hiring, low-capital, visionAs the title suggests I happen to be what some would consider an ideas person. While this is great for generating and developing concepts - that does not necessarily make me or persons like me capable of individually bringing such ideas to fruition (functional product or service), much less start up a business around it.
The issue most troubling to me is that I lack the technical expertise:
(*) I have many ideas but some just lie far beyond my ability to determine with certainty that they will work (example - I have no medical background but for the last decade and a half I’ve been sitting on an idea related to a life-restoring procedure (a rather extreme example - most of my ideas are less ambitious or liable to mockery))
As such I would appreciate guidance as to what avenues a person such as myself might take in bringing a business (or other) idea to life.
As a serial techie co-founder, I’m now most concerned with whether there is a paying customer. I’ve worked on plenty of exciting ideas, that didn’t make money. I’d strongly recommend reading, and practising, Lean Startup. Saves a lot of wasted effort. Especially focus on Customer Development. Invite me to take part in your CustDev - helps prove to both of us that the business will have customers and revenue, and makes me a better techie - because I’ve now heard from customers, directly, what they do and don’t care about.
(When I say “me”, I mean “the techie you are trying to interest”, not of course, only me :) )
As myself being a technical person, I will describe from my stand point what you need.
When clients approach to me with ideas, there are usually two steps involved.
Step 1. Determine if the idea is feasible. You need quality expert for this. If you have to pay for it, do so. If you manage to find guys who can do feasibility and implementation at the same time, then there are high chances that you will get feasibility study for free. But don’t expect it be of the same quality and quantity as the paid one.
Step 2. Technical analysis to determine costs and time frame. This is done by experts as well, probably those who will implement the idea. The result will be technical specifications (high and low level) which may consist of multiple documents. If this is done by the implementation team, there are high chances that this will be done for free. If done for free, it may be as complex as paid one and may contain only 1 document.
After this, implementation comes. By this time you will already know the costs and time frame and if your idea is feasible, so you can start funding the project or seek investors.
As a technical person, when I get approached for a joint venture by anyone, my first question is “what is your part in making this a success?”.
An idea person usually can’t offer anything substantial. An idea person with say 2 successful exits on the other hand, has a lot to offer. An idea person with experience in sales too, etc.
In short, the idea is worthless unless it produces value and the road from N(othing) to S(uccess) is huge. So, the question you need to ask is “what do I bring on the table to make this work?”
Ideas people need to work out if they’re good enough at focusing on one thing to lead a startup. If you’re not, but you want to be in the startup world, you either need to find people willing to pay for your idea generation services, or you need to find the money to pay other people to carry your ideas through, or you need to find people who complement your skills and are willing to team up.
But the personal challenge for someone who describes themselves as an ideas person is to recognise that the value of your ideas is directly proportional to your competence and credibility in your chosen domain.
I have lots of ideas to make public transport safe, cheap, reliable and environmentally friendly. The value of those ideas is significant to me, but zero to society at large, because I don’t have the competence to distinguish the good from the bad, the practical from the impractical, the quick from the slow, the votewinners from the electoral suicide notes.
But talk to me about the intersection between food and technology, and it’s a different story. There’s plenty I know, but even in the vast realms of my ignorance I know how to find an answer. I have experience getting from idea to MVP, and have learned from my failures and from my successes. So this is a domain in which I can plan to have lots of ideas, and where my taste and judgement will help me weed most of them out.
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