/were a 3.0 + student. Just email them from university domain,
and request a 'good student' copy.

If you need help getting ramped up on their software, let me know.

JB

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iworkforthem
I would say you pick the programming language to get an idea what is possible
in your web application and what is not. Meanwhile, never stop recruiting, it
is not easy to find good developer.

I think you need a designer too. Most developer an't good at design work. Then
you have a decent team structure.

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shubhodeep
I'm primarily looking to develop a Rails app. (Sorry, missed that out!)

