Ask HN: How should I approach selling ideas?

No matter what, to me, it seems that you need the capital up-front; without it, you are going to have a much tougher time finding developers. That capital could come from you - it doesn't have to come from investors - but you probably have to pay your developers.

You don't mention your background with respect to doing a startup before or managing people/budgets so I'm assuming you haven't done those things (also the question itself seems to support my assumption). In that case, I would suggest that you want to make damn sure that you want the money (from anyone - friends, family, etc) before you sign any deal. As an entrepreneur, you have ideas and you have a reputation. Your reputation is way more important than your ideas. This idea may be brilliant but all kinds of pitfalls lay ahead for even the most seasoned of entrepreneurs who have brilliant ideas and capital. Here's the key: if you #### this particular idea up, you #### up your reputation - and then no one wants to invest in future ideas...

Again, I'm making the assumptions that you are young and haven't done a startup on your own. Please feel free to correct my assumptions and I certainly don't mean to offend if I accidently have :)

Another word of caution: lots of people think they have access to capital but, when it comes time to actually getting the check, they find it wasn't as easy as Uncle Jimmy made it seem. Maybe you can get the money without a fuss but I'd assume you need a pretty damn good business plan if you've never done a startup and are wanting capital for a pre-revenue, idea-only company.

i think a seeding arm like Y-Comb is something you definately should look into. grab a technical minded programmer co-founder and enroll to it or one of its copycat sister-programmes. a sort of startup-camp like Y-comb will be able to fill in your gaps and give you the support you need to bring a product of yours to reality.

i am kind of in the same situation as you, and i have found other like minded individual here on HN. so we're not so rare a breed. once you get the gumption to set your ideas in motion, the pieces of the machine will start to come together. you need to take that first step in order for motion to happen.

i have applied for this round of Y-Comb with big dreams, but it took actually deciding to do it to realize that it felt right. even if not accepted, it was time for me to do something about my ideas, and turn them into my ambitions instead. i hope this motivates you to start your battle for success as well