Then post some progress to a blog and cross post to social media.
One common concern I have heard when folks ask this particular question is that someone will 'steal' their idea and run with it, ruining the chances of fame and fortune.
The truth is, ideas are like offspring, they are always more attractive to the progenitor than they are to the unrelated viewer. Many times when an idea is shared in a collective, a number of people will assert that it is a 'stupid' idea, and for folks who did not originally have that idea they will read or hear those comments and believe them more strongly than your assertion that it is a good idea.
Further, an idea expression is rarely communicated as clearly as an example of an idea does. So just talking about ideas rarely gets them stolen (except perhaps in the case of movie scripts)
Ideas are by their nature unproven, which is to say their merits are a matter of opinion rather than rigor, so few people feel compelled to rip them off or otherwise attempt to develop them.
I had the pleasure of working with Bill Joy at Sun Microsystems for several years, and one of the things that struck me about him was his ability to stretch the idea box way out of shape. He proposed some truly horrible ideas, but in the discussion enabled folks to step outside their own limitations and come up with some great things. Certainly not all of Bill's ideas were horrible, but wide ranging discussions were empowering on several levels which one would not have predicted.
So if you've got some ideas that you're wondering about, talking about them with others, any others, will help you develop them. Its one of the great things enthusiast clubs are good for, robust discussions about ideas related to club activities.
My dog rental business idea was shot to pieces.. (its still a great idea)..http://goo.gl/yLNtU but it got 5000 views. years back
Yahoo Answers...
Final one, is to find the community that your idea is relevant to, post it on the forums of the web sites that serve it. .. so if you idea is relevant to people who make high temperature adhesives go to Adhesives World and look there, if you are writing about fashion accessories for Ruby on Rails developers go there, more work but more useful..
good luck
Richard Lucas
Arguably both are important when considering any startup idea.
I can't help you find the potential customers, but when it comes to peers it is important to have a strong network of industry friends, contacts and mentors. If you don't have that to bounce an idea of then you're going to come equally stuck later on down the road when you need to lean on a network for potential hires, business advice, etc.
A strong contact network you can rely on is a key part of success.
although with HN, lots of topics remain neglected, especially if they appear in non-US daytime
Postscript - Per HN noise factor: do be aware that most HN readers are not as excited about your idea as you are.
If they are in the form of a simple web page, and you've got some sort of tracking in place, then feel free to post on here, I'm sure you'll get some valuable feedback.
Oh, and I've just dropped you a quick email if you want to chat over Skype or whatever!
I love thinking through new ideas and I would be glad to help.
You can see some parts of the framework I use to evaluate ideas in my past comments.
Shoot me an email if you think I can help.
cheers,
jiggity
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