That's a good strategy. Even if the idea were good, if you and the people around you aren't excited about it, then it will be difficult to execute well.
I dunno - what if your friends and family are laggards on the technology curve? My sister is probably the last person under 25 without a Facebook account. My parents still don't have cable TV, let alone IPods and videophones. They barely know how to turn on a computer. When I tell them what I'm doing, they say "Who has time to play games on the computer, let alone create them?"
If it weren't for my cofounder's constant assurances that yes, people want this (well, and that his girlfriend's roommates tried to sign up for our site even though we're not open yet), I probably would've given up a while ago. Which I guess underscores the importance of having a cofounder from a different background as yourself. It's easy to get stuck in a narrow perspective if the people you're close to all share it.
Yes, I should have said "you OR the people around you". Someone needs to be excited, but they certainly aren't all going to be (most will think it's a bad idea). This is also a good reason to spend more time with the "right" people (people who get excited about new ideas instead of shooting them down).
I've an idea that (I believe) would be useful to people in their day to day real-life. If I get to the stage where I need to attract those people as users I was thinking of targetting a small number of them that are geographically local; I know where they hang out. Just with old fashioned posters on notice boards, that kind of thing. They'll be a small set of guinea pigs to experiment on. As luck would have it, they're typically in touch with others of their kind so if they like the site I think they'll voluntarily tells others.
My poorly made point is that old fashioned advertising may be an initial way to attract users if they're targetable.
