Ask HN: Is this a scalable idea?

6 pointsby faramarz16년 전8 comments

I'm just trying to continue a conversation I had with a colleague..

Imagine putting together a team of designers and developers, engineers and an overall team of technical gurus. This team is pretty much capable of building anything in a decent amount of time. (for conversation sake, only web/mobile apps)

Now imagine this team puts up a website asking the people of the world to submit ideas, or things they want built. A Request for Product, if we have to give it a name.

For example; I'm frustrated with all the accounting software thats available to me. I want simple and easy way of tracking expenses.. and I want my app to process my taxes on a day-by-day basis. I don't want to build it. I don't care for that. I just have a need for such an app as a user.

I would goto this site and say this is my frustration and put the idea up for vote. If it hits a certain threshold in votes and interests, the team (company) takes over and dedicates labour and money to build the product.

When the product is built A) it can be open-sourced and released for anyone to use

B) spin into a company of its own with for-profit focus

All the while you are achieving market fit through the feedback, free marketing, and a high-conversion on everything you build. Only the most popular ideas get built minimizing the failure rate.

Does this seam feasible? Is it a small business or can it scale? Ideas to make this better?

I'm not taking ownership of anything discussed here, so you're welcome to chime in freely and put it to good use.

Cheers

6 comments

8plot16년 전

I've had similar conversations with colleagues. I love the idea and hope to someday try it.

One method I like is to use a simple agile/scrum type project where the product backlog is crowdsourced.

rglullis16년 전

What you are describing is not too different from micropledge, a company that was one of the first to be funded by YC. The largest differences I see is that you want to have your group of technical people defined a priori, while micropledge was more of a buyer/seller market.

Finding out what happened to them is left as an exercise to the reader.

faramarz16년 전

Yea.. it's too bad they could have done a lot more with at the time. Looks like all the projects are abandoned.. the earliest activity I can find is from 23 months ago.

Roridge16년 전

You don't need to assemble the team.

You can build a web site as a one or two person company, and the idea with enough traction you out source each part to oDesk or similar (as your team of technical people).

apsurd16년 전

Your model makes the assumption that "people of the world submit ideas" and "vote". Gaining a userbase, even nonpaying, is at minimum - half the battle.

lauken16년 전

Here is an example of an attempt. http://www.cambrianhouse.com/

faramarz16년 전

It looks like they surveyed the crowd, got acquired and the ideas are all on the back burner.

I'm picturing a more robust system where all the process is transparent and inclusive for the same people who voted/requested them.

Thanks for the link, worth the look!

keefe16년 전

elance.com? After you assemble your star team, why not carefully select profitable projects instead? The team probably costs you $50K-$100K per month. It seems that a more typical consulting or product business would be more profitable.