Ask HN: Teenager with an idea that I'm passionate about, should I pursue it?

My observation is that when I talked to friends about my amazing ideas, they are invariably less passionate about them than me. So, be prepared for lukewarm reception. Or worse, 'devils advocates', etc.

You might even be more susceptible to this type of reaction given your condition. So, be aware of it.

I would just do it anyway. Its worth it for the experience. A set of 4 or 5 solid projects from this age on a resume is likely to result in additional interviews, which might find you jobs worth an extra $10,000/yr. So, consider it an investment in your future.

Thank you for your input! Having put some thought into it, I agree. I'm still in high school, and even though I have a job, I'd say overall I probably have a lot more time now than I will in two years. This might be the best chance I have to build this. And whether it succeeds or not, it'll at the very least be something I can throw on a Github repo and show potential employers in the future.

> However, even though I'm very passionate about this idea, there are some major obstacles involved. Namely, my service would need to be HIPAA compliant in the US. The more I've read into that process the more I've been discouraged.

Out of experience I know that one quality that serial-entrepreneurs (e.g. Elon Musk) have is the ability to fight successfully with the paperwork. The laws are written, some make sense, others do not. Doesn't really matter because you can't change them. Most people are intimidated by the very sight of paperwork. Especially the kind that is written in lawyer's language. You can only become successful if you learn to read this language. From what I've seen, it's extremely valuable asset, no matter what kind of company you want to create.

Another thing I've noticed is that only 10% of the people you'll ever talk about, no matter how they present themselves, really KNOWS what are they talking about. So keep your faith no matter what others tell you.

I would say, go for it. The experience of driving any such venture up to a point where you create something or you stop because you're over your head, will prove extremely valuable anyway. It's the kind of experience that you can't buy with money.

Wish you all the best :-)

ps. If you pursue this path, make sure to write a blog post a let us know how it went in about 1 year or 2 from now.

I've been giving your idea some thought, and would be happy to discuss further over email if you like (in my profile).

I don't think HIPAA is the main problem you have. The biggest obstacle is whether any healthcare provider would be willing to participate. People in this area have little time, too much work/obligations, are generally not tech savvy, have fixed workflows that they're unwilling to deviate from, and even the smallest amount of friction in your product will make them give up.

If you're going to do this (and you probably should if you're passionate about it), then you have to think of a way to integrate seamlessly into existing workflows and minimize their time commitment. Your goal should be 5-10 mins per day, max, regardless of the number of people being "monitored". Think about the incentives to get providers to participate. How much turn-around time is realistic? I don't see how this will be an "imminent suicide" prevention system and there are already lots of hotlines for that, but it could be great to monitor mood over days/weeks.

Perhaps have a single daily aggregated and anonymized email to a provider's nurse at 7am (when most check their patient data) that updates them on all patients in the practice who are potentially in trouble. They click a link, enter a password, and see the non-anonymized data. Then the nurse can get on the phone and start calling people.

If it is what you are passionate about go for it.

You describe it as a web/mobile start-up and later discuss the importance of it and the opportunity to change the world. I think it is worth being clear in your mind if this is a commercial project that you want to earn profits or a social venture (that may pay its own bills).

I would think about why you want to be secretive about it though. Even with businesses I think PG is largely right that secrecy isn't often worth it, you need to show people how good the idea is before they realise it. See AirBNB etc.

If you tell people what it is you can get some advice and maybe even help. At the crowd funding stage at least you need to let people know what your plan is.

So I would say that it's a little of both. Profit wouldn't hurt, but primarily it's about the idea. Even if I never made a dime from it and just broke even, it would be worth it to me. And I say change the world, and I guess I mean it, but a small subset of the world. Perhaps 10% of the population of developed countries could gain benefit from my service. It's probably not even that good of an idea, however I have gotten quite a bit of support from communities of people with mood disorders that I've posted about it on.

The idea by the way, I'll write a more detailed explanation about it when I'm on my computer, is basically a mood tracker that your therapist/psychiatrist, and potentially friends and family, has access to if you as the user grant them that access. They can view your check-ins and mood graphs at any time from a professional/support account. It also automatically notifies your supports, mainly your mental health professional(s), but also family and friends if you're linked to them through a support account, through text and email if you mark yourself as having suicidal feelings, or feelings of harming somebody else.

Having dealt with depression I know for a fact that actively seeking help was not a concern of mine at my lowest points. However, something as passive as marking my mood as suicidal on an app or website, that's something I could do. And it would in turn have the same effect as if I texted my therapist about my feelings. Along with those features there's a bit more to it that separates it from other mood trackers but I'll only explain those if you're interested in hearing more.

So it's probably not the world changing idea I made it out to be, but I think it could help in the treatment of those facing mood disorders, by allowing their psychiatrist or therapist as well as family and friends to play an active role in monitoring their mood and helping at the lows or highs (for those with bipolar). Maybe it'll never catch on, but even if it got a few hundred users whose well-being was benefited by it, then it's worth it. If it helped saved even ONE life, then it's worth it.

Yes something like this can change the world at least for some people, I wasn't trying to mock or belittle the ambition just get you to think about where your priority lay between business and world changing.

There are other players in the market but that doesn't matter if you know what yours is better at. Have a short answer for someone that says "Why should I use your product rather than xxx". That can be that all the others suck or that yours is easy to use or more private or many other things but you should have an answer.

If I was trying to build a business around such an idea I think I would try to sell the to the medical professionals/practices. I'm sure it would be easier for them to track all their patients on one system than many different ones so they could hand out codes to their patients that would allow easy sign up and associate them with the correct doctor.

Good luck!

Also, I'm aware that there are huge technical challenges involved in creating the service that I want to create. However, I'm fairly confident in my ability to overcome these if I put the time and effort in and am willing to learn. I already have an idea about how I'd go about creating what I want to. It's just that in figuring all of that out I've realized that it's going to be a very expensive endeavor. And if I do things wrong I could potentially break privacy laws, which could have very negative results.

Answer to whether you're being realistic? No, but so what.

It's instructive to know that the most innovative leaders behind game-changing ideas in arts, science, & business-- often pursued unrealistic goals. Many of them toiled & tinkered for years.

Here's a good read to keep you going> http://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Robert-Greene/dp/014312417X/re...

If you're interested in discussing the crowdfunding aspect, I'm happy to help. I manage the Hardware, Design and Tech team at Indiegogo. Software is generally more difficult to crowdfund, as it requires a very active community to get that initial momentum. Strategy will be key to success, and it's not going to be a walk in the park. But, if you're passionate about it, it's absolutely not impossible.

If you're seriously considering this, shoot me an email at evan (at) indiegogo dot com.

Thank you for your willingness to help out. I am passionate about it, and I'll definitely send you an email and see if we can discuss strategy. I had never seen your company before. Definitely could be a great alternative to Kickstarter for me!

https://www.truevault.com/ , You may wanto check them out for hippa compliance.

Look asking for permission for pursuing your passion isn't ideal. the best that can happen is you're going to make it and realize your vision . The next best is you can learn way more than you would have by just thinking about whether to do it or not. Either way it's going to be a fruitful experience.

I have checked them out and am planning on using them for the technical and physical requirements involved with HIPAA. But thanks for the link, would have been extremely useful to me had I not found them a week or so ago in a jobs post on HN haha. Also I am going to be using a start-up called Accountable that helps with the administrative requirements of HIPAA. The problem is just that neither of those services is cheap (TrueVault is cheaper at first than Accountable) once you actually release a public website. I don't expect them to be considering that they save a lot of time and money compared to becoming HIPAA compliant on your own. But as a 17 year old I just don't have a lot of money, which is why crowdfunding will be necessary most likely.

Yeah, I asked kinda planning to do it either way, unless there was a really strong negative reaction, which might have talked me out of it. I think it will be worth it in a lot of ways, even if it never succeeds.

Good luck! And as cliche as it sounds get started, things have a way of working out eventually.

Where are you?

Would it be possible to create a MVP and show that to commissioners / researchers / etc in your country?

You might want to get good quality research to support your idea. Good quality in this context means a cochrane review, or information from NICE (the UK organisation) or something equally rigorous.

I would be keen to hear your idea. Please feel free to email me.

Have you seen the Australian website "Moodgym"? And there are similar other sites.

I'm in the United States.

MVP referring to what exactly? Haha, sorry I'm not familiar with that term outside of it's usual usage and it's web programming usage.

Hmm, I'm not sure how useful that would be to me. I'll send you an email about my idea. It's really not that novel though, just a new take on an existing concept.

And I hadn't, interesting website. Not really a competitor to my idea, but still interesting!

"if you had an idea for something that you believed could potentially benefit many individuals' lives, would you pursue it regardless of the obstacles, costs, and time involved?" - without a doubt in my mind

Thanks for the input! I think that's what I need to do. It's easy to get discouraged though when it feels like you don't have the resources to accomplish something you want to. That said, I think this is possible if I go about it in the right way.