Ask HN: Should I Build This? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I Build This?

17 pointsAlDeeMer18 comments

I am struggling to decide whether I should build out a saas service.

How does one decide whether its a good idea to expend time and energy doing this?

The product itself is pretty niche and its market would be any only service that is focused on user privacy, whistle blowing sites, vpn services or any other that wishes to respect user privacy (dating, lgbt, hookup sites).

My product would be used by these services during the registration phase for users.

In term of time needed to build out this product, I estimate 2 weeks and possibly little to no input afterwards from a feature standpoint.

I'm not sure if I should do it or if there's an actual market for it, how can I tell without giving too much away? There is no product like this that I can compare against (maybe because its not that important?)

How do I quantify if there's an actual market for this product?

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I run a small, independent software company. First timer.

> I estimate 2 weeks

It is going to take longer than 2 weeks. And it is going be harder than you think.

Building a product is only the beginning. You will have to write copy, find customers, implement billing and charge folks, offer support, do maintenance, build features, again find customers, talk to them, again build features, tweak copy, handle legal/accounting, combat fraud, ride emotional rollercoaster, etc... Not to scare you off or anything, but writing code is only one part of building a software business.

Don't start before you have (rough) answers to these questions:

* Who is it for? No, it can't be for anyone. It can't be for a $LARGE_GROUP_OF_PEOPLE either ("any only service that is focused on user privacy, whistle blowing sites, vpn services").

* What problem does it solve? Do you know anyone who would pay for that?

* How are you going to reach potential customers? This is more important than you think it is. Assuming that you have a product that solves a real problem for a particular demographics (and they are willing to pay for it), you will have to find distribution channels that consistently send traffic your way. It can be SEO (takes a long time), blogging + newsletter(s) (takes a long time), direct sales (?!), marketplaces, paid acquisition (takes skills & budget), affiliates (you have to have an existing userbase for this to work), etc.

> I'm not sure if I should do it or if there's an actual market for it, how can I tell without giving too much away? There is no product like this that I can compare against (maybe because its not that important?)

Competition is a good proxy that there is money to be made in the market. I believe that true validation is people paying for what you have built. You can gather rough signals, but these signals can only take you that far: https://www.derrickreimer.com/essays/2019/05/17/im-walking-a...

Build it, and they will do absolutely nothing. I learned it the hard way.

If be interested to know a bit more about how you are overcoming the field of dreams problem.

Join YC Startup School, it will answer many questions and teach you a framework for thinking about your potential product. Or you can watch the videos on YouTube

This looks like a great suggestion! Have you used it yourself or just heard about it?

Did the last session, signed up for the next. Highly recommended!

I think you can relatively get a good indication if you are honest with yourself. Try using this idea evaluation tool I created (based on YC's partner lecture): https://www.polidoesntcare.com/blog/the-startup-idea-evaluat...

What's the idea? I'll build it and let you know if it's successful!

If it takes just 2 weeks to build it, you should do it. No second thoughts.

Thank you. Possibly less as its a very simple product technically speaking.

In terms of value added for the services using it - I think its quite beneficial but this is what I'm struggling to quantify or be objective about.

This is very low maintenance and I am planning on doing this so it's as small technical debt as possible

I'm sure there are very rare exceptions, but if it's a simple product and it only takes 2 weeks to build it, it probably won't add that much value. If it does, the market is, or will be, saturated with competitors due to the low barrier to entry.

If it's technically very simple, why would your customers buy your product rather than build it themselves?

Because 99.9% of the population are not programmers?!

The intended customers are "service[s] that [are] focused on user privacy, whistle blowing sites, vpn services" and "dating, lgbt, hookup sites".

How would you provide a service like that without any programmers?

Just do it, 2 weeks is nothing

As someone else said the company types you mentioned all are tech oriented and probably have devs who have internal processes already developed or in process of being developed if it's something they need.

Even if you tell your idea 99% of people won't do anything with it. If they do yours could still be implemented better and beat them or you could still beat them to market, or there could be a big enough market everyone can fit.

E.g there are like 10 uptime monitoring apps on indiehackers doing >3k mrr. Very simple function, tons of profitable competitors.

My advice is just say what it is you want to build and get actual feedback on the whole concept, you might even uncover better features by getting insight. Don't be afraid of people stealing your ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen, successful startups are 1 attempt out of 99.

You are estimating 2 weeks and I am assuming 40hrs/week (modest). Take your hourly rate and multiply it by 80hrs that is your estimated cost to build.

In terms of finding if it is a needed solution, you will need to find your target customer in depth. Your target customer profile should be so narrow that it makes you uncomfortable.

The sooner you can validate it as a product the better -- minimum remarkable product and try and get some customers. If people really need it (solving a problem many have, but few can solve) you will found out fast.

This problem cannot be resolved by anyone except for you.

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