Ideas are worth $0. Nevermind you'll switch the idea to something else.
And the type of person who wants to a get patent first instead of getting users is precisely the kind of person you shouldn't be starting a company with. A patent won't get you customers. How many companies can you friend name that lost to another company because of a patent rather than a thousand other reasons?
Both your fears are valid. Trust your gut. My suggestion: don't start a company with this friend.
I know ideas are worth €0, but it's a bit harsh to just tell him that right away.
>A patent won't get you customers.
Yes, but he's scared that, once it's online, others will want to copy-cat and capture the market.
And I understand his fear, but I don't know enough about patents and legalese to relay his fears.
>Both your fears are valid. Trust your gut. My suggestion: don't start a company with this friend.
Thanks :)
But I like this friend and want to start a company with him, just not the way he wants to (throwing money around without having even a prototype)
I also have a friend I want to start a startup with. But like you're friend, he has the same misconceptions about businesses most people have. But I like him & I think we would make a great team. So my plan is to watch http://startupclass.samaltman.com/ with him before we start anything.
It's not only about knowing how to build (the lots of tiny specific skills this article mentions). It's also about choosing what to build.
If you study what novelists say, they are extremely uncomfortable when they start new work. It's the same for 10x programmers. There is an initial torment and courage involved in that choice that deters the average programmer. That there will be skills one doesn't have for the new creation is a given.
It's surprising right? I like pretty much everything else about them.
To the OP's question: for apps that facilitate micro-transactions I ended up using Stripe, but I forced the user to add a balance to their account first. So, rather than charge their credit card for every micro transaction, they'd add $20.00 to their account in the beginning, and every transaction would just draw-down from that account. Antiquated, but seemed to work alright.
Establishing a monopoly is more valuable than monetizing, which is what Snapchat has. You can monetize later, but you can't snatch all the users later.
That link is full of wisdom, thank you for posting it! I never met anyone who wrote their own wiki and used it for so long.
I was surprised the biggest thing for you was speed and full-text search, and also by this comment: "I think people forgot how to make a simple web app with a form and plain buttons."
The biggest thing for me is learning. Not so much categorizing everything correctly.
Have you found yourself having different design ideas after this change? Or having developed a new style in your creations because of "mistakes" you make when you can't control your nose very well?!
Can you mention examples where you ended up designing differently?
Ideas are worth $0. Nevermind you'll switch the idea to something else.
And the type of person who wants to a get patent first instead of getting users is precisely the kind of person you shouldn't be starting a company with. A patent won't get you customers. How many companies can you friend name that lost to another company because of a patent rather than a thousand other reasons?
Both your fears are valid. Trust your gut. My suggestion: don't start a company with this friend.