I appreciate the genuine response. I went through the whole startup school stuff when it first came out forever ago, and I've actually applied to YC twice (and almost made it one of the times). PG is good at what he does, but he only does it because it's self serving and made him billions. Or did, rather. He's not very involved with YC anymore in my understanding.
I like your ideas - theses are all things I've visited over many years. The problem is that unless you're in an industry and using their software, it's really difficult to see which ones suck and can be improved. Additionally, your first sales are all going to be network effect. Knowing the person who actually controls a budget that has thousands a year to spend on your software. It's hard to get the attention of those people and have them be willing to transition their operations over to your stuff instead. It's so easy for people to be like "whatever what we have now is working fine".
You should build things for industries you've been a part of, or at least get help from someone in an industry that sees problems with what they have. There's a long history of software devs patronizingly trying to fix things that aren't broken. But you've presumably had some sort of work experience with bad software, so that's a source.
And... yes, convincing people to use your stuff instead of what they have is hard. But you can do hard things.
I've tried the partnering-with-someone-in-an-industry many times. The problem is either that they don't have the ability to sell the software, or they're wanting to give me like 15% for something I'd charge $150/hour to the tune of $100k+ and they're really not bringing anything to the table. And I'm not working for free for half a year for 15% of nothing.
Another common issue is the scope is way too massive. They're wanting to compete with software that has dozens of full time developers and ten years of work on it. Yeah it sucks that it's expensive or could maybe be prettier, but it's just impossible to deliver value close to what the competition can in that situation.
I have work experience in agency settings, which means I am paid to fix problems for industries, but I never really get entrenched into the industry beyond the app that I've made. And the problem is that for all the ones I'm aware of, it'd be super shitty of me to essentially compete against my former employer for the exact same clients with the same sort of software. And half the time in an agency I'm building software that's dumb and isn't actually solving anyone's problem.
I appreciate the genuine response. I went through the whole startup school stuff when it first came out forever ago, and I've actually applied to YC twice (and almost made it one of the times). PG is good at what he does, but he only does it because it's self serving and made him billions. Or did, rather. He's not very involved with YC anymore in my understanding.
I like your ideas - theses are all things I've visited over many years. The problem is that unless you're in an industry and using their software, it's really difficult to see which ones suck and can be improved. Additionally, your first sales are all going to be network effect. Knowing the person who actually controls a budget that has thousands a year to spend on your software. It's hard to get the attention of those people and have them be willing to transition their operations over to your stuff instead. It's so easy for people to be like "whatever what we have now is working fine".
You should build things for industries you've been a part of, or at least get help from someone in an industry that sees problems with what they have. There's a long history of software devs patronizingly trying to fix things that aren't broken. But you've presumably had some sort of work experience with bad software, so that's a source.
And... yes, convincing people to use your stuff instead of what they have is hard. But you can do hard things.
I've tried the partnering-with-someone-in-an-industry many times. The problem is either that they don't have the ability to sell the software, or they're wanting to give me like 15% for something I'd charge $150/hour to the tune of $100k+ and they're really not bringing anything to the table. And I'm not working for free for half a year for 15% of nothing.
Another common issue is the scope is way too massive. They're wanting to compete with software that has dozens of full time developers and ten years of work on it. Yeah it sucks that it's expensive or could maybe be prettier, but it's just impossible to deliver value close to what the competition can in that situation.
I have work experience in agency settings, which means I am paid to fix problems for industries, but I never really get entrenched into the industry beyond the app that I've made. And the problem is that for all the ones I'm aware of, it'd be super shitty of me to essentially compete against my former employer for the exact same clients with the same sort of software. And half the time in an agency I'm building software that's dumb and isn't actually solving anyone's problem.
What problems does the agency itself have?