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Comment by lionhearted | Hacker News Reader

> Any input on the concept?

For a first foray into business, I'd recommend against building something that requires network effects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

For every Facebook or Yelp, there's hundreds of network-effects-based sites that never gain any steam, and they don't see anything from it. Also, what you're talking about is notoriously hard to get money out of.

For a first business, sell something to people. Take Hacker News' own Patrick McKenzie* (patio11) - he sells Bingo Card Creating Software. His blog is here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/

He sells things to people. If he tries something, he knows right away if it's working - he gets bingo card sales. If no one bought his bingo cards, he would know it's not working and he'd have closed his site. You learn a lot about business by selling things to people, and it's got the most clear and insightful feedback.

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It's like that old joke, that the first telephone was the hardest sell (who ya gonna call?)

Joshua Schachter (delicious founder) said something about network effects that really struck me: make something that has network effects, but which is also useful and valuable even if no-one else is using it.

There's a related view that's applicable to my startup: make something that useful and valuable on its own, that can have additional network effects if others are using it.

BTW: I've searched for where Joshua said that, but I've not been able to find it (there were three points). Anyone know which interview I mean?

http://www.krisjordan.com/2008/09/17/joshua-schachter-lesson... Also this: http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&...

Thanks for the links, though the one I'm thinking of had them as three bullets points. Actually, it sounds like I may be thinking of a slide presentation, not an interview.

My last name is McKenzie. Kalzumeus is a burrito-loving dragon from a long-forgotten RPG campaign.

My business plan in 15 seconds: Find a problem that I could fix which hit a group of people I knew I could address. Develop the minimum salable fix for the problem. Sell it. Then start iterating.

Three thousand commits to subversion later...

Pardon me for mixing you up with a burrito-eating dragon, Mr. McKenzie! I am, none the less, a tremendous admirer of yours, and think you represent very well the highest chance of success for a solo hacker to make a part-time business viable. I reckon you're actually the case study on how to do it to profitability with minimum risk and hassle.

The other one to look at would be Peldi Guilizzoni's Balsamiq: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/ - but he happened to find a really good PR/blogging mix that hit right at home with his audience. I reckon that's a fantastic way of doing things in many markets, though the Bingo Card model would work in almost all direct-to-consumer markets. Fantastic stuffs, and congratulations and thanks for sharing the knowledge.

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