My business partner & I have been developing an idea on and off for the last 6 years.

We have done loads of work & discussion, we pretty much have everything figured out & documented...

where to next? Obviously we need some backers -  but how and where do you meet these people?

where are you? what industry? can you self-fund a prototype? if you haven't raised money before, or haven't had a good success, it will be hard to raise money just on an idea - after all, we all get ideas. also, the best way to test out an idea is to build it and give ti to users, rather than thinking about it

start start start... anything stopping you getting going right now?

Only time Marty... I have a little prototype banged together.. but It was built early on and needs to be re-written completely from scratch.....

I might pitch to Mick and see what he thinks... might have to bribe him with beer & BBQ...

My advice* is just start building, get your potential customers involved EARLY and worry about the money later...

Each time our project was about to get canned through lack of money to move forward, money just appeared- connections got made, people became involved. Actually 'looking' for money was a total waste of time. The moment we stopped looking, it just seemed to be much more accessible...We're still undercapitalised, but we continue to have enough to push forward.

Esp. if your idea is web based, get your potential customers in front of screen mockups and find out how they're going to use it... we didn't do this initially (were much too over protective of the concept in retrospect) and this cost us literally 10s if not 100s of hours of wasted development (stuff we thought was super... that no one else cared about..) 

*My business is still in development, so take this advice with a grain of salt

I have done a lot of "one on ones" with end users... they seemed really excited about it , even though I only showed them a litmited amount of screen shots and had to explain a lot of the functionality.... they still were very excited and wanted to know when it would be released.

I guess I just have to jump in a bite the bullet and start coding. I have approached a few people about help... but no-one really wants to get involved... I guess I need to engage them more... I have also probably been too protective of the concept as anyone I have even told a little of it too I made them sign an NDA. I even made the graphic designers who concepted our logo sign an NDA.

I have the domain, I have the company name registered in Australia... It seems that I lose focus every few months and have this on again off again relationship with the project...

I think I need to focus on the core functionality, and get that working 100% and add modules as I go, because writing the whole thing from scratch is a daunting prospect...

Focus in on the very core of the concept's value and execute only on that. Keep it to the absolute value and nothing else. Then evolve it with your users and ignore all other advice, startups, hype and advisors.

By the way, you're concept is crap, and doesn't look much like what the product will actually be. You just don't know it yet. Getting started will get you to the next stage sooner. And I'm happy to have a beer with you if you're in sydney.

Hey guys,

 Newbie here, so firgive the intrusion - not sure if it is rude to just jump on in.

Mitch:

I'm in the same boat, and have been working on something now for about 6 months with zero backing. My approach so far has been to  put together all of the core functionality and only then expose it to the public, adding modules after release. I'm now finding that my approach could have been better. With no funding, I have not been able to put in the hours I need to get the concept to release, and have been exposing myself to market saturation by waiting. When I started there were a few basic offerings in place which I would be bettering. Now there a few large players with serious backing and they are starting to eat up the market share I could have had.

The idea is still solid, and  after now opening up most of the core functionality (unfinished), I am finding that users are flocking to the concept, and are very forgiving of issues encountered. If anything I am finding that they feel empowered by being involved in the direction and development of the site. What they are eating up is the core set of values behind the site development. Not only are we very slowly attracting members away from larger offerings (even with lesser functionality), but our members are beginning to actively promote our site for us.

 The issue is that now we are in a position that will require a lot more work in terms of making the offering attractive to venture capital, as our point of difference can no longer be just the idea, but must now include the execution. This sucks a bit I have to admit I am loving the challenge, as competing with the bigger funded players while being totally unfunded and unknown really exemplifies the Australian ideal of the underdog, but reallistically the situation is not great as we are not in a position to offer our members the level of service I feel they really deserve.

If I had the chance to do it all again, (and I will), then I would be very tempted to go to market with a very basic offering and some key press demonstrating where the site would be heading and why. The risk is that the idea will get ripped off, but the benefit is that those who back your idea based on ideals will remain loyal and continue backing you as you grow.
 

Damnit. where's that code.

I think I jsut need to pull my finger out and get it out there.

thanks for all the advice. I'll get the core stuff solid and try and release asap.

I should be able to do that fairly quickly... 6 months at the outside.

Hello all,

Working on your idea while you have a fulltime job, is something that I still have issues with. Sometimes you wish 24 hours aint enough.. Finding like minded people or getting 'partners' who are as committed as yourself..is very helpful, but you will be lucky if you find someone.. Theres nothing better than 2-3 partners motivating one another to keep moving.