Ask HN: Love Coding, Hate Marketing | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Love Coding, Hate Marketing

12 pointsbluedevil2k8 comments

I suspect I'm like most users on HN in this regard, but there's nothing I enjoy more than coming up with a good idea and sitting at my computer for a good hard week(s) of coding it up and turning it into a good/great web application (in my opinion at least). I like the coding, I like the design aspect of the page, I like testing it, I like seeing it all come together nicely in the end and turning it into a nice product.

However, when it comes time to market and sell the web application, I hate it. I hate finding people to e-mail about it, I hate trying to convince leading industry people to look at it. I hate cold calling people trying to sell them on the site. I hate trying to figure out Google AdSense to get my ads into a winning strategy.

The bad part is, I like making money too. So, I can't do that at all without loving both aspects. What should I do? Try to find someone who will handle all the selling/marketing? I'm sure there's lots of people that love that part of a business. Pack it in and call it quits because I don't have "it"? Any recommendations?

I'm the same way. The App Store helped me (although it hurts in the long run) because I am selling despite not doing one bit of marketing (aside from a few tweets here and there to my 100 or so followers).

How about I help you with whatever needs to be done to sell? I'm a jack of all trades can understand design/coding/UX and also like the aspects of marketing.

contact me at jaspal.sawhney@gmail.com

Same here. I might be interested in helping someone sell his product.

Contact information in my profile.

I'd recommended finding a code-savvy cofounder who is interested in marketing/has marketed before, and bringing them on as a minority partner. Not all marketers are tech morons -- the ones that aren't know a good product when they see it, get excited, and want to tell the world about it.

It's one of those innate desires. When you see a great application, you may want to get deep down into the inner workings and understand/improve it (I'm assuming). The marketer you're looking for should be interested in how it works and how to improve it, of course, but he should also clearly see your current product and future iterations on everyone's desk innately. That way the two of you can chase your respective visions: you with the better product, the partner with getting the product out into the world.

What if what you really hate is getting other opinions on how good it is? You say "in my opinion at least," and you hate trying to convince people, and finding a winning strategy. What if instead of trying to force yourself in, you figure out why these people aren't responding and how you can make them come to you? Maybe your idea only sounds good to you. Marketing, selling, etc. is not just trying to get something through to someone else, it's learning what they actually think is good and cool, or what is bad and needs to change. Your mentality and approach could be wrong. Not sure if this is the case, just a possible scenario.

I would suggest looking at a few of the "Match.com" for startups sites:

http://www.startupwithme.com/ http://www.techcofounder.com/

The good news is that since you're technical, you're one of the women on "Match.com". Everyone will come to you.

Even Marketeers don't like marketing. Its a tedious pain in the ass. You shouldn't absolve you self of all marketing responsiblities. Read some marketing books and blogs. At present no one will know your product better than you.

Try to find someone who will handle all the "selling/marketing?" YES!!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com