Is it too late to found my start up? | Hacker News Reader

Is it too late to found my start up?

4 pointsahmedaly6 comments

Hi.. Every few months, I get some ideas, and then just don't make any steps to do it, and then get surprised that someone did it later!

Few years ago, I thought about something similar to friendfeed, and then surprise! Friendfeed is out there. :D

Most of my ideas are related to social networking, and I am hesitated because I am not sure if people will continue using social networks or figure out something new!

So is it too late to found my start up? And if someone else makes my idea.. should I still continue or stop?

Thanks in advance, Ahmed.

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I don't believe that people will stop using social networks, it may just be in a different form than it is now. People have the need to stay connected and see what other people are doing with their lives, and share pictures or information with others. And the internet with its social networks has been a great way to do so. And that is not going to change in the near future. If you come up with something innovative and there's a need for it, why not try it? If you never do it you can never win.

Ahmed, anyone can come up with ideas, but fewer people execute on those ideas. Even fewer people end up being successful from those executions.

If you think you have good ideas, you should execute on them in whatever way you can. You will never have a 100% unique product without competitors, so don't worry about anything other than what your product does for its users.

Its never too late to found a startup or project, there are always opportunities as long as technology changes.

I agree. No matter what you start, there is usually something similar out there, even if the other solution is simply the status quo. Its all in the execution. There are tonnes of examples where its not actually the first to market that wins.

Being second is not the end. Many companies were not first.

Facebook was not first in social networking.

And google wasn't the first to invent search. The "First Mover" advantage is overrated in many cases.

Frankly, I'd be worried if there wasn't competition in your particular niche. Either you have stumbled on something truly revolutionary (unlikely) or the niche is just too small to support more than a one-man company. So, competition is good.

basically, being the first is not always an advantage. If a startup implements your idea before you do, then make it better, make it easier to use. And the good thing in being second is that you already know if people like the idea or not.

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