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So what idea would you NEVER work on...
by
Farez Rahman
... and why?
Any sort of marketplace where you have to build it up with two types of customers, buyers and sellers.
This is pretty much every marketplace in existence
It is definitely hard, and I'm also speaking from experience.
The popular approach is to create a "single player mode" first so that you provide value to one side of the market, before there is a need for the other side. And then later grow the other side.
I second this. As a person who has tried to build marketplaces as side projects twice, then worked at a startup that did it successfully I can say that marketplaces are a huge gamble and required double the marketing effort.
What did the successful startup do that was different to your attempt? What did they do right?
A team of people who went and built relationships in the supply-side space. It's pretty tough to do as a small team or solo founder as the chicken-egg problem is often the biggest problem. Somehow you need to convince a large amount of supply side people to be on-board in the early stages with the knowledge that the platform isn't going to be very useful to them for a while.
Any idea where I don't have relationships or easy access to the target users.
This is a great point for pre-validating an idea.
A TikTok clone
Ha. Why though?
anything having to do with the military - unless it was ways to dismantle it.
Any projects requiring HIPAA compliance in the US.
Not being a US citizen, I'm guessing this is because of the paperwork and costs of getting started?
I wish it were only paperwork and some cash.
Unfortunately, it's not a one-time checkbox, or a quick checklist.
It's an ongoing education, documentation, and security effort for the entire organization. The requirements are constantly shifting.
The ongoing costs for regular third party risk assessments, penetration testing, and audits can be staggering. Then there's the increased cost of specialized high risk insurance. Then, in the case of a breach, your insurance may not even cover the fines, investigations and damage control, putting your business and personal financial wellbeing at risk. Then there's the constant stress of civil and in some cases individual criminal liability for breaches of patient information.
Just not worth it. Especially not for small indie hacker teams.
Leave those projects to huge funded companies with deep pockets, armies of lawyers, an appropriately deep org chart, and teams of security professionals.
But for me, personally, not even then.
Holy cr*p... sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, that's definitely not for indiehackers. Thanks for sharing that!
Social media app
Search engine
Ecommerce company
New operating system
Basically anything that FAANG has monopoly on.
But what if you niche down on those? E.g.
Instagram (photo sharing social media)
DuckDuckGo (privacy-focused search engine)
Etsy (artisan ecommerce)
Some form of OS for electric cars
These are certainly good points but I belive there are easier than these I mentioned
Analytics and Todo List.
Overcrowded market
Analytics for a specific niche could work though?
Anything too small... Yes, the size of an idea matters. I like big ideas that can keep me busy for the rest of my life. Why? Busy keeps me happy and happy keeps me busy.
Good plan. I've also started to think bigger with my ideas, and thinking bigger markets. I want to see if getting a small share of a huge market is easier than fighting for a larger share of a small market.
When you follow big players you get to use their expensive consultants for free - ideas, designs, processes, etc.
There is already market validation and obvious buyers if you decided to exit.
A tiny share of the market is worth millions, unlike a large share of a tiny market... And, there is more fun as well, because it's a bigger adventure.
Agreed. This is exciting.