Ask HN: What to do with something no one has, yet?

2 points·windsurfer··3 comments

So I've written a helpful program. It does something simple but could be very helpful to a certain niche of people. It would take a skilled programmer about 2 weeks to make such a product once they have the general idea.

What would you do with it? Sell it? Give it away for free? Some other alternative?

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I think you'll rarely go wrong giving away small useful programs as free software. It's the easiest way to get users, and once you have users you'll learn even more about how to make the software better. If you're lucky you'll find other people who want to contribute, and you'll get a chance to work with them and meet them. And an original free software project is a great thing to be able to show off. If it's indeed a small amount of effort to duplicate, then there's probably not that much selling opportunity that you're giving up.

If you do a good writeup and post it to Hacker News and Reddit, you can probably get some good feedback and a little notoriety. I got some really helpful comments that way on my last little useful project.

If it's not a groundbreaking idea that can be monetized, particularly one that's both helpful yet easy for others to replicate as you say... I'd be tempted to open-source it if it were my baby, but the call is yours alone.

You can always attempt to patent the idea and sell it, or if it really is groundbreaking, try to turn it into a product or a service. That's how many startups get off the ground.

Think of it as a reputation builder. Give it away. If it turns out to be a blockbuster, you can always come out with a premium version to sell. Think freemium.

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