Show HN: Idea roulette (brainstorming site)
9 comments
Have you considered giving a bit more structure to the "Idea" submission? Maybe just split out basic questions like "What problem is this solving?", "Who is this for?", etc. into separate fields. Might give it a bit more organization and would potentially allow users to categorize/search based on certain criteria.
One assumption that would need to be tested is whether people will take the time to review ideas. And the other is whether people would be willing to disclose their ideas so publicly. I think you can find better quotes/articles to help convince people to disclose their ideas. Here's an excerpt from Paul Graham's How to Start a Startup essay you may want to use (PG has some more good quotes on the same topic in some other essays):
"An idea for a startup, however, is only a beginning. A lot of would-be startup founders think the key to the whole process is the initial idea, and from that point all you have to do is execute. Venture capitalists know better. If you go to VC firms with a brilliant idea that you'll tell them about if they sign a nondisclosure agreement, most will tell you to get lost. That shows how much a mere idea is worth. The market price is less than the inconvenience of signing an NDA.
Another sign of how little the initial idea is worth is the number of startups that change their plan en route. Microsoft's original plan was to make money selling programming languages, of all things. Their current business model didn't occur to them until IBM dropped it in their lap five years later.
Ideas for startups are worth something, certainly, but the trouble is, they're not transferrable. They're not something you could hand to someone else to execute. Their value is mainly as starting points: as questions for the people who had them to continue thinking about."
One assumption that would need to be tested is whether people will take the time to review ideas. And the other is whether people would be willing to disclose their ideas so publicly. I think you can find better quotes/articles to help convince people to disclose their ideas. Here's an excerpt from Paul Graham's How to Start a Startup essay you may want to use (PG has some more good quotes on the same topic in some other essays):
"An idea for a startup, however, is only a beginning. A lot of would-be startup founders think the key to the whole process is the initial idea, and from that point all you have to do is execute. Venture capitalists know better. If you go to VC firms with a brilliant idea that you'll tell them about if they sign a nondisclosure agreement, most will tell you to get lost. That shows how much a mere idea is worth. The market price is less than the inconvenience of signing an NDA.
Another sign of how little the initial idea is worth is the number of startups that change their plan en route. Microsoft's original plan was to make money selling programming languages, of all things. Their current business model didn't occur to them until IBM dropped it in their lap five years later.
Ideas for startups are worth something, certainly, but the trouble is, they're not transferrable. They're not something you could hand to someone else to execute. Their value is mainly as starting points: as questions for the people who had them to continue thinking about."
I actually choose to give less structure to the idea submission thinking that there could be many kind of ideas so a less structured submission could be better. But actually I'm not that sure about it. Maybe there are some questions that should apply to all kind of ideas, so I could separate those and let a general field for the ideas that don't apply.
When you say that people may not take the time to review ideas you mean that I made it hard with all those fields to fill or that in general is a lot of work to read an idea think about it and suggest improvements.
The disclosure problem is probably my biggest question at the moment. So I need to test what would convince more people, but at the moment my biggest problem is how to get people to visit the page since with no user I can't really test my assumptions.
Thank you for your comment, it is really useful.
Thank you for your comment, it is really useful.
My pleasure.
What I meant about people reviewing ideas is this: what incentive do people have to come to the site to review ideas? I see the incentive for the entrepreneur: see what others have to say about your idea and figure out what potential users think. But what reason do random people have to come to a site to review other people's startup ideas? Are you thinking that the people who post their ideas will take the time to review other people's ideas? It could just be that it's an inherently enjoyable activity and people will do it for the fun of it or the social engagement (sort of like Hacker News), but that's something that would just have to be tested.
Good luck!
What I meant about people reviewing ideas is this: what incentive do people have to come to the site to review ideas? I see the incentive for the entrepreneur: see what others have to say about your idea and figure out what potential users think. But what reason do random people have to come to a site to review other people's startup ideas? Are you thinking that the people who post their ideas will take the time to review other people's ideas? It could just be that it's an inherently enjoyable activity and people will do it for the fun of it or the social engagement (sort of like Hacker News), but that's something that would just have to be tested.
Good luck!
Typo on front page... "Were ideas come to get reviewed" (should be "Where").
Also "You then review someone else idea" should be "elses".
"themselft" should be "themself".
Not being nit-picky just helping out :)
Also "You then review someone else idea" should be "elses".
"themselft" should be "themself".
Not being nit-picky just helping out :)
It should be "else's".
Thanks I'll correct it
Just curious, did you develop it using the playframework?
yes, I find it really useful
http://idearoulette.appspot.com/ideas/10001
The homepage of the website is http://idearoulette.appspot.com and it give probably a better description of how it works and why you should use it
Thank you for your time