[shyn3]

I tried to build a Google Reader alternative when Google Reader was first about to die, well a bit prior to it because it was missing the idea of grouping similar articles. I started investing in the product but kept building instead of launching. By the time I had it all built and ready to run it was extremely slow, untested adequately at scale and I didn't have a way to make money on it. Also, I didn't have enough money to sustain it.

I cut bait but after a few years because I was building it for me, and just succumbed to using News360. They made something similar to what I wanted but not exactly what I wanted.

The next time, it will be something that makes money on its own right away. Ideally just a basic POC and a landing page to get the first customer.

[jlbnjmn]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

How much time do you think you would be willing to invest in a POC before getting your first customer?

Yesterday I was thinking about the idea of automatically rejecting projects when the time spent surpasses revenue/users by x.

Basically, if I can't prove that people want something after x hours of working on it, reject the work and move to the next project.

It seems like automated rejection points may prevent spending too much time solving problems nobody has or is willing to pay to solve.

Do you have an x in mind?

[shyn3]

I would just buy domains and put up landing pages. Anything that gets a sign up with pay. I'd start working on that. All my ideas would be small iterations of what I am thinking of.

For example, lately, I have noticed there are some amazing people out there who can't market their products as well as they should. Their reach is significantly lower than I would have imagined. So I have been reaching out to different folks and asking to invest with them. This way I would get their audience/reputation and I can utilize my technology skills.

Once I get the person I want to work with, I would probably do something as you suggested, with the (x), while I iterate on different ideas, setup landing pages to get people to sign up and then see what to build. The great part about doing this is that when the person signs up, there is already an existing product that they can use, so all I am doing is marketing an existing service in a different way, I wouldn't have to build anything new, and just focus on marketing, or actually go through and build out the entire ecosystem when signups increase.

To give you an example, there are many coaching services out there. Some of them are remarkable people but they aren't I.T. people so they may have 1,000 or 2,000 followers. There are also many counselors and upper management employees, or junior level employees, who don't understand how to move up in an organization and being able to reach them is critical for their growth. The idea is to get a few coaches who need an advertising platform, invest with them, then create a platform to advertise mentors in a niche field. Obviously this won't be for everyone because you need to invest a bit of money and not time early on.

[influx]

FWIW, I migrated to https://feedbin.com/ and have been paying $20/year since.

[samdixon]

Feedbin is $50/yr, but well worth it. Light memory footprint and vim keybinds.

[influx]

Huh weird, I guess I got grandfathered in, since I can see my yearly billing is $20/yr.