Ask HN: Startup idea, no design experience

1 points by abr0414 15 years ago | 4 comments

Hi guys, let me introduce myself. My name is Bryan and I'm a current college student in NC. I have what I would want to call an amazing idea for an web business. My problem, I have no design experience other that 2 semesters on basic HTML.

From my understanding about getting funding, one has to have some sort of model or working demo to present. With that said, a lot of you have a different understanding of what it takes to get a business like this started. Little warning, I don't know anyone with extensive design experience and don't have a ton of money to hire a firm.

Is there anyone here who can point me in the direction as far as maybe finding someone or examples of people who were probably in the same boat as me?

wrrice 15 years ago |

The smart thing to do is build it yourself, learning whatever you need to learn as you go along. You don't need anyone's permission or expertise to get something up and working. At the very least, try to build just enough of your idea to get the right people (developers, designers) excited.

steventruong 15 years ago |

1. Just to clarify. design and code are two different things so I hope you realize the difference.

2. Figure what your value proposition is and possibly find a cofounder (or two) to help build the business together.

3. Find ways to make money so you can hire someone to build your prototype for you.

pedalpete 15 years ago |

Design is important, but don't get ahead of yourself.

What stage are you really at right now? Is it just an idea? Have you got people using it, testing it?

You might say 'of course not, I can't build it', but you can usually do some sort of test market with friends without getting too deep into technology.

Build a 'low-res' product to test with. You're in university, so maybe you can get some help from somebody in the CS department. But really, if you can do it on paper or with static HTML, that can help you refine your idea in the early stages.

But as wrrice says. You can learn to build the whole thing yourself, and even if you have no desire to be a developer in the long-term, understanding the ins and outs of development will be valuable to you in the long-term (this project or others).

abr0414 15 years ago |

Thanks guys, I think I will learn to put something together myself because I do think it's very important to be able to get my hands dirty in any situation. Any suggestion for languages.