Ask HN: Who needs a business model?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2479124

by inkaudio • 15 years ago

1 3 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

If you think you have a great technology or app but your not sure how to make money from I can help provide you with a business model. In exchange I will write about it on my blog. If I don't think you can make a business out of it I will explain why.

Mz2• 15 years ago

Oh, I need a business model but I don't have technolory or app (yet). I have figured out how to get myself well in the face of an incurable "dread disease" (a form of cystic fibrosis, which is genetic). I want to eventually make a game (simulation) to more effectively convey what I know. In the mean time, I work a full time job and am drowning in financial problems. I don't know how to get there from here. I need to leave so I have time to learn a programming language, write the game, etc. You probably can't help me, the gap is too big, I'm just very frustrated so replying anyway.

inkaudio• 15 years ago

Your situation is not as bad as you think. Although you have financial problems at least you have a job. Remove all unnecessary expenses from your life, only buy what you need to survive. Focus on a few things, focus one work and your side project. You must eliminate distractions and time wastes. It's easy to say, harder to do.

Mz2• 15 years ago

I have eliminated all unnecessary expenses. My health issues are still quite pricey and the past three months have been very ugly in that regard, which is a big part of why I am so stressed out about the whole thing. The debts I owe are a lot for me, given my current income and situation, but not a lot in the grand scheme of things (like compared to what my medical condition typically costs to treat using conventional approaches). It's very, very frustrating because I am saving gobs of money for other people in terms of taxes not spent on keeping me alive: I am a former military wife and could have kept my military medical benefits and had nearly "free" medical care at the expense of taxpayers. Doing the right thing is all coming out of my hide financially and it just feels like the universe is pissing on me. I could be rewarded for keeping my problems alive and not solving them but can't seem to catch a break for actually rolling up my sleeves and fixing sh*t.

It would make financial sense in the big picture -- not just for me, but for the national economy - if I could get some support so I can leave my job and work on this. Even if others with my condition don't get well, even if all they do is get less sick and need to be hospitalized less and need half as much medication, by my estimate the US is spending around $3 billion/year on medical care for roughly 30,000 people with my condition and most of that is covered by insurance, state aid, federal aid, charities and write-offs (when they can't pay their medical bills). And that doesn't begin to factor in disability payments and other forms of support that chronically ill and dying people often qualify for. But I know of no way to tap into that $3 billion and I know of no way to fund-raise to put myself in a position to work on this.

I think I need about $50,000 or so to resolve my financial issues, walk away from my job, and have some money in the bank to live on while making the transition to some kind of entrepreneurial income based on my various websites. I know there is "demand" for some of what I know and a couple of my websites have been around for several years (one of them is about 8 years old, another is over 5 years old and I have a couple of newer things). I don't know how to monetize it and, given the health issues in the family (I and my oldest both have CF), trying to put in the extra effort to achieve launch while working a full time job is proving to be too much.

Thank you for replying. I really didn't expect much (if any) help. I have figured out how to "cure" cystic fibrosis which most of the world says cannot be done. If resolving my financial problems were a simple matter, I imagine I would have done it by now. I'm not bad with money. I've just been doing "the impossible" and there are consequences for that.

Peace.

Ask HN: Who needs a business model?

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