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Comment by mojombo | Hacker News Reader

My experience, while obviously not universally true, is that "release early, release often" is critical to web applications.

One big mistake we made at Powerset was to keep everything secret and fuel the hype machine. I think that in the end this was harmful to the company image. It would have been better to get the tool out in front of people, show them what we could do, and let them see the progress. That way you can get people behind you, cheering you on, instead of having them get bored with all the unproven claims you keep making.

Ideas are cheap. Implementations are what make or break a business.

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so stealth mode until you have a product? or don't stealthmode at all, just come out and say "we're building THIS, get ready for the storm" ?

heh, i'm just afraid of saying we're going to build something, then having to say "woops, we changed our minds, building this other thing makes more sense to us, sorry about that thing before..."

You'll do that anyway, over and over. Especially if this is your first startup. In my experience (definitely including myself) most first time founders couldn't recognize a market if it hit them over the head in the early phase. The process of pitching your idea helps target what you're doing.

This doesn't change just because you've launched and everyone who's seen a little of the startup world knows to expect this.

Something I've noticed: I'm pretty good at telling other people where their product sucks, how they've completely missed the point, and how to do their job better. And yet I haven't yet been able to parlay that into a kickass product of my own.

If I reverse that finding and assume that I'm not particularly smart or special (usually a pretty good assumption), it follows that other people can do a pretty good job telling you where you're screwing up, how you've completely missed the point, and how you ought to do your job. And you're actually in a position to do something about it. And it's unlikely that they're in a position to do something about it. Hell, if they have more ego than self-interest (as most people do), you might even get this advice for free.

Definitely. It's painful thinking back on the first times I was pitching our stuff and how irrelevant the stuff I was saying was. Even now, 9 months in I struggle to make myself focus. Constantly pitching and having people rip what I'm saying apart is the only reason I'm not completely retarded about it.

I have exactly the same thoughts but also think stealth-mode is bullshit.

Having just started on my first tech startup about a month ago, I am trying to go for the "be open and honest about everything" meets "release early, release often" approach on the basis that if the idea is crap, I would rather hear about it earlier and fail quickly (so I can change direction or reset and move on with the next idea).

I am also going with a hardware-based product and am still building the site (what you will see was put together yesterday afternoon as a quick draft as we work through the "presenting the idea" stage of things and refine and streamline the concept), which is very likely to change over the next month which is also a reason I haven't done a "Ask HN: Is my startup crap?" post.

"we're building this http://www.httbox.com, get ready for the storm^"

^hopefully.

I've been in this industry for many years.. there are a bunch of people throwing software onto a hushpc. They come and go every year.

The consumer marketplace for infrastructure hardware is fickle indeed.. the customers who could actually hook everything up with your box often fall into the 'experimenter' market.. they are putting their own boxes together.

The 'enthusiast' market for these devices is pretty good, but often it's like the 'audiophile' market in the 80's. No matter what you sell, it's never good enough. So even though they are willing to pay a premium, it only takes a couple of them with a ground hum problem to eat up all of your profits in technical support.

The 'rich guy' market is tough to access. They are happy with the DVR from their cable company.

But whatever market you get into you need fat margins on the hardware to have a chance of making it.

Thanks. Its still early days yet (<1mth). I am having a go at building one device that can access digital, terrestrial, satellite, and iPTV from one device, with a simple interface and full recording fetures.

I expect to fail (being such a crowded market with big players with deep pockets) ;) but am interested to see how far I can go. It also has a few other features akin to what picwing is doing but for video. Especially nice is the "virtual living room" function that allows no-fuss video conferencing while sharing a video/home-movie.

The forums/feedback sections will be up on the weekend, so I'd really welcome any thoughts insights you may have.

Thanks :)

You know, you are entering a market with your box that is very crowded with similar products. My thesis document is something, that if combined with your product, would change your product from something nice to something that will blow minds. Intruiged? Watch my twitter account and wait for when I post the pictures (it's hardware).

Yes, but building it with "be your own customer and everything" in mind, and have yet to see a single device that can recieve and record multi HD streams inc Sky (which in the UK can only be received with thier Sky box, and does not allow recording of programs) etc. etc. all integrated together.

There are many other features not mentioned on the site (yet), the most interesting being the accelerometer remote control for more natural control (akin to Nintendo Wii control). Plus this box is very quiet (no fans, passively cooled via heatpipe to the side fins).

Anyway, your website is down, twitter account rarely updated, so if you are doing something interesting, feel free to email me :-)

Oh, what I'm doing is something you're not even thinking of ;) I don't want to describe the project till I have a prototype up, but when I do, I'll make a youtube video. All I'll do is drop hints about how explosive this will be :)

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