Hi Kevin One of the biggest problems I find with Australian entreprenuers is excessive secrecy - the difference between and entrepreneur and a dreamer is that an entrepreneur makes it happen. When I sold my last company to a $bn company, we were approached every day by internal engineers who said that they had the same idea years ago - my response was a diplomatic version of "yes, but we made it happen". If I meet with entrepreneurs and they won't even tell me their idea, I generally hit the eject button - the bad news is that your idea probably isn't unique, but you can be unique by making it happen. Silicon Valley is built on sharing ideas and brainstorming, and then making it happen. Elias is 100% correct that you need to raise some money, do a proof of concept, and then go and sell before going further.
Secondly, if your customers are advertising and others, then you need to pre-sell to them, NOT to the consumers who use it for free. The real customer of any Advertising based businesses is Adwords et al - the footprint of end-users is the value that the advertisers seek to exploit. Phil Montgomery San Francisco, CA www.philmontgomery.com On Mar 23, 11:47 am, Elias Bizannes <elias.bizan...@gmail.com> wrote: > Kevin, > > My employer Vast.com has built an impressive business: a white-label search > engine platform powering some of the biggest portals on the Internet (like > AOL, Yahoo, amongst others). But it was a hard business to get into. I asked > my boss how did they do it and he told me a very insightful story worth > sharing here. > > Vast's first major partner was AOL. And when they pitched AOL, they didn't > even have the technology to do what they were pitching. Instead, what they > did was us the Firefox extension Greasemonkey, which modified the AOL > portals behaviour, and 'hacked' it to look like what the Vast team where > pitching as the potential. > > The AOL exec's were sold: they knew it was a hack, but the fact they could > see their website (which they knew back to front) being shown live - but > with a modification that made them see the potential - was enough for them > to sign a major deal, that in turn has bootstrapped the multi-million dollar > company that Vast is now. > > Hack an idea, sell the idea to customers or investors - then build the idea > properly. That process and rule of the startup world that few acknowledge, > is also the reason why good engineers and perfectionists make terrible > entrepreneurs (and why startup camps are a great way to filter people as > founders for your startup). > > So my advice on next steps: raise $10,000 - and spend it on development for > a prototype, by hiring some contractor. And don't be afraid to share your > idea: don't do it on this forum of course, but attend the offline social > meetups that this community has. No one there is going to steal your idea, > because they have their own vested interests and are too busy to do so. But > they will give you direction to know how to progress forward. > > Focus on building the minimum viable product and on creating an engaging > user experience (as with any service let along web services, the experience > in the product - meaning the visual interaction - is what people see and > therefore use to draw judgment on the product). And once you've articulated > your vision in a prototype, you can then talk to partners and investors > about building the real thing. Don't waste your time building a technology > that will take two years to monetise, unless you can get people excited with > your prototype. And remember, it doesn't have to work - it just needs to > look like it can. > > Elias Bizanneshttp://eliasbizannes.com > > > > On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 8:31 AM, Kevin SY <kevin.sam...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hey everyone - sincerely, thank you for all your responses! I have > > read all of them. > > > I particularly like Brad Down's advice to seek sales first. I had > > always thought that you needed a product/service first in order to > > sell. I have been hesitant with this as there is the ever-present > > threat of someone coming along and just acting upon the idea to take a > > lead advantage into the market. > > > In my situation specifically, the idea does not consist of selling a > > product, but rather a offering a free service and using that power to > > generate revenue through more than just advertisement. Hence why I > > anticipate revenue to begin after 1-2 years. I've described it rather > > generically for obvious reasons, until I can get something workable to > > show. > > > I have given this concept of "sales first" some significant thought, > > and I will be pursuing this in the present to pitch my ideas to > > interested/curious individuals to see whether they would be interested > > in utilising the service and see how I can further develop it.. My > > rationalisation is that entrepreneurship will always have an element > > of risk, and someone stealing your idea will be one of those risks - > > this is particularly the case if the business idea is something > > revolutionary which means that agility to act on the idea is the key > > for success. But as Michael has stated, with no risk, there is no > > benefit. > > > Thank you as well for the links - Tristan and Hendro; very useful. > > > As for guidelines for costs - I was mostly wondering about how much it > > would cost per week or per day or hour for a developer. Not a total > > budget amount. Because then I could at least estimate given the > > complexity of it how much I would be looking at if people are > > uninterested in a partnership/share. > > > Kind Regards, > > > Kevin > > > On Mar 19, 11:02 pm, Humphrey <humphre...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > +1 Million! Brad's Advice > > > > My 2c around website. > > > > GoDaddy Domain ($15) > > > Google Sites (Free) > > > Google Apps (Free) Email Hosting. > > > Zoho CRM (Free) Under 3 People > > > > Cheers, > > > H > > > > On Mar 18, 12:47 am, Hendro Wijaya <hendro_wij...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Agree. Sales first, and iterate from there. > > > > If you need to get the absolute minimum of your site up, checkhttp:// > > themeforest.net/Noonecare you buy the design when you just get started. > > > > Then, do anything to be the closest to the money. If you can charge, > > charge. If the most you can do is securing credit card details, get them to > > sign up. > > > > Talk is cheap. You'll be surprised how many people who say your idea is > > great will bail out when you asked them for money. > > > > If you can't get anyone to commit something, you'll learn something > > valuable for your next iteration. Maybe you target the wrong market. Maybe > > your distribution strategy is wrong. Maybe your cost of customer acquisition > > is too high. Whatever it is, at least you'll learn something new. > > > > This is what I did few months ago:http://housal.com. I will take it > > down as I had learned the fundamental flaw in the idea. I spent few dollars > > in Facebook and Google Ads and learn tremendous lesson out of it. > > > > Hope that helps. > > > > Cheers, > > > > > Hendro Wijaya > > > > > > Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:31:46 -0700 > > > > > Subject: [SiliconBeach] Re: Seeking Advice - Start-Up > > > > > From: bigm...@gmail.com > > > > > To: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > > > > > > Great advice Brad. Sales first. I've rarely met a business idea that > > > > > couldn't be done manually first, then the tech built after. Any > > > > > technology can be built, but I guarantee that if you try and build it > > > > > all in one go, it will be wrong 10 minutes after you launch it. > > > > > > Kevin, he's right. Definitely stop protecting the idea. If you've had > > > > > it, 100 people have. The only difference will be who does something > > > > > about and first mover advantage is much more about making mistakes > > > > > faster and learning faster than market share. > > > > > > Best of luck. > > > > > > On Mar 15, 10:22 pm, Brad Down <bradd...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > The reality is if you have no money, no friends that can help and > > no > > > > > > business partner, all you have is your idea. > > > > > > > The first thing you need to do is pretend like you already have the > > > > > > product and go out and sell it. Develop a sales presentation some > > > > > > collateral even a basic display website. Then ring up some > > potential > > > > > > customers say you have a product in development and get some > > meetings. > > > > > > Remember it's all in the sizzle not in the sausage. > > > > > > > If you can't even get a meeting based on your idea alone then you > > know > > > > > > you are in serious trouble already. > > > > > > > Take my advice, forget development, focus on your first sale. If > > you > > > > > > get a potential customer then you at least you have something to > > work > > > > > > towards. > > > > > > > If you can't make a sale then you are wasting your money and human > > > > > > capital with dev. > > > > > > > I spent over 100K of investor money on our first startup before we > > > > > > made our first sales call. Fatal...we could have saved the 100K if > > we > > > > > > had have done some research and actually asked some people if they > > > > > > wanted what we were selling. No matter how good your idea, > > commercial > > > > > > realities exist, so many external factors and perceptions can > > affect > > > > > > your business model. > > > > > > > So much can be done without a cent spent on dev. > > > > > > > Brad > > > > > > > On Mar 14, 2:04 pm, Kevin SY <kevin.sam...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > Hey Everyone! > > > > > > > > I'm new around here. A friend of mine recently attended StartUp > > Camp > > > > > > > and told me about this community. He has advised that I should > > write > > > > > > > on the discussion board and see what kind of responses I receive. > > > > > > > > At the moment I have an idea in mind that I believe could be > > really > > > > > > > big. I have discussed it with a few close friends because I wish > > to > > > > > > > take first-mover advantage. The problem is that I lack the > > programming > > > > > > > ability to make it a reality on my own. My programming friends > > are > > > > > > > quite busy with work and they don't believe that they have the > > level > > > > > > > of programming ability I require. I have developed a workable > > > > > > > operational and growth strategy with a revenue stream that will > > not > > > > > > > commence until after 1-2 years. > > > > > > > > What should I do to seek trustworthy web programming expertise > > that I > > > > > > > require? > > > > > > > How much should I expect to be investing as development cost > > should > > > > > > > people be uninterested in shares? > > > > > > > > I know of elance, but I believe that I will have difficulties in > > > > > > > ensuring that they program what I have in mind, where as if I was > > to > > > > > > > discuss it with someone in person whom I trust, it would be much > > less > > > > > > > trouble and wasteful of resources. > > > > > > > > Where can I go from here? > > > > > > > > Thanks for taking the time to read my message, and I hope to hear > > some > > > > > > > insightful responses and messages of advice. > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > > > > > Kevin > > > > > > -- > > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon > > Beach Australia mailing list. > > > > > > Guidelines on discussion:http://tr.im/ujKF > > > > > > No > > ... > > read more » -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. 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