Ask HN: I am unable to start my startup because of its scale

I applaud you for aiming high, and for the confidence you exhibit with your idea! Best of luck on it.

However, you definitely have a problem with the scale / scope of your product. As byoung2 points out, there's only 1 ipad, and there's really only one company in the world that could produce it. So it's not out of the question, but it will be difficult.

I heartily recommend that you undergo Steve Blank's Customer Development model. Read his book "4 steps to the epiphany", as well as his blog. His philosophy is very straight forward, and it will show you the steps that you need to use to get going on this project.

First, I'd recommend you do some more Customer Discovery/Validation. Don't believe people who tell you it's a great idea. Go TALK to your customers, ask them point blank if they would buy it, and for how much. As he states repeatedly, "no business idea survives first contact with customers." It's very true. Go talk to them. Get people to sign a piece of paper (non-binding), saying that if they had your product with features X,Y,Z, at price point $N, they would purchase one. You will learn a LOT doing this.

Once you know who your customers are, and what they want, you start to develop your product through an iterative cycle. Build your "minimum viable product", which is the smallest product that you could sell and still consider it your product. As a hint, that won't include the SDK or any of the app store type stuff you discuss above. What is the ONE thing that defines your product?

Then build that one thing. I suggest you read the Paypal story in "Founders At Work" and learn from their initial demo. In short, Paypal was to be a way to pay other people by beaming virtual currency through cell phones / PDAs (use case: split checks at restaurant). They didn't have the cash to actually build one on a PDA, so they made a little interactive website that would demo the functionality.

The interesting conclusion is that so many people actually tried to send money through the webapp that they realized their entire product was wrong. So they pivoted.

To sum, think big but work small. Cut EVERYTHING out that you can. Talk to your customers. Realize that your original idea probably will need modifications (pivots) to succeed.

Once you get through all that stuff, you will have a better grasp on the potential for your idea. If you do Blank's steps well, have a good idea, you will be in good position to raise money / find partnerships for anything you want.

It's a long road. Best of luck!

Man, these are great advices you have been pointing in here.

Few days ago, I actually tried the concept on two "potential" customers, by using some hardware peripherals I managed to put together, and a very basic software, something which is far away in terms of design, quality and user experience from the final product, and in fact, the two customers simply didn't want to stop "playing" with the product.

One thing to remember about focus groups (like your 2 potential customers), is that they will tell you great things about a product, and they'll want to play with it, but the story changes when you ask them to pull out the credit card.

Take the iPad, for example. When my coworker brought one in, a half-dozen people crowded around it and marveled, and no one could put it down, but in the end only one person was willing to pay $500 for it. Make sure that your potential customers like the product/service enough to pay the price you want for it.

Are you sure of the worth of your idea ? And seriously, people are not out to get your idea. It's okay to post it here.

I was not posting this to have this community evaluating it but to get advise about how to move forward.

But it's hard to give you valuable advice without details about what you want to build.

> It is not just a service, neither application, nor innovative hardware device, it is all three and more. When accompanied by and development platform and strong contracts with major market players this can easily reach the scale of an iPad market and buzz. Seriously!

Phrases like this make me think you're deluding yourself. It's always good thing to get a reality check before investing too much in an idea.

Here is the deal though, we have no idea of what you are trying to do so it is impossible to give you any sound advice. The only advice we can give you at this point is ideas are a dime a dozen (I have 2 or 3 a day) execution is everything. I have been involved in 3 start-up companies that have successfully exited for huge deals the common ingredient in all of them was execution not the idea.

So to be as up front as I can, without being forthcoming you come of as an amateur and someone who is not experiences in this market, that will reflect poorly on your efforts in seeking capital. As good as your idea is, the guy down the street has one just as good; different but just as good. Seriously if it is that wizz-bang and revolutionary then get a patent-pending and tell the world. That would be your best first step for a few grand you can get a patent attorney to put it together for you and then generate some buzz with press releases about your patent.

Yes,

Idea is 1%, execution is 99%.

Moreover, ideas can not be patented. I consider that current laws are far too strong. But even current laws do not allow ideas to be patented, only a particular method of executing an idea. So as soon you begin doing business, your idea will there for everyone to see and steal.

But also: unless the people around you are hardened venture capitalists willing to also put effort into thinking through the implications of your idea, the assurances of people around aren't that valuable.

Steve Job's market research method is instinct but the question is whether you are Steve Jobs. Still, the people around may be willing to think a bit about your but they going to think and re-think and consider market conditions and so-forth. You, yourself, can put in more effort than anyone else. You can get yourself to succeed with that if you continually force yourself to be critical. I remember a discussion of Mark Zuckerberg's ability to continually criticize and discard ideas that didn't seem to work, including ideas he thought of the day before. The number one mistake of failed-novelists and fail capitalists is falling in love with an idea. A startup is a business. Most if not all businesses succeed by sliding from one niche to another until they gain real traction. It's a process of chaotic self-renewal where good ideas only play a small part. Google might seem a counter-example but remember, Google is continually re-inventing their search process. If Google really stuck to the one idea of Pagerank, they would be killed by now.

And after all that, think about how worthwhile it is to pursue an idea on the scale you're talking about. I myself am pursuing an ambitious app at the moment but I'm not kidding myself that my approach is the best business plan. I'm pursuing it for reasoning of idealism.

By all means, if the larger-scale idea you're pursuing is something you simply think should exist, then go for it. If you put enough energy and commitment into it and it really is a great idea, then it will come into existence. But don't kid yourself that this is best way to run a business.

> By all means, if the larger-scale idea you're pursuing is something you simply think should exist, then go for it. If you put enough energy and commitment into it and it really is a great idea, then it will come into existence.

I think that is describing exactly how I feel toward this. It is indeed something that must exist, and I am going to put together the money and people that will make it happen. I only fear about taking control of areas and domains where I should let other control and vice versa.

But I also notice you say it involves hardware and software.

That's a tall order. Hardware has been moving from specialized to general everywhere. The Android/iPhone is replacing the remote, the camera, the phone, the music and so-forth.

Creating a new piece of hardware seems really tough compared to just writing a PC/Android/whatever application.

"When accompanied by and development platform and strong contracts with major market players this can easily reach the scale of an iPad market and buzz"

I would try to be more realistic about it. Even Microsoft or Google sometimes have trouble building the type of buzz that Apple does. A more practical approach would be to combine your three suggested approaches:

1. Make a concept video of your product in daily use. You can recruit film students in the visual effects department to help with that. 2. Use the video to recruit one or two cofounders and apply to YC. 3. Start working on a prototype of your hardware, software, service, etc. 4. Sell it to Apple/Google/Microsoft and let them worry about creating buzz for it.

> I would try to be more realistic about it. Even Microsoft or Google sometimes have trouble building the type of buzz that Apple does.

That is quite true. Seems like no one else yet can beat apple at two things UI and Buzz. That is not meant no one will in the future. Besides, I care more about market share than buzz.

Making this movie seems like the right thing to do and it is actually what I am going to do very soon.

"One way is to use standard non expensive (and perhaps far less shiny and integrated) hardware plugged some peripherals and write a quick demo for it." "Few days ago, I actually tried the concept on two "potential" customers, by using some hardware peripherals I managed to put together, and a very basic software, something which is far away in terms of design, quality and user experience from the final product, and in fact, the two customers simply didn't want to stop "playing" with the product."

You have answered your own question. A minimum viable product. Add to that a demo of how you envision the final product and how customers interact with it. Go!

Most of the startups I've participated in have been more on the scale of what you're describing here (FWIW, I like these kinds of challenges more than something that is "just" software in the cloud, but to each his own).

I'm more of the business-guy than the hacker guy, but I've been known to make a double-sided PCB layout, toss on and program some PIC chips and create a server-backend when need-be.

Anyway, if you want to discuss your idea offline/non-public I'd be happy to offer some free advice (it's worth what you pay for it) and maybe point you in the right direction or give you some idea as to how to proceed to bring it all together.

Do you have experience in running this sort of project (i.e. for your previous employers, etc.) - if not you'll have a hard time raising funding just with an idea. There are a lot of complications from running this type of project, even when you have someone experienced running the show, so getting funding without experience is going to be close to impossible.

Although if you have unique value only you can provide (strong relationships with large potential customers, etc) then you should focus on that and try and sell that rather than just your idea.

I think the best route is to build a prototype one way or the other (learn the skills, partner with someone who has them) and you'll have a much better chance of getting investment.