If you are a developer you don't even need $5k - you just need the price of a domain, and personal funding to be able to take as much time off paid work as possible.
You can host for free on appengine, PR and marketing is just putting the work in, and you might need a little to spend on design but even then $100 gets you a long way on sites like 99designs.
The most expensive part is supporting yourself and/or a co-founder, and that varies a lot depending on where you are based. You could get away with $1k a month in some places (SF and the valley are probably the most expensive place to be - and you don't need to be).
Thinking that funding, or entry into YC or a similar program, is a blocker is a mistake. All that stands between you and a successful product is a lot of hard work.
My own experience is that when I try to poke holes in my own ideas, I can rationalize my way out of any objection. In that sense thinking hard about the product is almost counterproductive.
I think a good test of any idea is to build a small version of it and see if can break even or make a small profit. That way you don't fool yourself with any made-up metrics like how many people signed up on your fake homepage.
I find that I build products for myself first - just as sysadmins write scripts to automate parts of their job, I write small apps to make my own life easier.
I then use them myself, share them with friends, and do not place any real expectation of success on them. The product I am about to launch I have been using myself for almost a year now - and I feel that it is almost ready to share with the world.
If it takes off, it takes off, if not - I will still be using it myself and I have a handful or friends who still use it.
This means you can refine a product and know that it works for at least somebody - rather than hoping you will match an idea in your head to somebody out there who needs it. And everybody belongs to a community - some friends who share interests (ie. developers who use git, tech people who read blogs) and there is no better initial trial audience than your own.
It also means that there is no expectation on a single product - more of a portfolio approach which spreads out your chances.
I will likely make five or so products available to the public in the next 6 months, if I am lucky only four of them will suck.
That really depends on the idea. Many ideas can't really run and "break even" with a small version. Those that immediately tie into a payment system, maybe, but many, espeically the biggest ideas (say, Groupon, Twitter, Square) I don't think would ever be able to break even or maintain a small profit if launched subscale.
He didn't necessarily say he wasn't going to go through with idea if it was shot down... He seemed like he just wanted help finding where the holes he should be guarding against and planning for were.
This was a phenomenal post. My biggest take away was to not ask people whether they liked the idea, but to ask what was wrong with it, why wouldn't it work, etc. That concept just blew my mind.
Phrasing the question that way makes it easier for the person to be critical, since the asker is already implying that there are issues (and is less likely to be let down).
Solving for those 'challenges' people pose is the key. However, you have to figure out how to prioritize what to solve. Keep the product CORE intact and have a good vision. You cannot change that all the time. Certainly a great post!
Great point. We still have that list to this day and we keep adding to it.
We even structured our whole company around solving problems. We assign major problems to our teams, they come up with a solution, we pick the best one collaboratively, and those turn into tangible projects.
You sort of gloss over things like your Kickstarter project receiving full funding, and writing an article for a magazine. It seems like these were a major portion of your early momentum and I wondered if you think you'd have the same results if no one knew who you were and/or this was your first gig?
Seems like being able to call on friends from Behance can't hurt?
That's interesting that people now are so amazed with the fact that to start a product you don't really need "angels and VCs lined up". Personally I am coming from East-european shareware background. Back in '90s and '00s nobody would even think about outside capital - people would just start their product and then either grow it into a viable company or bury it, if it doesn't work. I have a feeling that now people of the same age can't even imaging starting anything without financing. Sad...
phenomenal post, thanks for sharing. I really liked the outline of how you actually executed your idea.
I have a question though, I skimmed through a few more blogposts of yours and you seem to have a very product-centric approach eventhough a lot of entrepreneurs/VCs seem to advocate a customer-centric approach. Why did you choose product, and how do you reconcile those two, assuming you think a little bit about your customers ? ;)
Had the same idea, I own the domain Groupcourse.com built the product and tested it out in a small area. I was profitable but couldn't retain teachers. How did you solve the retention problem? The experience taught me a lot but now I am repurposing the code for a different product.
So how do you get around your excuses to do nothing? What have you found to be most effective and least effective? I have some pretty terrible procrastination
I'm still learning to identify my sources of procrastination, so I'm not sure I've found anything effective yet.
On the other hand, I have done a couple of test/soft-launches this year, and have lost my fear of failing on those. That's more than I had done in the prior 10 years of being a programmer with aspirations, so it's progress.
I still struggle with probably doing too much before testing an idea, but I also struggle with doing too little, so I'm trying to find a balance. Learning, still, really.
We promised Ed Nacional we would never publicly release the rate but I can say that the the majority of the $5K was spent on both the brand identity and URL.
While I was going through the process of selecting a designer, I went through a very long list of portfolios and selected Ed who was an up-and-coming designer at the time. He's much more expensive today as his portfolio and design skills have matured.
refreshing to see definitive idea selection and validation stages in your process. too much of the if-you-ship-it-they-will-come ideology on hn.
does the $5k price tag factor in the value of time you and your partner spent on this project? at the minimum you had to live somewhere and eat something...
I was hoping to learn where the 5K was spent as well and looking at the level of work http://ednacional.com/ does I would bet most of that money went there.
You can host for free on appengine, PR and marketing is just putting the work in, and you might need a little to spend on design but even then $100 gets you a long way on sites like 99designs.
The most expensive part is supporting yourself and/or a co-founder, and that varies a lot depending on where you are based. You could get away with $1k a month in some places (SF and the valley are probably the most expensive place to be - and you don't need to be).
Thinking that funding, or entry into YC or a similar program, is a blocker is a mistake. All that stands between you and a successful product is a lot of hard work.