BillBarnhill
Jul 25, 2017 · 1 min read

I may not be the best one to respond, as I don’t have traction with my pet project yet. That said my advice would be to do the following:

  • Stop thinking about money as a goal, but think about it in terms of getting to your goal
  • Think about who you want to help first, then what you want to help them with, then how to help them, and then whether this is economical feasible for you at this time (and if it isn’t, do you want to pursue raising the money to do it).
  • Focus on one problem to the exclusion of the others. Dive into the domain, learn everything you can, and re-examine the problem from first principles. Question every assumption that’s been made, especially your assumptions.
  • Set a deadline for yourself, or even multiple deadline gates, and criteria to determine whether you continue or not. Be realistic in your continuation criteria, and make sure the criteria is as objective as possible (reference SMART criteria).
  • Plan to involve your potential customers/users as early as you think is possible. Then involve them earlier than that. Seriously, their feedback will at the minimum make your product better, and could make the difference between success or failure. However, remember that you will get pulled in different directions by different groups of customers and you can’t please everyone. Either focus on one group, make a product that can be customized, or find some other approach — but remember you are the person with their hands on the wheel.

    BillBarnhill

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    Goal:Evolve social web/RoleModel:Manfred Macx/Biggest Likes:My family, coding, sci-fi/Dislikes:current state of whuffie adoption,slackers