4 Startups + 4 Months + 4 People = Mayhem
technation.com.au
technation.com.au
Then the crotchety: website != startup. Building a business is a lot harder than hacking together a website (wonderfully groovy or otherwise). Paul's mantra of "build something people want" is a precondition, not the endpoint. It's next to impossible to build a business in a month.
your "crotchety" point's a good one. in fact, it's a frequent point of discussion within the team. the website!=business comment is a common rebuke for us.
my position is agreement with your statement. "something people want" is a starting point, a primer for the business. rather than four business in four months, I argue 4 seeds, some of which may grow into viable business, and most that won't.
Further, trying to grow 4 business at a time (come November) is equally insane. The niches are small (we call them micro startups - one month to address the core need, the "one thing"), and the end of the year might be a good time to weed.
nevertheless, we are learning a tremendous amount about the process, about users, and about how much we truly don't know. and damn it's better than working in an office!
I'd really recommend taking one of the ideas at the end of the four months and seeing how far you can run with it. The trials and errors of building a business have really been the eye-opening part of our own startup experience. There's nothing quite like that first flopped investor pitch or learning how to incorporate or doing semi-long-term planning to really change your outlook.
Best of luck. :-)
Project Mayhem is an interesting experiment. I bet some of your products might turn out to be better than more well-funded products.