pascalchristian

Any quality books/sites that teach basic (not necessary tech/internet) marketing that is not a university-level course or trying to choke me into buying $150 newsletter?

How do you solve chicken-and-egg problem especially for web 2.0 apps requiring hard traction (and many users) to function (e.g. date site, marketplace, etc)?

I have an idea for a collaborative/shared marketplace for a niche product (think airbnb, but for other niche) and is currently building a prototype, but is confused on how to get the very early user for the site to function. I know how user #1 experience is crucial and how del.ico.us was started as a personal bookmarking site, but how does airbnb, craiglist, and many social site gain traction?

Many thanks for the help.

Hi, since almost all of HN population are coders that are involved in high tech ventures, it seems to be the perfect place to ask this question.

I am a college student on my final premed semester, and I have several startup ideas tickling. I'm thinking of taking a time off from school after graduation (before taking MD) to pursue my idea.

The question arises when I figured out that it seems that tech startup founders are expected to be coders and CS grads. I am a hobbyist coder myself (have been programming since my IS class on highschool) and I have developed a (very) rough prototype of several of my ideas but certainly it ain't as pretty when compared to a code written by a guy that wrote their own kernel on assembly for CS class.

So what do you think about this situation? Should I just continue and deal with the non-technical founder dilemma? Or is going back to college for a CS/engineering degree worth it?

Ohh and even on the non-startup field, I still wonder how many non-coder are in the high tech industry. Guy Kawasaki took psychology, Tom Anderson took literature, and of course Ray Muzka from Bioware is an MD.