It's taboo to plug your startup or idea. Why? | Hacker News Reader

It's taboo to plug your startup or idea. Why?

4 pointsjmdaniel3 comments

Since starting my own business (I own a drone company) it seems taboo to be honest about plugging what I have to sell. When you start a small business and have no budget for ads you need free ways to get your idea/website out there. If you built an indie game, app, Have a prototype, have a youtube channel etc and want to spread the work but you recieve nothing but hate online it can be a disaster. I thought this was a problem. So I started Runway16.us its a place to plug your idea and find early adopters looking for new products & websites to spend money on. Runway16 is not my business or source of income. I just put it together to help other people post their ideas, startups, and not feel guilty about it. Just to prove I'm real my name is Daniel and I own DroneVideoJunkie.com. If you have any recommendations for Runway16.us or just want to plug your idea I wouldn't mind constructive feedback or interesting content.

My personal opinion (and I freely admit that I'm not entirely"normal") is this: People are, implicitly or explicitly, looking for value in their interactions.

If I read something that you've written and literally the only thing I get from it is that you've created something you want to sell me, then I will feel that you have taken my time and attention and given me nothing of value in return.

The corollary to this is simple: Provide value.

Don't just plug something, but share experience or knowledge that I will find useful, or at the very least interesting. I need to read what you wrote and think "Huh - that was useful", or "Huh, that was interesting."

Just my $0.02 - I hope you (and others) found it interesting and possibly useful.

Is it? I have nothing to sell, but I can't see anything wrong with planting a seed or two here and there :) To me it comes down to motivation, why are you pushing so hard? Is it only for your own gain or do you have a bigger perspective. I'm sick and tired of half-baked ideas being pushed in the name of awesome profits; but anything with substance that's shared openly is all good.

https://github.com/codr4life/lifoo

It's taboo because no one cares about your startup and trying to sell things to people is annoying.

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