I have an idea for a social media app that will help people explore truth together more effectively, which I've been brewing for about 10 years. I have an initial demo now, but there is much more to do. I have thought through many many design issues, so it is not simply a general idea but many specific ones combined.
Ideally I would like to work on that app, or a product that fulfills the same goals. It doesn't have to be my own company, but I would like to be able to influence the product direction if I have something useful to add. I would also like to maintain a high level of user focus and intellectual integrity, not sacrificing these just to eek out a little more profit.
I applied to YC and wasn't accepted, so now I am trying to figure out my next move. I could:
1. Apply to Launchpad LA and other YC alternatives
2. Try to get VC funding
3. Find a company doing something similar and try to get a job there (Obvious Corp may be doing something similar, but I can't even find contact info, much less get hired. But they seem like great people.)
4. Take a job building something else, try to establish credibility in the SV community, and look for future opportunities. Along with this, I could also work on my project on the side, and possibly try to launch small and grow organically.
As my idea is novel but possibly unpatentable, I am uneasy about sharing all the details. How much detail must be typically shared to secure funding or incubator acceptance, especially without inside connections?
Those of you who made it this far, you are very generous. Thank you in advance for your thoughts, they are much appreciated.
Why not bootstrap? SV is insanely expensive and your progress will be slow working on this thing during your down time. Can you do freelance work? If so, one crazy idea would be to banish yourself for six months or so to a super cheap area of the world, do freelancing part time and then spend the rest of the time furthering your app. There are lots of places in the world where you can live for as low as $600 / month, internet included! If you can do some freelance work for even $50 / hour then you could truly be living a 4 hour work week! At the same time, you get to experience another part of the world. Perhaps you could even pick up some cheap developers there to help you out with certain parts of it.
Do you have any users yet? Would it be possible to build out a community before you even get the app to a point where it's usable? You may get more interest in funding if you could demonstrate some traction. I'm pretty sure investors are more interested in their ROI as opposed to throwing money at cool ideas. Would this be a wise investment? ;) If not, then that's probably the component you need to be working on.
I ironically have recently, in a roundabout way, already done the live someplace cheap thing (very complicated to explain, though amusing, but I'll save that for another time). It didn't go well. Suffice it to say, I have a wife and son, and have found out my wife does not adapt to big changes well, so I don't want to move around frivolously.
I had bootstrapped using savings, and again it's complicated, but I am running out of runway. I'll need to feel really good about my plan to spend much longer without a job, funding, or mentorship. Maybe I could start small and grow, but I'm just not sure how long it would be take to grow revenues to cover my living expenses. SoCal is decided not a cheap place to live. :) Doing some freelance work is definitely a potential option and would buy me some time. I had considered that, but for some reason it fell off my radar, so thanks for the reminder.
My only user now is myself, though I have shown a few others. Perhaps I should get a MVP out and see what kind of traction it gets? I may be overly concerned about someone copying my idea and scaling it up faster, but only because I don't have a strong argument to counter the concern. Can you explain why I should not be afraid of that?
I guess that's the thing. I'd like to at least be able to know and choose the entities I am deciding to trust. By putting it out there for anyone to see, what stops someone from just ripping it off?
Is this a wise investment? I believe it is, for the right investor who can afford the risk, but I understand the onus is on me to convince would be investors. It's certainly costing me quite a bit to work on it, but then again my motivation is more humanitarian than financial. I was hoping to at least get an interview with YC and get some feedback from some people with major experience under their belt, either "yeah that could fly" and then we'd get to it, or "never going to work because of X and Y". But, I didn't get an interview, so I got approximately zero feedback. I'd prefer to have a tech-savvy investor/partner who would really be able to see potentially fatal flaws, than a non-savvy investor who might invest without realizing those flaws.
Freelancing is a great option for bootstrapping in cases where you can live cheap. It gets more difficult as your situation gets more expensive. Most obviously, the higher your expenses, the more you have to work (while also raising your rates) and this cuts down on your "start-up" time. With freelancing, your clients have to be your first business priority. You can't give them a lower priority than your start-up. Work / life separation goes away and it can be difficult to fit start-ups in there. If a start-up can be hell, consider that your freelancing would be yet another start-up. Again, it's a great option when you can tame it (which is easy to do when you can live on next to nothing) but it can get really hairy as you need to scale up your earnings. It might still be worth a shot though, you don't know until you try. Who knows, it might blow up and go much better than you expect.
Argument for sharing your ideas.
Look at the logistical problems that you are running into.You need a lot of talented labor and you need a lot of money. You have no idea if you are going to be able to make money and you haven't yet been able to convince anyone to invest in it. Investors don't even care about the idea so much as they want to make a lot of money. In many cases they are investing not in the right ideas, but the right people.
Who is going to make the insane sacrifice with the same passion and the same vision as you? If the idea were easy to steal, then it probably would have been easy enough that you would have built it already.
I think people generally get these things backwards anyways. The best time for someone to steal your idea is when you have already built up some traction. At that point, you have done all the hard work so the copy cats can see that your idea is worth stealing. They can also watch your mistakes and possibly roll out a better service. You might as well tell everyone about it now.
There is also the possibility that your successful idea may look entirely different than what you are thinking about right now. As soon as you get real users, it starts evolving. It's better to get that process going as soon as possible.
Otherwise, I don't have much more info for you. Good luck!
Do you know how to build it? Then build it. Else, find a cofounder that knows how.
I wholeheartedly agree, to the extent the idea is vague and general. To the extent the idea becomes more detailed, I think the importance grows. A software program is nothing more than a bunch of ideas written down to the degree that a computer can understand the meaning. So, the importance of the idea can range from "nothing" to "everything". I know a lot of people seem to subscribe to the ideas are nothing mantra, so I'm wondering if it is shorthand for "vague ideas are worth nothing", or applies to the entire spectrum?
How detailed is my idea? Enough that I think it is significant. Enough that I think it creates substantial advantages over current alternatives, and even up-and-coming OSS which has similar aims. Could I be wrong? Of course, but in the past I have had very accurate gauge on this. The core idea I am very confident in, as long as I can present the user a very clean and easy interface. The major risk I have identified is that I could be underestimating the difficulty of implementing the software which performs some key tasks which are required to support that goal maximally. I have some ideas of how I will do this, more than vague but less than pseudo code. I will no doubt encounter challenges, but my feeling is that I could probably at least minimally satisfy my goal initially, and move towards a perfect solution later.
- Software developer with systems and automated test experience as well - 12 years experience in C++, Java, Perl, and Web. Been using Groovy/Grails/JQuery, open to Angular and/or whatever languages and technologies perform and scale best while providing an intuitive development experience. - Very intelligent and competent, always a top performer (graduated salutatorian at 16, 780 Math SAT I think, Genius IQ - not trying or expecting to impress, just trying to say I'm not dumb) - Unfortunately I worked in defense industry, and had much of my time wasted with BS and having to reverse engineer and then re-engineer broken systems. So while I consider myself capable, I'm likely not at the level I would have been had I gone straight to SV. I assume there is a stigma attached to working in defense, if so please feel free to share. - No great contacts in SV, so starting from scratch to build a reputation, a network of capable and trustworthy associates, and a knowledge of how things work. I do not underestimate the challenges this presents. But perhaps I may be overestimating them?
C'mon, man - you can do better than that:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Obvious+Corp
Second result:
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/obvious
Twitter @ObviousCorp Phone 415-285-4255 164 South Park Street San Francisco, CA, 94107
Whois reveals yet more.
415-513-5196 domain.admin@obvious.com 2601 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94401
I don't even know what that means to begin with.
It means sharing ideas and opinions in the most efficient and effective way possible. So, sharing your opinions, seeing others opinions, and interacting in a way which hopefully will be constructive to everyone as they determine their own version of what they think and believe. My goal is to optimize this process so there is less wasted time and cognitive energy fighting ignorance and intentional misinformation, with the result being a more well-informed public, and all of the secondary effects that brings. We have already seen this effect in action (arab spring and twitter, for example), and I want to do whatever I can to promote it further.
There are a few fundamental tweaks I would make to current methods, which will allow me to provide an interface with distinct advantages which I believe far outweigh the capability given up.
Hopefully that is at least slightly more clear.
I could build part of it myself, and am already on my way. I probably could do a MVP which could possibly get traction. But for reasons stated already, I'm not sure starting small is the best option. But I would certainly appreciate it if someone could ease my mind about that.
Also, please see my other responses related to your questions, so I don't pollute the comments with repetition. Thanks!
