Take a pinch of salt - you've crossed the first barrier - you're looking at something people want.

Ask the magic question - 'Will you pay $X for this per month?' That differentiates ppl who find it 'nice' vs people who are desperate for it. This will also give you baseline pricing. Pitch it high and come low. If you think it's worth $100/m, start asking at $250/m.

What's an interesting revenue number for you from this? Say it's $10000. Say your price is $50/m [Are your customers ready to pay this much?]. Then you need 200 customers. Is the market big enough to support that? Can you reach this many customers?

Meanwhile, do the pipeline research. What do people look for when they want this product? What search terms do they use? Use Adwords Explorer to find out how many people in which region are searching for this - https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer . See how many competitors exist in this space, are they easy to find, are they targeting the right keywords [semrush.com]

If everything is positive, create a landing page, start doing some basic SEO or even SEM [if the price is low enough], to get signups, and if you're up to it, pre-orders.

Then build the product :)

P.S. I've done bits and pieces of this before - not done all the way. If you want to chat abt this, I'm prasanna 79 at google's email service.

P.P.S. I'm surprised this is not on the front page. I'd have thought this is clearly the most pertinent of HN material.

Excellent advice. But I don't like the question, "Will you pay X?" People spend imaginary money differently than real money.

Instead, ask for them to write a letter saying that when the product is released, they intend to sign up and pay X. Wikipedia has more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_intent

This does not legally commit them to paying; if you deliver junk, they can pass. But it's serious enough that people behave much more like a real purchase.

Or, given that there are good mockups, the initial website could test prices. If they select a plan and click "sign up" you can capture their email address and plan selection.

I very much like the 'Will you pay $X question' since it pushes them into whether they will really buy this. This question may be less useful in a B2C context where it's more of an impulse and less well thought out. But makes a LOT of sense in B2B, where the budgeting and RoI processes are much better thought through.

P.S. LoI's make more sense in a very big business context. But I doubt they'd mean much for a small SaaS offering. Also, not many potential customers will be so needy that they'd go to the trouble of a formal LoI. An email should be sufficient at this stage.

I'm not suggesting a formal paper LOI; if they're email people, email is fine. But I think there's a big psychological difference between somebody saying, "Oh, we'd pay X" in response to an interview question and them saying in writing that they will pay X when the product is available if it meets their needs.

I agree that not many potential customers will be so needy that they'll do that. But not many potential customers will be so needed that they'll actually sign up and pay, so I think that's fine.

Wouldn't a "Purchase Now for $X" button work that only tracked clicks and returned a message: "Sorry, our product is in development now. We'll email you as soon as it's live."

That's basically what I'm suggesting. It works well as long as the web is your primary sales channel. Definitely get the email before the reveal, though. I'd do it as a page with radio buttons for pricing options, a call-to-action button that emphasizes purchase ("buy now" or "sign up now"), and a follow-on page that asks for email and payment method choice (credit card, paypal, purchase order).

Sorry, your last line, I see that now.

This is useful. I think the next step is putting up a page using the mockups and opening it up to a wider audience and adding it to the list I've already got.

If I get to 200, 500 or 1000 names then what? Do I presume that 10% genuinely will sign up, 1% or 0.1%?

I've actually already got 3 e-mails of intent based on teams of 6, 9 and 10.

It depends on the question you are asking!

You will need to estimate the conversion rate based on what you see in real life, when you go from alpha to closed beta, how many people who said they'd take, actually take it.

Formal LoI's are good if you can get them, but don't really mean much, since they are by definition no commitment. And at this stage, they don't know what they're getting either.

If I earned an income from building a product that people found useful then that's success to me.

Interesting revenue starts at $5k pcm pre-tax from my POV. I could work on it full time on a fraction of that. I wouldn't quit my job until those kind of numbers were coming in repeatedly for a good while.

Anything that generated in the region of $10k pcm would be enough to manage the project hands off & spend my time building everything else in my project file and more!

P.S It was front page for a little while! Now it's top of 'ask'. It has generated some great feedback so I'm really happy.

Start building it now.

That's the only answer. Get off your butt, stop taking in more feedback and other excuses for you to actually do something, and start building the prototype now. There are always reasons for you to wait, gather more data and feedback, etc, but all that will do is stall you and make you lose momentum. Start coding now, and don't worry about what you do or do not know, just do it.

I wish I had the skills to make a good attempt at it! I'd be on it.:) I'd be taking unpaid leave from my day job and getting it done! That would be awesome.

I totally agree I should be doing what I can, even if that is just finding out where I get stuck and then outsourcing the bits where I fall short.

I just want to make a good job of it.

> I'd be taking unpaid leave from my day job and getting it done!

If you take the risk, there is an x% chance of success with your new venture. (You fill in x.)

If you continue to work your day job, there is a 100% chance you will continue to work your day job.

I suspect you already know which path you want to take.

Haha this is so true. Thank you.

Well, if you'd be willing to take unpaid leave but you don't have the skills to develop it, why don't you keep working and spend your salary paying someone else to develop it for you?

I'd need to cost out how much I'd need to spend to get a decent MVP.

Sometimes with outsourcing you just swap coding hours for project management hours. I know from experience it takes a lot to keep a distributed team on track.

Before you let it rest in your project folder, you can try to pitch your idea at a startup weekend or similar event (basically, hackers, designers and business people spend a weekend trying to "create" a startup, usually building a MVP and doing some customer validation).

If your pitch includes "I have a mailing list of X persons who are very interested in this and would love to spend money on it", then it is going to stand out. It is usually possible to build a really rough proof-of-concept in that time, and you can use that to validate your idea, to a certain extent. If you are lucky, you might even find some developers who find this project interesting enough to continue working on it after the weekend.

But you'll need some luck for this to work perfectly, so if you are super-serious about it, try the paths outlined by others here.

I have actually been to Startup Weekends before. They're awesome!

They always say you can't work on things you've already started on - so I'm a bit dubious about it sounding like "hey build this for me guys".

They are a great way to build stuff no doubt.

I don't know the exact definition of an idea being started on, so yeah... I'd say it's fine. If you had build a prototype, that would have definitely crossed the line. But you don't even have a landing page up, right?

I have only been to one (in Berlin) before, and there have been a couple of pitches where people did spend time previously researching. It's fine with me, if you are willing to leave some creative freedom and not force everything pixel-specific onto people.

Check your day job's rules on who owns things you work on before anything else happens.

Yes, good point. A lot of people I work with are open about their other side projects, books, businesses etc and the management are supportive of it.

I know all of that goodwill can go out of the window easily so I will certainly check.

First of all, congrats! That's awesome :)

I would follow startup framework and try to think about what an MVP would be just to test and make sure people would really, actually pay for this instead of just taking their word for it. I had a similar situation with my project (matchist) where freelance developers were really excited about the idea, so my partner and I put our heads down, built it and then realized we spent way too much time building and not enough time getting feedback all along the way and making something much much more basic.

Yes, yes, yes!

The number of possible products one can make from an initial idea is very large. Some of those products will be great; some ok; most will fail. (Look, for example, at the ocean of to-do lists in your favorite app store.)

Most of the information needed do build a great product resides in the world and in the heads of future customers. Releasing early and often is the best way to test the many hypotheses that are generated while creating a product.

It also lets you probe the equally important market space. What are people willing to pay for? How much will they pay? Who are those people? How do you present your product? How can you help them engage their friends?

As a developer, I'd rather just go build the thing in my head. But that would be the product that satisfies me, not my future customers.

Thanks! Maybe I have skipped a step going straight to the so-called 'final' design.

I need to cut it down to its most basic parts and see if I get feedback on that.

If I get positive feedback on just the raw functions that would be motivating!

Another idea - have you heard of a concierge MVP? If you can pull it off, you can validate that your idea really solves a pain of the customer (right now you have probably validated that your customers have a pain).

I'll also recommend the book Running Lean by Ash Maurya, he gives very concrete instructions on what to do and it is a very guide with a lot of practical tips (vs. a high level description).

Huh, I've not heard of that before. That's really interesting.

I'm looking into it now. I need to scale back from current polished design to the root of the offer.

I know that in my day job we manage these tasks with whiteboards, flip charts & paper and it's rubbish! Everyone hates it & it takes too long!

I might ask those that are interested how they currently manage it and how my solution will improve it. (faster, more fun, distributed responsibility) That would really be valuable information!

You need a partner, or funding to hire a team, or both.

Without the technical abilities, all you have is an idea that you're unable to execute on. Valuation of ideas can vary, but no one here will argue that execution matters less.

It might be possible that your idea is adequately novel that it can wait six months or a year for you to develop the technical skills yourself. Actually, I've found that ideas from people who lack the technical skills to build them often need to wait because the underlying tech/infrastructure/market doesn't exist yet. This is especially true for ideas that generate big enthusiasm.

Also, you will want to be in California, if you continue to work at your day job while thinking about this project. Someone please correct me if there are any other US states with clear company-time delineators.

I do have SOME technical skills and I know I can learn anything I need it's just in what timeframe.

I don't think it's that novel, just presented simply which would make using it each day and improvement on the current method.

I'm not even in the US, so being in California is even less likely. Though I do plan to spend some time there next year.

Bear in mind that far more people will tell you its a good idea than will buy it (usually) so adjust any projections accordingly.

If the time to code the prototype yourself, or the money to outsource the coding, is too much of a risk to take in your personal circumstances, consider finding a technical co-founder to work with to do it. You'll have to give up part of your potential gains, but remember that 50% of something is (usually) better than 100% of nothing.

Edit: also remember that the longer you leave it to do something, the more chance someone else will come along with a similar idea and steal your thunder. Though that may be useful for someone else to test your market for you..!

Totally! I pretty much ignored the first couple of people that voluntarily said they'd like to try it out. I thought "I'll come back to you when it's time to put your money out there"

After more and more people say the same thing, it gets hard to ignore. I've never had that before with other projects!

I've realised if I do it myself or if I save up & outsource it then it will take the same time. The outsourced one would probably be more effective and I could use my time on building a list. Yet part of me is stuck on at least building a part of it!

There is already a big player in this market but they offer a much more complicated solution & miss out on a tool that I think is fundamental. So mine is more aimed at small teams. The competition out there already has tested the market which is good! I calculated that 1% of their sales is like $4mm per year and I don't expect anything near that. It just proves that the market is big.

As good as it would be, I don't understand why a technical co-founder would work on my idea. Though having expertise on the team would bring me technically up to speed so I could pull my weight. I don't even think I'd deserve 50% in that scenario as they'd have to be the lead.

I wouldn't mind if someone came in with a similar idea, so long as it got built properly. First to build it owns the idea, I don't have anything yet.

Your last couple of paragraphs really bother me. I see a lot of very smart people talking the same way. Ask yourself if this rings any bells:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_Syndrome

The reason a technical co-founder would work on your idea is that you have a great idea, solid feedback, and the drive to figure out what that idea really means. Plus the skills necessary to deal with all the mushy, human side of product development, producing a clean stream of things to build.

The last time I started something, my co-founder did all of that, plus all the fundraising. I got a lot less than 50%, and thought it was a fair deal. As the founder and visionary, you should avoid giving up more than 49% for as long as possible, hopefully ever, because then you give up control.

At startup events I see plenty of arrogant idiots who have done no more than you (and often less) looking for co-founders and investment. Your natural humility is an asset when it comes to building products, because it means you will listen to your users and serve them well. But in the realm of entrepreneurship, it will hurt you, because you will reflexively defer to people who act more confident.

This is your idea. Nobody will ever love it as much as you. Take it and run. As hard as you can. It may work and it may not, but don't let it be because you didn't believe in yourself.

That's very kind of you to say. I appreciate it.

I like to be super-realistic, which may come across as lack of self belief. I'm happy to celebrate my successes, however with this project - I'm keenly aware that little has been achieved yet. From my point of view, I would be reluctant to join someone elses idea, so I presume there's a limited number of people that would be willing to take that kind of risk.

I do feel that I have a lot to bring to the table in a partnership,in lots of areas, including technical thinking & ability. Right now what's needed is everything I don't have and I'm respectful of that. A few months & a self built prototype down the line it would be a much more equal partnership.

I've been to those events and I'd hate to ever be pigeon-holed as someone who wants someone else to do the work for them based on little proof.

They are often oblivious to the learning, planning, effort that goes into building something. I only know because I've tried and will continue to try.

I've been careful to outline what I've done so far, as I welcome the advice given by the HN community.

I agree that instead of being quietly confident I should push myself forward more.

As it happens, I'm currently in a slow period and looking around for side projects that might lead to money. The other posters have some reasonable general ideas, but if you're willing to provide more detail, I can see whether it's the sort of thing that I'd be able to either help with or find someone else for—right now I can't determine enough from your post to say anything useful that hasn't already been said. You can send me email at my HN username at mailforce.net, if you wish. :-)

Explore and investigate this further before committing.

Specifically make sure you can deliver exactly what these eager beavers are willing to sign up for, and that you can do it on time and within budget. They might've got the wrong idea, your mockups might've been too optimistic in their feature set, etc. Just make sure to re-validate your idea and confirm you are on the same page with these people.

Cheap - fast - good, pick two.

Thanks! I've tried to keep the feature set simple so maybe they are imagining it having things it doesn't.

I need to start taking more detailed feedback from people but I don't want to sway them by asking leading questions.

Even though it only has a primarly and secondary features, it's certainly still beyond what I've ever built before.

I'm considering all angles really. Even if it means selling the idea on, I'd rather it get built properly.

I'm assuming the grandparent comment is sarcasm (if it's not, it should be).

Leverage this enthusiasm to build the MVP. If you don't know how or it's beyond your capabilities, there's plenty of resources available now to learn how. Get something in the hands of these early adopters and move on from there.

No, it's not sarcasm.

All those people who have expressed interest, ask them if they think others might be interested; demo it to them and start building your list. Hire a developer. Watch this video interview of Dane Maxwell on Mixergy for many more ideas -- http://mixergy.com/dane-maxwell-zannee-interview/

Cheers for the link, I will take a look at that.

Find a co-founder, build an MVP (if technically possible) in a month or two, keep it secret from your employer. keep your day job until you get seed money or you have lot's of savings. Be very nice and buy a lot of nice things to your spouse, as spouses are the biggest partner that can make / break your startup. Especially if you have kids.

No kids but my partner has his own side-project that I help with, so I know he'd be really supportive of anything I wanted to start.

Have you thought of approaching someone else at your work if side projects are allowed? Add me to the list of interested but not quite sure what it is, if you're looking for a hand, let me know - contact details in profile - just finished an MVP for a client and about to start another.

I've looked within my group of friends but not at work. My colleagues have side projects but they tend to be products & services and not tech based. It'd be good to discuss further if you're interested. I'll drop you a mail.

Outsource the initial prototype, then develop onwards from there if showing signs of success.

Also people saying they are willing to buy and actually handing over their credit card details are 2 different things.

It looks like you are on to something good, get the MVP asap, and see what the real response is.

I think I'm going to do some hybrid of this. I'm finding it hard to envisage an MVP. What do I cut back on? The polish/design? Do I just get the fundamental data storage up and running?

The simpler the better in my mind!

If anyone can recommend any teams that have a record of delivering on MVP projects it would be good to know.

I'm actually building a business around building MVPs -- if this is a web or mobile project, shoot me an email and I'd love to help out!

Sorry, what is "MVP"?

Minimum Viable Product: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

Minimum viable product