[Alex3917]

You're a wannapreneur if:

- You talk to people about your ideas, but never build anything

- You build something without first talking to people

- You build something and never try to sell it

If you build something that people say they'll pay for and then they don't actually pay for it then this is problematic, but also normal and doesn't make you a wannapreneur. At that point it's just part of the struggle.

[taneq]

It's the business equivalent of the 'aspiring actor/musician/artist' who never commits to their aspirations for fear of losing them. You can't really fail if you never really try.

[felipemnoa]

--never try to sell it

To me that should be the only criteria of a wannapreneur.

[koolba]

The reverse of that is the hallmark of the greatest entrepreneurs:

Selling something that doesn’t even exist yet

[bored]

Or if you fall in love with the initial idea and never iterate.

[Alex3917]

True, but hard to adjudicate. The problem is how do you differentiate between people who don't pivot because they think the next feature will make them successful and are justified in doing so, versus people who do the same thing but really should pivot? It's tricky because we have all of the following examples:

- People whose initial idea isn't working, but who pivot and immediately hit product market fit.

- People who launch the exact same thing once a year and it finally becomes a huge hit after the fourth time.

- People who pivot quickly and fail, whereas they would have probably been successful had they pushed the original idea to its logical conclusion.

- People who pivot after five years and become wildly successful, but where it's unclear if they would have been as successful had they had pivoted sooner.

- People who pivot and become successful when they would have been better off shutting down and starting over. (e.g. Derek Sivers)

This hits home a lot for me because I always strongly favor the strategy of building some optionality into the product, both for my own startup and when doing consulting, on the assumption that we're probably directionally correct but may be wrong on some specifics (e.g. how a feature should work, who the early adopters will be, what the economy will be like in the future, what the cash flow of the business will be like on any given day, etc.) And I take a lot of shit both for not committing 100% to one specific product and go-to-market strategy, and also for not pivoting fast enough when something isn't working. Go figure.

[rhizome]

There are several sites I wish would roll back a few iterations. Flickr, Chowhound, Slashdot..

[hazz99]

Damn.

I'm definitely a wannapreneur.

Time to get out there.

[exikyut]

What are your ideas (generically speaking)?

[hazz99]

An events app which allows you to subscribe to venues for cheaper. Various things like consistent cashflow/breakage go into making to cheaper.

I have the design and developing chops, it's the customer development & validation part I'm bad at. I really need to talk to businesses before I make it, but I'm always apprehensive about actually doing so.

But now this thread has convinced me. After exams, I'm going to send some emails and organise some meetings, and see what people have to say.

[keeptrying]

After your first few times it’ll be second nature.

Be very respectful in asking for time and how you use their time. Give a $20 amazon gift card for their time.

[dabockster]

> You talk to people about your ideas, but never build anything

Adding to this, you're also a wantrepeneur if you actually manage to start a business but don't end up involved at all in the core product (an "idea person").