Show HN: First project and lessons learned

[Inc82]

A little background. For the last 1.5 years I lost what could be considered an embarrassing amount of money hiring other people to work on a project that I thought had potential, I got some important people involved, had some great coders, but couldn't launch. The failure was depressing, rejection by YC didn't help.. I had to take a job, I didn't enjoy and I had a girlfriend who stood by me despite going into debt.

But bouncing back over the last 45 days I've taught myself Rails some Jquery, and Javascript and built this www.hangout.io. It's empowering to build something myself because I'm dedicated to it. It's wonderful to build a skill that will contribute to greater success. Sure, this project has some flaws, some bugs.. it needs a mobile application, there are some things people don't understand.. But hell I launched and there are tangible things I can do to improve it.

I wanted to share it with hacker news cause now I feel I finally belong :)

[Inc82]

I should add some of the lessons I learned:

1) When you don't know how to do something you don't know how much you should pay.. and surprisingly it takes less time to learn than you would think. I wrote off learning Rails thinking it was harder then it was.. Sure it has its nuances, but in 45 days I've gained a really good perspective on building an app. But to learn, really commit! Build an app then when you are done, build another, and then another.

2) You have to launch and as soon as possible. Nothing else is as important. Motivation will die, money will be lost, and you'll have no idea what people will want unless you do. Period.

3) People telling you something is a good idea is not the same as people willing to use it. You can't base spending money and time off people, especially your friends, thinking something is a good idea. You have to test the waters (see point 2).

4) Join the community. If you are a reader of Hacker News, but don't code join the community of coders. I can't tell you how much more fulfilling it is to show up at local Ruby events as a coder, feeling welcome as "one of them" as opposed to as an entrepreneur seen as just 'hawking an idea'. Really, it's a great community of people once you are on the same side of the equation.

5) Distill your idea down to its simplest form possible. Convoluted ideas are difficult to pull off, difficult to convey to potential users, and difficult to convey to investors. Focus focus focus.

[pkennedy]

re: number 4: the difference in reaction to coders vs. entrepreneurs looking for coders at local Ruby events has been amazing. I got much better reactions as a beginning but committed Ruby coder than the guys that were there looking for a technical cofounder to do that part of the work for them. Showing a willingness and real interest in the technology really helps establish a rapport, in ways that I wouldn't have even guessed at before I started learning to code six months ago.

I now think it's totally worth the experience to make the effort to learn, regardless of whether you plan to be a 'biz guy' or 'code guy' in the long run.

Also, re: point 3: no kidding. learned that the hard way in my previous life as a writer/photographer. I'm still trying to figure out how to get better at giving that kind of feedback.

[robryan]

Congratulations on launching something, it's great to get that initial step out the way.

I guess the key thing to ask about this is what is the unique value proposition over other services? Mainly Facebook where the vast majority of potential users probably already have their social graphs.

A couple of years back I thought about doing an events site thinking that there was space for someone to be basically social network agnostic and as well as leaveraging those services focus on email as everyone has email. Facebook has grown a lot since then though.

I think you have to use the tighter niche focus as an advantage and really zero in on what you can add to the events experience over the more broad events on things like Facebook. A good example is the photo sharing app called Batch the came out this week, really feels like a better user experience in creating albums of photos because they have focused in on just that aspect.

[Inc82]

If this is a flawed idea you can let me know (and I'm open to your thoughts) but this is what I'm operating under right now: I, nor no one I know, uses FB events for casual get togethers. Want to get together for drinks at the bar tonight after work? I wouldn't use FB events. I could send text messages to friends sure, or I could call them sure, but this is a fun easy way to accomplish that. That's what I want, and I don't have anything else that fulfills that.. if there is something else it hasn't made its way onto my desk yet. So its just a simple way t odo that, that's the value proposition at the moment.

[kevinsimper]

What is a hangout? Webcam? In real life?

That is kind of critical information for you projekt to tell..

[Inc82]

Thanks for the feedback, someone else mentioned this too.. so clearly its something I should address. And here I was thinking it was obvious :) I wonder if G+'s 'hangout' feature being a webcam thing made you think it could be as well?

[Inc82]

The weblink http://www.hangout.io

[tluyben2]

Very nice work! Looks good and clean, will try it!

[tibbon]

Is your code on Github by any chance?

[danso]

I echo the other comment: there is nothing currently on the front page that tells me exactly what this site does. Is it a chat room? There's not an obvious link for previewing, if such an option exists. I just don't think the average user is going to sign up for another service without knowing what it offers

[Inc82]

Thanks Danso, duly noted. Will change some wording today to make it clearer and will think about longer term fixes as well.

[gregw100]

This is actually very motivational to me. I'm in the same boat. I've spent thousands of dollars in the last five months hiring programmers to build my site. The site is about half-complete, but now I'm running out of money and need to go find a job to sustain my expenditures.

I think your decision to teach yourself those languages is very commendable and I'm sure it feels good to have created your own website by hand.

One thing I've learned is if you plan to launch a website, create a stripped-down version of it first and attempt to monetize it before you run out of money. Then once you start generating revenue, you can begin adding the features you originally planned. Of course, if you have deep pockets, than building the entire site with all functionality first is no problem.

Good luck with your site Kevin.

[billpatrianakos]

I know how you feel with the belonging. So many smart people around it could really be intimidating. In reality, everyone always _seems_ to be much smarter, happier, and better off than they really are.

Please, you don't have to say "sure, it needs x, y, and z". You built a cool thing and enjoyed it. That's awesome! Don't diminish your skill and effort like that.

I like reading posts like these. I don't want to see anyone fail but its a fact of life and it really comforts newbies like me who have a long road filled with failure before we reach the promised land.

[Inc82]

Thanks Bill, an honest response. I think you nailed the emotion as well.

[RoastBeats]

I've often found myself thinking evite is way too spammy. Plus, a lot of times, it seems like overkill. This looks like a good alternative for just catching up with friends (which happens a lot more than me hosting parties).

Looking forward to checking it out.