NEPatriot

Customers know their problems - not necessarily the solutions required to solve their problems. They may have a solution in mind for their problems. It is the job of the founder is boil down problems to their core and find solutions.

edit: grammar

I think you definitely need to play around (AB test) with your pricing model. People have thrown out options already, another one to consider is one which gives the product away for free for donations under $100 (users still pay the 3.5%) in order really strip away barriers to sign ups. Once they go over $100 a month and your site has proven its value perhaps they won't mind the fees as much since your product has already demonstrated its value.

Unfortunately, most big corporations still judge progress by scheduling and budgeting performance. Did we meet the schedule? Yes! Did we stay under budget? Yes! This is a paper victory.

Nobody asks "is the product ready to ship to customers?".

could also do something about www.house.gov

I'm going through this myself right now and am using a multi pronged approach.

1. Trying to recruit friends who have also said they would be interested

2. Watching videos from lynda, killerphp, etc.

3. I have an idea of something I want to build and so am learning with a goal in mind

4. Hiring a tutor via e-lance to answer quick questions on an hourly basis

One thought I have is when clicking to create a list you ask me to sign up... I haven't used your product yet and am not sure if I want to sign up yet. Is there anyway you could allow people to create the list first and thus be committed and then get their email?

How about trying things like giving startups tax breaks and making the incorporation process less painful?

www.builditwith.me is a place I've seen and liked.

Getting involved in open source projects is another way.

I don't think early adopters are necessarily rich. I think they set aside a portion of their income for early technology exploration in the same way some might for vacations or clothes.

Perhaps use a psd to html shop?

done

As a person who hires coders I've been looking for something like this for a while. I think another helpful service you could provide would be to (for a fee) help non technical people describe the project in the way a developer would want to see it.

why not make this site it for all cities? So you could visit any city you want to

I think the design is clean and simple. As soon as I saw it it just clicked and made sense... leading to the thought 'why aren't all recipes presented like this?'

I would think about allowing users to "import" recipes that would turn them into one of your diagrams. Such that any cooking site out there could embed your diagrams into it.

I agree with what you're saying in terms of the ads. But if I'm Google I let the social CRM players duke it out as well as play with alternative ad models - pick a winner and acquire them. Then I can do what I want with the competition.

I think this has a chance of catching on.

You just have to find the right nitch to go after. Is it online dating (listen to the mixergy match.com interview - their key was gaining women's trust)? Do people want to talk face to face before going out on a date? Could it be founders looking for founders? I don't know. But what I do know is that you should find a segment that could benefit from this the most and go after them. Who's pain is the biggest in this area?

I think we often only view the world in terms of problems. But there are different types of problems which can be further broken down. I think the quote below puts it best.

"There are three kinds of pain. You can be vitamins to someone, you can be aspirin to someone, or you can be morphine to someone"

-Genevieve Thiers

Finding good VAs is more challenging than it seems. I've tried using asksunday with poor results. I asked for some market research.

Can anyone recommend a good VA firm?

You could alsos try to create an open marketplace for styles so anyone can submit/buy.

The issue as I see it is that not everyone has great vision when it comes to building products/services one could turn a business into. In fact most don't which is why the 10-will-you-buy test is a good way of hacking around this lack of vision.

Motto to run a startup by: "Keep Calm, Carry on" -Alexis Ohanian

As soon as I read the header text it resonated. My eyes went from the header to the text on the left. Then on to the screen shot.

But since the screen shot is kind of small - I tried clicking on it to get a better view. But there is no click to zoom functionality. Reviewing a larger screen shot is what would sway me from signing up or not. So either make it a click to zoom, or just post a bigger pic of the app. or something along these lines.

Interestingly enough Costco (wholesale consumer goods) removed its self checkout option.

Perhaps since the average transaction there is around $200 with many large sized items (30 rolls of toilet paper).

I'd like to pay an hourly rate in order to make sure it's a good match on both ends. Ultimately for us to succeed having a technical co founder is going to be critical. In order to pivot and make data driven changes speed is critical.

Thanks for the tip - I will checkout the site.

In terms of getting traction - I agree. We have the usual friends and family ready to go. But the site needs to work properly first.

Edit: you don't seem to have python listed as a search option

That's item #1 on the backlog.

Business model?

Am also interested in seeing how this goes. If anything it looks like this is better way of finding that diamond in the rough on those sites.

In order to buy shares in a private company you must be an "accredited investor" (make over 200/k for 2 years or 1M in net worth). In order to sell shares to the public I think you need permission from the SEC. And once the SEC gets involved it gets messy.

I agree with you here. But the only problem is... you need the stomach for the enterprise sales cycle. Meaning 6-12 months. Anybody looking to jump in should do lots of homework here and if a willing corporate pre-buyer is there, line them up and let them pay to build the product. Leveraging their connections could also be a benefit. What company feels the most pain from this/would pay for it?