[tadfisher]

Ideas are like assholes. What counts is getting a working product to market.

That said, if you are committed to your idea, do what you have to in order to get it off the ground, but don't give away the keys to someone you don't trust. If it were up to me, I would not trust Network Solutions to build my product.

You can build trust by giving those involved a stake in the idea. Make your gains into their gains, and your losses into their losses. The relationship between you and your team should be less "boss/employee" and more "founder/co-founder".

You can't do this with NS. What incentive do they have to build the best product you can build? What stake, beyond your tiny slice of their revenue, do they have? What guarantees do you have that NS will not hold your product hostage in return for lackluster support? These are the questions you should be asking.

I'm curious; are you a developer? I see this type of situation all the time in my field of work, and it's usually large companies taking advantage of entrepreneurs who aren't tech-savvy.

[gregw100]

Hi Tadfisher. That puts it in more perspective. NS really has no incentive to make my site shine and, even worse, if the site blows up they might, as you say, take it hostage. I think I'm going to cancel the service before they begin the website. Honestly what really sucked me in was this sales guy on the phone telling me that the best idea for me at my stage while seeking funds is to get the site up so that venture capitalists and angels can find it easier. He made it sound like if I used their service, they would help me find investors. After talking with the consultant, I think that sales guy was just full of shit (as most sales guys are) and was just telling me what he knew I wanted to hear in order to sell his service.

I myself am not a developer, though I'm not entirely ignorant of the technical side. I have developed my idea single-handedly through much trial and error and just want to steer my idea to fruition. I already have the entire blueprint for my site, but I just can't build it myself. What I really need is a service that will build the site, even if they take a stake in the company, like Y Combinator.

And no, I'm not the type of person Ashton Kutcher hates (Mark Zuckerberg wannabes). I seriously have a fully-baked idea that began with the question, what does the world really need. Is Y Combinator my only viable option in your opinion?

[tadfisher]

If your idea is good, you can find developers who will work for a stake. They may not be full-time, because everyone needs to pay the bills, but they are out there. By having this "keep my idea secret so no one can steal it" rule at the forefront, you'll never find those developers.

That doesn't mean you should make a HN post with your entire idea diagrammed and annotated. All you need is a gist; "a social bookmarking service" or "text-message notification system" is enough to start correspondence.

Any service that will develop your product for you is not going to be worth it, period. This needs to be a collaborative effort under your wing. The developers actually working on the idea need to have their own stake in the product, moreso than a paycheck from a service that might build 1,000 dynamic websites in a year.

[gregw100]

I've come to that conclusion that I can't keep my idea a total secret, otherwise it will never see the light of day. At first I was entirely vaulted. As for the site, it's a social network with a focus on businesses rather than people. I've spent countless hours drawing up the blueprint, so there are literally over fifty other services that I believe the site could incorporate which all have a huge potential upside. It's very frustrating to have all these ideas but not know how to implement them. I've already spent thousands of dollars on developers, but I don't want to go completely broke.

[tadfisher]

Try college students. Seriously, I knew so many CS/SE majors who needed projects to work on that would mean something on their resumes.

Many colleges have an undergrad "capstone" program where entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas to teams of students, who may spend 1 or 2 quarters building a product in lieu of a thesis. This might be a good place to start.

[gregw100]

I couldn't reply to your last post, so I'm replying directly above it.

That's a good idea. I've thought of that, but 1. I'm not a very outgoing person and don't know if I would be great at pitching an idea and 2. It seems that students wouldn't bring the quality that professional programmers do. That's definitely an option though. Thanks.