Your business idea sucks, and it's your job to figure out why

by jlm382 • 17 years ago

23 22 17 years ago

erlanger6• 17 years ago

Fluff.

Can someone explain why we're taking business advice from a college kid who's working on an embryonic startup, and other than that has only worked in internships? The red flag here is that the post does not relate any relevant business experiences and has a linkbait title. Here are some others that exhibit identical traits:

* http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=641

* http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=560

* http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=417

* http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=406

My personal favorite: http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=372

Hiring advice from someone who's never hired!

Maybe instead of spending time burning the midnight oil for my small business, I should post linkbait and get the red carpet treatment like this "entrepreneur" has.

Edit: It's also pretty lame to submit your own blog posts.

azrealus3• 17 years ago

I agree.

10ren6• 17 years ago

Created 403 days ago, just to make this one comment "I agree" ?

http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=azrealus

I should clarify: accounts with this usage pattern seem to be common practice for spammers, that have been discussed on HN before.

azrealus, if you are a real person, I apologize for jumping to conclusions. I certainly have no problem with a real person, usage frequency isn't important - although it is preferable to contribute something to the discussion more than "I agree", since an upvote signals that.

pg2• 17 years ago

A bit harsh. I don't think this is deliberate linkbait (or rather votebait); I think it's mostly youthful exuberance. And she does have a point, even though she doesn't have a lot of data to back it up.

erlanger6• 17 years ago

I think it's self-promotion, for better or worse.

dannyr• 17 years ago

I think it's youthful exuberance too. The blog post is not bad but my guess is that she heard or read it from other people. It's not based on experience.

I remember when I was in college, we had a shortage of professors. They started hiring fresh grads and they taught courses such as project management, entreprenuer, etc. The new teachers were teaching from the book. Students never listened and we passed the course just by reading the book.

10ren6• 17 years ago

I read it more as needing our advice.

Observation: if real life people are too nice, you can get plenty of brutal feedback online - but note that harsh words are no more necessarily true than are kind words false.

BTW http://google.com/search?q=entrepeneur+site:http://jessicama... didn't find any of the "entrepreneur" misspelling you mention.

erlanger6• 17 years ago

My bad on the misspelling, I sometimes leave out the extra "r." The quotes imply that this person is in fact not much of an entrepreneur.

jpwagner• 17 years ago

It's your choice who you take business advice from.

I don't know her personally, but she's young, bright, trying really hard, and going to succeed.

You on the other hand, joined 29 days ago and are whining like an arrogant prick.

Edit: It's ok to submit your own post, because you are only voting for it once...

erlanger6• 17 years ago

If somebody posted an article on Python best practices with no evidence of Python experience, you'd be singing a very different tune. But I guess double standards are OK.

I didn't say a thing about the poster's age, intelligence, effort, or destiny. My point is that people shouldn't be giving such strong advice when it's based on nothing of substance.

"arrogant prick"

ad hominem argument for the win.

icey• 17 years ago

I don't see a problem with someone submitting their own blog posts if they're topical.

10ren6• 17 years ago

The problem with "asking for the brutal truth" is that no one knows what it is.

At least in terms new markets and new products, you are facing the unknown. You can't work it out in your head; you can't find the right person to tell you if it's right or it's wrong. You just have to try it.

Don't be fooled when confident VCs and angels act like they know; they don't. They're just guessing (that's their job).

Far better to encourage an experimental approach: to be encouraged to try things and to be encouraged when it doesn't work. Because courage is what you need to face the unknown.

It is useful to be exposed to many perspectives, for new ways to think about things. It's useful to learn facts about the space you're in (doing your best to distinguish between fact and opinion). It's useful to discuss ideas, possible problems and opportunities - but not in terms of judging your idea, but in terms of seeing what's there.

With knowledge and experience of reality, you will develop your own sense of what will work. You still won't know, of course; but you'll be more confident of trying it.

pg2• 17 years ago

The problem with "asking for the brutal truth" is that no one knows what it is.

Users know, in the sense that they embody it. That's one reason it's good to launch quickly: so that users can tell you precisely how far along you are with the idea.

10ren6• 17 years ago

Yes. You just have to try it.

However a specific group of users does not necessarily embody "the truth" either. An example of this is being captive to customers, as in the innovator's dilemma. Listening to the wrong group of users can lead you in the wrong direction. Sometimes you have to select who to listen to - something that users can't tell you.

Of course, who cares if it's "the truth" or not? Users are users, and approximate feedback is better than none, even if it is not precisely "true".

nazgulnarsil• 17 years ago

I would like to start a service where you can receive unbiased criticism on demand because in my experience it is almost impossible to get. the incentive in such a business (counselors, psychology) is to tell your client what they want to hear. Even when they want to hear criticism, they want to hear the criticism that they want to hear. Thus an actual honest service would be valuable.

I fear the market is too small though.

jlm382• 17 years ago

I hope that at least some people see this as a genuine post -- it was inspired from a true event that happened just a week and a half ago. I don't have facts to back up a lot of what I say, but basic experience in getting business feedback will make it quite clear what I mean.

Your business idea sucks, and it's your job to figure out why

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