The $200 figure was created by digg PR. Later on they decided that $1000 was more believable (also not true). And elance wasn't involved. The site was pretty ugly for the first 6 months. But that was in 2004, the barriers to entry are higher now.
Focusing on making everything look slick upfront is an easy mistake to make. The first step is to get the essential "process" working. In some cases, the graphical design of the site is a part of that task, but in most cases, the core of the site's success is in whether the user workflows work well and people are using the site. So it's certainly wise to focus on that first.
It really depends on your target demographic. Look at HN, where the most fascinating feature is it's simplicity and that's an ideal of beauty for hackers. But there's tons of people who would turn away because the layout is not shiny enough.
Have you got the next million-dollar idea? Head over to RentACoder or eLance and make it happen.
I am totally against this kind of advice, i always believe people should not get into businesses which they don't understand; be it Internet, Stock markets, Space Tourism or selling Coffee. At the end of the day, you have to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. With this kind of advice, you will have innocent(dumb) people thinking that, all they have to do is find a developer on RentaCoder and pitch him their million-dollar idea and they are rich. There are many more subtleties in starting a startup and like any other businesses, you have to be knowledgeable about it to make it a success.
"i always believe people should not get into businesses which they don't understand"
I don't think internet businesses are all about writing code... There isn't any strong correlation between web development skills and ability to build a successful web business...
If a person can conceptualize a service that he can take to market and spend some money from his pocket to get it developed... I'd say his chances of success would be higher than average web developer who develops something that might not have a market
[+] [-] ojbyrne|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vaksel|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rokhayakebe|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swombat|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dpeq|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] siong1987|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azharcs|17 years ago|reply
I am totally against this kind of advice, i always believe people should not get into businesses which they don't understand; be it Internet, Stock markets, Space Tourism or selling Coffee. At the end of the day, you have to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. With this kind of advice, you will have innocent(dumb) people thinking that, all they have to do is find a developer on RentaCoder and pitch him their million-dollar idea and they are rich. There are many more subtleties in starting a startup and like any other businesses, you have to be knowledgeable about it to make it a success.
[+] [-] medianama|17 years ago|reply
I don't think internet businesses are all about writing code... There isn't any strong correlation between web development skills and ability to build a successful web business...
If a person can conceptualize a service that he can take to market and spend some money from his pocket to get it developed... I'd say his chances of success would be higher than average web developer who develops something that might not have a market
[+] [-] unknown|17 years ago|reply
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