Ask HN: How quiet should one keep ideas?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1369005

by pwhelan • 16 years ago

7 10 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

How quiet should one keep their ideas when thinking about potential ventures? There certainly is potential for gain by discussing things with others, however there is potential for loss as well. ConnectU and Facebook have been in the press recently and who knows what those 3 lost when Zuckerberg went forth with Facebook?

Would the area of the idea matter? (eg some web 2.0 apps are easy to clone and being early might make a huge difference compared to making luxury furniture that requries expert woodworkers

Is this event the right question to be asking? I would be interested to see the differences, if any, in opinion between those who have started multiple ventures, one venture, and no ventures.

jwegan2• 16 years ago

I think the common consensus of successful entrepreneurs, VCs, etc is that ideas are cheap and it is execution that matters.

Part of the problem with ConnectU is they didn't have an ability to execute their ideas themselves and when they recruited Zuckerberg he was like why am I executing their idea for them and letting them reap the profits? ConnectU didn't fail because they shared their idea. They failed because the executed poorly by not drawing up a contract with the person that was going to be working for them.

I personally believe that you should share ideas with people you trust to get feedback. Then build a v0.1 prototype that you can launch and start getting feedback and improving it.

gosuri2• 16 years ago

Thumbs up for that.

fabiandesimone• 16 years ago

I think ideas are worthless (ok, not completely) but,

The true important thing is execution. And is VERY hard to get it right.

kimfuh• 16 years ago

execute what?

subpixel• 16 years ago

Keep your idea to yourself, make some actual progress toward making the idea real, then share the initial results with the people whose input you want. Rinse and repeat.

http://sivers.org/zipit

jwegan2• 16 years ago

Maybe someone should have showed the Diaspora guys that article.

gfodor• 16 years ago

There are always multiple parts to an idea. You can often share some of the idea to get feedback while not sharing all of it.

Some things to consider withholding are long-term goals, tricky algorithms, novel monetization strategies, and markets you've researched and have confidence are under-served.

It essential you safely expose as much of the idea and the work you do as early as possible so you can learn. But don't let anyone tell you that ideas are worthless or that there aren't people who will profit from good ideas that spill out. There is a reason, after all, that we have a patent system. "Ideas are worthless, its all in the execution" is as much a lie as "execution doesn't matter."

jacquesm• 16 years ago

Chances are someone else if having the same idea as you do. And is talking to others, getting feedback, correcting problems before they arise.

That someone will eat you for lunch.

Another reason to talk about 'good ideas' is that sometimes they're not that good, you just don't know it. Finding out early because of conversations with others will help you focus your efforts on those things that really stand out.

Collaboration is essential for success, ideas can be born in a vacuum but it will need a lot of effort to bring one to market in a way that you can make a profit on them.

gosuri2• 16 years ago

I'm going to have to repeat "Ideas are worthless without execution". Current technologies lets you turn your idea to a product and launch in a very short period of time.

I'm not sure if you are aware of "Lean Startup" methodology but strongly recommend you get aquatinted with some of the principles. Web 2.0 companies like Dropbox, IMVU, Aardvark, KISSMetrics etc have applied these techniques to be successful.

You don't necessarlity need to share your idea with anyone but SHOULD build it and launch as soon as possible, your goal in the first month should not be to get lots of users but validate your hypothesis and collect data on usage (like if your users like your offering and wanting to come back)

I posted this comment on a different thread but re-posting here:

------------

We launched a product recently http://sociaholic.com and applied lean startup principles.

Problem Hypothesis: The existing Twitter to Facebook integrations and apps don't preview links/videos when publishing to Facebook from Twitter, thus by limiting the desirability to click on a link on facebook pages.

Execution: Design to launch along with a video in less than 2 weeks, the goal was to validate our solution has a market. We update your facebook page from twitter in nice way (previewing links, converting @handles, etc)

Validation: Our first week: Over 200 active users out of ~250 signups, conversion rate (homepage to adding twitter account) ~30%. 2% dissatisfied customers (5 out 250 people uninstalled) The product has a much bigger vision and Customer Development is doing wonders and we plan to do this for every step we move forward.

pwhelan• 16 years ago

I am not versed in the Lean Startup methodology, but I will be doing some reading soon (but after work/gym). I like the concept of "validate your hypothesis" first.

Design to launch in 2 weeks is impressive. It makes me feel like I should set more stringent goals with my projects and reading.

Ask HN: How quiet should one keep ideas?

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