Ask HN: Torn between product and by-product. What to do? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Torn between product and by-product. What to do?

2 pointssagacity9 comments

We've been rather busy since early 2010 working on a technology (project) requiring significant amounts of R&D effort.

Of late, it reached a (very interesting) stage where it started spinning-off small (and some not-so-small) by-products, like there's no tomorrow!

(Those who're interested can seen some of the by-products below:

http://www.RapiDefs.com

http://IPLoc.info and http://IPLoc.info/api)

A recent off-shoot of this work gifted us with an idea the commercial potential (and the Whoa! or Golly! factor) of which can easily make the primary project pale into insignificance.

If we move forward with this (the latest by-product), we'd almost certainly have to sort of ditch the original one or, at least, put it on a back burner for a long/ish time.

As the sole owner of the company, I have pretty much a totally free hand in making decisions but I'm not really able to make up my mind on this one.

I'm turning to you all for your opinions/suggestions. What would you do in a similar situation? Please let me know.

ps. I've not mentioned specifics of either project for the sake of brevity. If you need more info in order to opine, please ask. :-)

Hi, checkout http://spencerfry.com/on-focus

Besids that article, what to do in this situation obviously depends on your context of-course. Make sure you a 360 degree view of the situation, the pros and cons of either decisions. The regrets that either decision might bring. I always advice people to think about the regret minimization framework when making major life decisions.

Also the hypothesis is success could come by either route but the "by-product" has higher probability and a shorter road to product. Please try and validate this assumption as soon as possible, just so your not building castles in the air and taking a decision on unfounded hunches.

Hi, this is not a "what would you do" type of answer, but rather a quick observation. I like your site rapidefs.com (btw, you're missing a dot between www and r in your post). It's fast, it's useful, it looks good. But it's not really anything new. It's a dictionary just like many others. Or have I missed something?

Also, I have clicked on fb like, and then noticed "US patent pending" in footer. Nothing personal, but I immediately unliked your site. I do not claim I know what the patent is about, nor do I care. I'm just, in general, against patents. Too many ridiculous ones out there, wouldn't you agree?

Thanks for the reply, and for taking the trouble to point out the missing dot (now fixed).

>I'm just, in general, against patents. Too many ridiculous ones out there, wouldn't you agree?

Certainly agree and we're sailing (more or less) in the same boat on this.

Please check my posts in the thread below. While I don't know if this would be adequate for you to fb like RapiDefs again or not ;-), I'm sure it'll clarify my stand on this at least somewhat: :-)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2254680

Edit: Minor changes

> It's a dictionary just like many others. Or have I missed something?

Perhaps, you're a very fast typist and typed the whole word before RapiDefs had had a chance to show its thing. :-) Please try typing only a few (beginning) letters of any word to really see it in action.

Yes, I've seen it the first time. You type a few characters and get a list of matching word/phrases/definitions in your database. My question is still: so what? (or am I still missing it? :) )

Please understand, I like it. I'm trying to give you a feedback in light of your original question, and that's whether you should quit (or slow down) work on your main product, and focus on by-products, of which this is one example. In that light, I really do not see anything worth pursuing.

Or, ask yourself this question: can you make money of it? is that money greater that your main product?

If those kind of answers are yes, than and only than would I ever consider changing my focus.

> Please understand, I like it. I'm trying to give you a feedback in light of your original question

Thank you, and never suspected any hostility or ill-will in your posts. :-)

As a matter of face, RapiDefs is one of the minor by-products, done and put away already. (We will keep expanding it from time to time, but that's about it.)

The major by-product that is causing my indecision is not out yet but it (is totally different from RapiDefs or IPLoc and) has a great deal higher potential as compared to these. Actually, we've assessed its potential to be a lot higher than even the primary project; and hence the indecision.

> Actually, we've assessed its potential to be a lot higher than even the primary project; and hence the indecision.

If you have assessed the potential to be higher than your primary project, why the indecision? Does your primary project already have customers that you don't want to lose?

No, nothing like that.

However, it (the primary) project is a technology that can take the current state of the art of information retrieval methodologies just a notch further; something that can have a compelling value proposition for search players to acquire.

By contrast, the major off-shoot (by-product) is in the SN sector, with some unique twists. It will (probably) create a new segment/category in the SN space, without actually competing with any existing player and has a high probability of going viral.

And so the dilemma continues - which way to go?

You're not giving anyone any useful information. And when anyone gives you advice you just throw out a few empty statements ("current state of the art of information retrieval..."). If you really want useful feedback stop wasting people's time and just put both products out there so others can give you informed opinions.

Otherwise just work on whichever you prefer. You can build up anything in your mind until it seems like the next big thing but the reality is you won't be acquired and will have to figure out a way to make money with whatever you do if you want it to turn into a business. If you like the work you're more likely to put in the hard time necessary to create something wonderful that attracts and deserves others' attention. So do what you enjoy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com