

Ask HN: Faking it until you make it? - robpa

Hello HN. I've got an interesting idea for a side project, but I'm a front end guy with zero programming knowledge. I see neat side projects frequently on HN, and of course they're almost always fully self coded from the ground up and created with something like App Engine or Heroku.<p>I could easily start my idea out on something like Tumblr or Wordpress.com, but my question is: Is it possible to still be taken legitimately as a site/service if my idea was to use one of those? Or would I be laughed off of the internet/HN for appearing amateur? At some point when I'm able to pay a freelancer, I'd want to have the site built from scratch and self hosted - but I don't have that option at the current time.<p>I've heard that Groupon started out on Wordpress, but I'm sure they still had large amounts of custom plugin development. Are there any other startups that started this way?
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mapster
I don't believe your idea only gets one shot, necessarily. You measure
customer feedback and iterate. Just build it and build a profitable business.
Then come back and tell us how your successful web business started out, or
still uses, Wordpress. Wordpress is VERY functional for many startup uses, so
as long as your copy, design and UI are up to snuff, and your service is the
best you can make it, you have a decent chance.

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mattblalock
Just go for it. Don't worry so much about things like this. Give your project
passion, that's all it needs.

In my mind, this is the same as asking if its okay to not use linen for my biz
cards.. it doesn't matter.

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devs1010
Just to clarify, Heroku and App Engine are essentially just a new breed of
hosts, these applications aren't exactly created with Heroku or App Engine,
they are using other frameworks that can be used on any host (or at least a
lot of other hosts), they are being deployed and hosted there. Tumblr and
Wordpress are primarily blogging engines so unless you're just starting a blog
they probably won't get you far. What I would suggest looking into are web
application frameworks, for example a lot of people who use Heroku are using
Ruby on Rails, you don't need to know anything about Heroku to use Ruby on
Rails, instead you can run everything locally while developing and learning
and only later do you need to worry about pushing up to a host

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dholowiski
Techcrunch is hosted on wordpress.com - sure it's the VIP service but there
are tons of big sites on WordPress. Either spend some time customizing a theme
or look to spend $50-$100 on a premium theme - this will make you look much
more professional, and there are many themes out there that don't even look
like WordPress. If your idea will work on WordPress (or tumblr) then I think
you're crazy not to use it.

<http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/>

<http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/commercial/>

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littledude
I'd actually be more impressed if you start making money and validate your
idea without writing a line of code.

go do it :)

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connor
I'd actually give you more respect if you'd validate the idea without writing
code. Use whatever method gets your idea in front of potential customers for
feedback the fastest.

If you're selling a product or a service, I'd even suggest creating a buy
button that takes them to a coming soon page and then put analytics on the
button. See how many people actually click the buy button (even though they
can't buy anything).

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FredBrach
>> Or would I be laughed off of the internet/HN for appearing amateur?

No you won't. Not on HN at least. Be yourself and make what you love,
everything gonna be alright.

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iusable
Really cool of you to say that. It's interesting as well cause there have been
a number of topics on HN recently about the increasingly negative trend in
general feedback.

I certainly hope that people like myself and FredBrach can think of engaging
on here without being 'laughed off'.

