This is interesting. Thanks for the suggestion.
It seems like this could be inefficient in the short term but perhaps the best way to get things rolling.
~Henry
This is part of what holds me back. I have a lot of ideas for startups but I'm not sure that some/any of them will be revenue-generating.
Maybe a better starting point for me is to post some of the ideas and see what kinds of responses those get.
However, picking a project that will generate money does not necessarily mesh with making the project that is most interesting to me, which adds to my confusion.
It is entirely sensible not to go ahead with a startup if you're not sure about whether and how it would be a successful business. You'll never know for sure, but it makes sense to have a good idea of whether you have a market, for example, before putting in all the work of building the thing.
Putting out your ideas and getting responses is a good way to start. Start an ASK HN post, explain what you're doing, and put each idea as its own reply to your post. Then people can reply to each idea separately, and you'll get a conversation on that.
Remember: the idea itself isn't always fascinating to hear. Basecamp - project management for teams; Posterous - simple blogging. And so on. So don't worry if your ideas get an "It's been done" response. What matters is whether there is room in the market for you, for your price point, for your feature set, for your marketing strategy, and so on.
I want to start a startup because I:
- Want to do something I care about, slash it's meaningful to me. I'm tired of realizing other people's ideas.
- I want to make important decisions and have responsibility for their repercussions.
- I want to create a lifestyle that I'd enjoy more for myself, including not having to be tied to a specific location.
- I want to do something 'important' (a relative term, I know). I'm tired of wasting my time and talent on silly projects and bug fixes.
- Money is important but not everything. Ideally I'd be earning as much as I do now from my corporate gig but that's not even necessary.
I'm willing to gamble a couple of years of my life, but as I said, I'm not sure what to do/make. I agree that working for options is a sucker's bet, hence leaving a previous startup after working there a year.
Don't "do what you love"... "Love what you do". Aim at something rewarding in autonomy and mastery rather than holding out for a "cause" (if you want to maximize happiness). If you find a cause ("something important") anytime during this process, you can chase that too. But if you look at 100 people who really love what they do with their lives, I think it's surprising how few of those jobs fall into the "something important" bucket.
