gregw100

Thanks. That looks like what I'm looking for. I'll check it out some more.

nice. only question is when will the bubble pop?

True. And, if possible, eventually expanding into the original segment is always a possibility. It's all about finding an untapped niche or one that needs some new tapping.

good point

Thanks for that. It was a real eye-opener. I knew that China's debt stake was less than everybody complains about, but I didn't know the exact numbers. Sometimes we need a little dose of perspective.

They're not exactly hiding that. We're all aware that those two companies, along with others, collect our information and generally use it to promote relevant products or what their algorithm's believe we want to see.

Amazon, Netflix, and others all do it blatantly. It's not a conspiracy, just something that originally had a good intent (and still does), but is not yet developed enough to provide a well-rounded stream of information.

Siri probably was having sex with HAL. Can't a robot get any alone time these days?! Sheeesh!

I would assess the strength and execution of your competitor's product, then decide whether you think you can build a better product. Google didn't quit building a search engine because Yahoo beat them to it. They just figured out a better way to do it. Depending on the potential size of your market, there may be room for multiple companies, even if you do come to market second.

On the other hand, one month's work is not very much and if you have another great idea in a more promising market, I would say get working on that and try to make sure you get there first. But, like I said, it's not when you launch, it's how your product compares with competitors. Just my $0.02.

I couldn't reply to your last post, so I'm replying directly above it.

That's a good idea. I've thought of that, but 1. I'm not a very outgoing person and don't know if I would be great at pitching an idea and 2. It seems that students wouldn't bring the quality that professional programmers do. That's definitely an option though. Thanks.

To sharpen the analogy, maybe each type of business is like a certain type of car or sport. You should learn the relevant skills before diving in. Driving a Geo is different than driving a Ferrari, but they're still both cars.

I wondered the same thing. Doesn't really add up. Maybe he was as blind as a seeing bat.

Good point. I was thinking that too. Or was I thinking it? Maybe the aliens were thinking it for me...

I've come to that conclusion that I can't keep my idea a total secret, otherwise it will never see the light of day. At first I was entirely vaulted. As for the site, it's a social network with a focus on businesses rather than people. I've spent countless hours drawing up the blueprint, so there are literally over fifty other services that I believe the site could incorporate which all have a huge potential upside. It's very frustrating to have all these ideas but not know how to implement them. I've already spent thousands of dollars on developers, but I don't want to go completely broke.

Hi Frank, That gives me more piece of mind. I've only given three programmers FTP access, though I've since restricted them. I've also explained to them that I'll be willing to rehire them once I can afford it, so that should give them more of an incentive to wait, rather than try to build their own versions. Also, I interviewed the programmers first and felt that they were trustworthy (though you never know for sure). I'm glad to hear that you've never encountered programmers stealing ideas.

Being of high moral integrity myself (in my opinion), I wouldn't expect someone even closely like-minded to steal my idea, but I feel like my site has such high potential that it may be one of those things that even someone with moral integrity can't resist stealing.

By the way, is there anywhere that I can find developers to build my site who would accept a stake in the company rather than cash?

That's exactly what it is. They offered a free 30 day trial and I figured it couldn't hurt to try it out, but now I think that they're more for small businesses who don't need much more than a static HTML page.

Drupal and/or Wordpress wouldn't be able to do what I need. My site is relatively complicated and I already have a pretty substantial amount written in PHP.

Hi Tadfisher. That puts it in more perspective. NS really has no incentive to make my site shine and, even worse, if the site blows up they might, as you say, take it hostage. I think I'm going to cancel the service before they begin the website. Honestly what really sucked me in was this sales guy on the phone telling me that the best idea for me at my stage while seeking funds is to get the site up so that venture capitalists and angels can find it easier. He made it sound like if I used their service, they would help me find investors. After talking with the consultant, I think that sales guy was just full of shit (as most sales guys are) and was just telling me what he knew I wanted to hear in order to sell his service.

I myself am not a developer, though I'm not entirely ignorant of the technical side. I have developed my idea single-handedly through much trial and error and just want to steer my idea to fruition. I already have the entire blueprint for my site, but I just can't build it myself. What I really need is a service that will build the site, even if they take a stake in the company, like Y Combinator.

And no, I'm not the type of person Ashton Kutcher hates (Mark Zuckerberg wannabes). I seriously have a fully-baked idea that began with the question, what does the world really need. Is Y Combinator my only viable option in your opinion?

And regarding the NDA's, I guess because I hadn't yet fully explained my ideas to the programmers, I felt like they weren't necessary.

I'm starting to think that's not what I want. When I asked what language the programmers use, he said HTML and I was like, huh? I then explained to him how complicated my site is and he said they offer advanced services including PHP and interactive sites. As of now, all they're doing is taking the information I've given them and building a static HTML page.

Luckily I have a 30 day cancellation option, but I'm worried that if these programmers realize where I'm going with the site, they might try to build it themselves.

This is kind of an eery prediction of how are future generations may be identified. As we learn more about our DNA and what exactly makes us human, eventually we may all be represented as just lines of code. Join the resistance. ;)

Politics is just professional wrestling for intellectuals.

Not necessarily. I think this petition holds more water than the other two given that the bill is specifically about the internet. If the internet reacts it only makes sense to listen. Then again, making sense is not one of the government's strong points.

It seems more than likely that most alien species would have eyes (or at least some sort of visual receptors), given their immense value. Yes, I know that other species could live on planets in total darkness, but I highly doubt that given that handicap, they would advance to the point of even a Kardashev Type 1 civilization. Maybe giant bats at best. Not discounting nature's ingenuity, only saying the most likely reality given all we know about life.

Ashton Kutcher's was good. He had an interesting and motivational story about Carl Fisher and he gave some insight into how he perceives founders.

This is one of the most useful articles I've read in a while. It's no secret that people like to watch videos. After all, we all like being entertained. Google occasionally places videos on their homepage (today's an example with their Halloween video) and I know I usually find it more attractive when they do have video on there.

As someone who is currently creating my own website, this advice will definitely come in handy when coming up with the final design for the home page. It seems so simple, but the simplicity makes it easy to overlook. Details matter, as Mullenweg said.

This is actually very motivational to me. I'm in the same boat. I've spent thousands of dollars in the last five months hiring programmers to build my site. The site is about half-complete, but now I'm running out of money and need to go find a job to sustain my expenditures.

I think your decision to teach yourself those languages is very commendable and I'm sure it feels good to have created your own website by hand.

One thing I've learned is if you plan to launch a website, create a stripped-down version of it first and attempt to monetize it before you run out of money. Then once you start generating revenue, you can begin adding the features you originally planned. Of course, if you have deep pockets, than building the entire site with all functionality first is no problem.

Good luck with your site Kevin.

I think another reason for the increase in signups is Google's latest marketing campaigns. They have been starting to aggressively advertise the Chrome App Store much more than before. Just yesterday I saw an entire commercial with the Angry Birds developers discussing how great apps on Chrome are.

Google knows its Chrome store is legit now, so they're ready to show it off to the world in an attempt to make it as mainstream as the iTunes store is now.

This is a good analogy. I think it would do many newcomers to the business world a lot of good to first get a mentor as suggested or (if possible) run a simulated business before attempting to dive into their own business blindly. Very few businesses succeed if the founders have no idea how to run a business. Facebook is an obvious exception.

Young people tend to see business today with more of a recreational view than a career choice. With that approach, the likelihood of making more mistakes in managing the business is higher.

To add one more analogy, running a business is like playing a sport. You should practice as much as possible and learn the rules extensively before going out on the field, otherwise you'll lose the game.

That is a very good point. Monetization is key. Unless you have very deep pockets as a startup, if you don't focus on monetization in the early stages, you're more than likely going to fail due simply to the high cost of launching and maintaining startups. Building a startup simply because it's a cool idea or has future potential is almost a sure way to keep it from succeeding. It seems like this simple fact often gets overlooked when people begin startups. Money is king.

Thanks for the link. Truly understanding cognitive dissonance seems to be the key in understanding what people find attractive and can definitely help companies (start ups or established) in marketing and refining their products or services. The simpler something is, the harder it is for people to have conflicting ideas about it, making it more attractive.

One thing I take from this article is that the things that give us that "Dreamy" feeling are (especially in tech) things that turn ordinarily mundane or complicated things into simple and easy things.

For example, the GUI basically turned accessing files (along with other commands) from mundane tasks into easy and attractive tasks, effectively making it far more useful by lowering the learning curve and lessening the complexity.

Movies are another example of turning something (plays) into a more exciting, entertaining, and accessible form.

It seems that what we consider "Dreamy" is simplicity. Perhaps that's why consumers gawk over Apple device's and describe them as dreamy. It makes one wonder, why is it that we consider simplicity so attractive?

One reason could be that it is purely natural human instinct. We do not like not understanding things and we constantly try to understand that which we don't. When people create things that increase other's ability to understand whatever product or service they are offering, they are creating desires, also known as dreams.

In a sense, that's the only reason that businesses exist, or at least it's the only reason businesses should exist.