Comments on: The startup that never gets off the ground

By: Brill Pappin

Brill Pappin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:52:15 +0000

I'm the developer sort. People with your skills are often missing when I (we) want to start working on something.

I'd be very interested in your ideas on how we can take all this experience and knowledge and use it to produce something a bit more tangible, which still maintaining our families.

It possible. The most difficult think though is getting people to really focus and commit when there is no initial money on the table.

By: Name

Name — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:51:44 +0000

You're aiming for failure by say asking "Why can't I", rather than "how can I".

If someone with an idea can't assume the initial burden of getting it to the stage where others are interested enough to participate, then what makes you think that they are up to the challenge of doing everything else?

This is exactly why the government should not be spending a single penny on programs like incubators. It encourages failure and punishes those who have the right attitude to succeed on their own.

In Canada, the biggest thing the government could do to help startups is to buy their products, where applicable-- the govvy gets a new tool or service, and the startup gets a customer (plus the much needed feedback).

P.S. If you were already in business, you would not be looking to give the Government yet another way to spend YOUR hard-earned money. Incubators | 'Programs' = taxes. No thanks.

By: ptelio

ptelio — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:06:02 +0000

I think this is a great idea. I would gamble on an experienced and successful intra-preneurs over an inexperienced entrepreneurs. Great to see thoughts outside the box when trying to foster and promote entrepreneurship, the backbone of a growing economy.

By: ceben

ceben — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:34:05 +0000

True enough. I suppose my point(s) are really more hypothetical and intended to promote some thoughts and discussion about how to foster and harvest ideas from this “group” of people, much like the younger, no risk group is supported through the YCombinator model. Other than the traditional development of an idea (biz plan, requirements, pitch, etc) and the ensuing quest for funding, I'm wondering if their is a more formal environment that can be created to help this class of entrepreneurs (or aspiring entrepreneurs) in the same spirit of the YCombinator/ExtremeU's of the world? For this “class” of folks, it might share some of the same concepts but provide slightly different resources (think pool of shared developers, designers, etc). Keep in mind that I'm simply thinking out loud at the moment, but at a high level, I think about taking the YCombinator model and flipping it around to a certain extent to better serve the older, less flexible group. Maybe that means doing it part-time (evenings and weekends) and having access to slightly different resources. I suppose one might draw some similarities to what universities have done to attract older, working students by offering accelerated part-time courses, taking into account their experience.

By: davidcrow

davidcrow — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:37:51 +0000

Now, I might just sound like I’m whining and am afraid to take the startup plunge, but I am trying to get to the point…

I have ideas and a strong background in technology product management with over 12 yrs of experience but, I’m not a pure engineer and can’t really develop my ideas into working code - or at least something that I think is worthy of putting in front of a customer.

Ideas are cheap! It's all about execution. So what have you executed against that isn't development? Business plan? Pitch? Mockups? Prototype? Sales pipeline and letters of intent? Product roadmap?

If you have the idea, the plan, and customers lined up on nothing more than a requirements document, I'm sure somebody would fund you.