Show HN: 2 guys -- Learned to code in 3 months and built this
My co-founder and I had been 'working' on our startup for 8 months. I say 'working' because as the "business people" - there wasn't a whole lot we could do except philosophize. We had gotten really awesome intros to some of the top VCs and entrepreneurs, but had nothing to show.
And now we felt stranded. Had we wasted 8 months of our lives? Identity crisis? Check.
So we did what any rational person would do - we ran to the mountains. Literally. In Boone, NC - we talked about why we started Knowit, what we believed. We talked about how we had taught ourselves so much on our own time, but couldn't save or share what we were learning. We didn't get any real and tangible credit for it.
And then it hit us - we are saying that anyone can teach themselves anything. That's the web. We simply had to give it a shot -- we owed it that. So we taught ourselves to code, for free, from the web. In many ways apropos.
We starting building and 3 months later we have a real product with over 375 users who have added over 3000 items.
We built Knowit to make it really easy to save and share your thoughts on the things you read, watch, and listen to. We want to help people build an online portfolio of what they know and what they're learning. We are excited about helping people take the things they are already doing - and make them count.
Check it out at http://knowitapp.com/ and example portfolios at http://knowitapp.com/jeff and http://knowitapp.com/nash - Things are still very early - and we have a ton of really cool ideas. What do you all think?? Are we doing this right?
If you want to check it out in more detail - we set up an invite backdoor for HN. http://knowitapp.com/invite/hn
What we learned from all this: - You can learn almost anything on the web from free resources. (and everything w/i 10yrs)
- It's easier than you think - the hardest step is the first one.
- If you are not technical - start learning - you will never regret it.
- Save and share your journey and teach the rest of us how you got so awesome.