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by dlikhten
5205 days ago
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Some things I found were highly valued: Creating software fast, and designing it damn well. The latter takes a skill all in itself. I'd suggest partnering up with someone with stills in that. Also 2 people = helpful support structure. Unfortunately there's no "free money" and often making a business requires lots of leg-work. After starting working on a startup I developed an immense appreciation for how much value someone working full-time on business building brings. I wish I could tell you good programming skill alone is enough, but often its the trio of Programmer [the builder], Designer [the lure], and Product [the meat]. By being solo, you take on all 3 roles. Especially in a poor area, having 3 means $33 each not $99 and it's ok to split the profits. Also means you can work cheap. At the beginning you can undercharge to make a name for yourself, and use that as a playground to improve skills. Remember that clients appreciate people pushing back on requirements you think will hinder the product. |
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Building small- to medium scope tools for himself that can be dressed up with affiliate links to serve as lead gen for a 3rd party site/service.
The trifecta of building something he would use, potentially making some profit, and building his portfolio at the same time is very compelling.
Targeting the web, building on open source, and deploying to a free(mium) platform (eg. Heroku, free tier of AWS) addresses some of the cost concerns.
The final piece is effective marketing. Get the tool in front of like-minded users (HN & consistent tweeting/blogging) to build up your user base over time. Refine the tool as needed.
Of course the devil is in the details, but given what I'm seeing about Daniel's case this is the advice I would give.