Feedback on my idea
Hey guys, this is my first post here!
So last night I had this idea about an app where entrepreneurs can go into live groups with random other entrepreneurs to discuss ideas, brainstorm and ask for advice. Kind of like indiehackers, but real-time and with the possibility (maybe) of videochat. And groups could be different sizes, open and closed, invite-only or publicly, etc.
What do you guys think of this idea? Does it already exist? Would love to hear your guys' feedback on it
Thanks!
~ Luca
Hey!
It seems the core of this idea is community. You are imagining people joining a vibrant discussion, however the app doesn't attract people - other people attract people. Quality advice attracts people.
The software isn't the problem, it is rallying entrepreneurs and encouraging them to show up regularly and also give to others as much as they want to take.
Do you have any thoughts on how to engage with enough people to make it worth building the software for this?
I would encourage you to start with something simple, a Discord or Slack channel so you get straight to the difficult parts of building a community (getting people to show up)
Once you have a buzzing community that needs those additional features, build them for the people that are asking for them.
I agree with much of Helen's comment. The hard part is getting the community not the software and it's based on the quality of the members.
Where I differ is the recommendation to start with Slack or Discord. You need some hook or reason people are gathering.
Indie Hackers didn't start with a forum. It started just as interviews with top indie entrepreneurs. Having these high quality interviews brought people to the site and justified introducing community features like the forum.
How can you create useful content or a useful service that allows you to bring a community together?
Your niche also seems very similar to Indie Hackers. How can you pick a niche within that niche or another niche entirely to differentiate yourself?
You either have to differentiate dramatically based off the product or based on the market you are serving.
Hi, Luca!
I think, everything depends on your ability to gather an audience "inside" your app, much more than the app itself.
As for myself, I would be glad to use it, but, as far as it seems to me now, not for the live chat abilities, but for the quality of the group "inside" the app.
For example, if you can persuade an experienced entrepreneur to be online inside one of such groups, his name will work for you - people will come to ask him questions and to tell him about their endeavours.
Yeah you are right probably, I think I am going to make a landing page to gauge the interest and if there is some, I will try to seek out some experienced entrepreneurs
No need to create an app for that.
All you need is a chat like for example the one of r/startup on Discord.
As far as I saw, there are things that an app could do better than just a channel on discord.
Discord is pretty advanced now.
For sure you can create a chat app with some custom features, but getting to the level of Discord will take quite some time.
Unless you have a team and a lot of money ready to work on this of course. :-)
I think the main thing that would differentiate it from discord, is the different target audience and goal.
IndieHackers could've just been a sub on Reddit, ;-). But here we are doing the same thing we would do on Reddit. However, there are other things that IH provides that make the site appealing: The Interviews among others...
I thought about something similar and decided to start making it right away!
I made a "maker" movement website were you can apply to be added as a maker. The makers that are accepted, get access to an exclusive community chat where only people that shipped something can participate.
If you want to join me in this project check it out here:
https://makerboard.xyz
DM on twitter or make a commit to this repo: https://github.com/ferrucc-io/makerboard
Besides forum (like IndieHackers, HackerNew, Reddit, etc.), I believe people do setup their own private groups through Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.
If you want to turn it into a product, it depends how you are going to value add. NomadList has a paid membership to join its chat group and forum.
I believe there are some website offering mentorship as well.
If you successfully build a community using one of the existing platform, then you can get more feedback and validation from there.
Difference between my idea and the forums you listed, is that I want this app to be way more real-time and live, as in making it a conversation between a few people, instead of posting something then waiting minutes if not hours at a time for responses. But yes, the community part is really important and I want to make it so users don't have to create their own following first before they can get value.
How is Slack not real-time? I'd actually get insanely good value out of an IndieHackers Slack group, come to mention it. Is that a thing?
Indie Slackers