The Price of Inaction

[robotunicr0n]

Just a short lesson that I learned this morning that I want to share with you all. A couple of months ago I was brainstorming ideas for apps. One of the apps that I came up with was a location based dating app that allowed you to see who had the app nearby, who was looking for someone to hang out with, and a gifting platform as the monetization strategy. The idea came from my frustration with standard dating sites and apps like OkCupid, Zoosk, HowAboutWe and many others.

Instead of acting on this honestly fairly simple idea, I let it sit and kept brainstorming other ideas, thinking it may not have made me any money. Turns out I was WRONG. Fast forward to this morning, I'm browsing facebook on my phone while on the bus to work, and see a sponsored ad for "Skout". This app does exactly the same thing I had planned on doing, it was free to download, and had gifting as a monetization strategy. I thought maybe it was just getting its start and didn't have any substantial userbase yet. The ad said only 500,000 people use the app (a lot, but not monumental). Well I decided to look it up in the app store and it has OVER 10 MILLION downloads. That indicates to me EXPLOSIVE growth, if their ads are keeping up with their download numbers (or maybe just bad at marketing so there is still hope?).

Do you want to know the price of inaction? The cost of not executing on an idea that you think may make you even 5 dollars? Let's do the math. $1 to send a gift to someone, average say $3 per week per user. 10,000,000 users, granted some probably inactive or not using the app, so lets call it 5,000,000. 5m users spending $3 per week is $15,000,000 per week before tax.

$15,000,000 per week. Even if we cut it down to $1 per week that is still $5,000,000 per week. What would you do with $5,000,000 per week?

Am I banging my head against the wall and quitting? Yes banging my head, quitting no. But I am taking this as a lesson to always TRY. At worst you'll lose some money and gain some VALUABLE experience, and in entrepeunership, experience is invaluable.

 

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[Charles]

Just a short lesson that I learned this morning that I want to share with you all. A couple of months ago I was brainstorming ideas for apps. One of the apps that I came up with was a location based dating app that allowed you to see who had the app nearby, who was looking for someone to hang out with, and a gifting platform as the monetization strategy. The idea came from my frustration with standard dating sites and apps like OkCupid, Zoosk, HowAboutWe and many others.

Instead of acting on this honestly fairly simple idea, I let it sit and kept brainstorming other ideas, thinking it may not have made me any money. Turns out I was WRONG. Fast forward to this morning, I'm browsing facebook on my phone while on the bus to work, and see a sponsored ad for "Skout". This app does exactly the same thing I had planned on doing, it was free to download, and had gifting as a monetization strategy. I thought maybe it was just getting its start and didn't have any substantial userbase yet. The ad said only 500,000 people use the app (a lot, but not monumental). Well I decided to look it up in the app store and it has OVER 10 MILLION downloads. That indicates to me EXPLOSIVE growth, if their ads are keeping up with their download numbers (or maybe just bad at marketing so there is still hope?).

Do you want to know the price of inaction? The cost of not executing on an idea that you think may make you even 5 dollars? Let's do the math. $1 to send a gift to someone, average say $3 per week per user. 10,000,000 users, granted some probably inactive or not using the app, so lets call it 5,000,000. 5m users spending $3 per week is $15,000,000 per week before tax.

$15,000,000 per week. Even if we cut it down to $1 per week that is still $5,000,000 per week. What would you do with $5,000,000 per week?

Am I banging my head against the wall and quitting? Yes banging my head, quitting no. But I am taking this as a lesson to always TRY. At worst you'll lose some money and gain some VALUABLE experience, and in entrepeunership, experience is invaluable.

Its a lesson to us all. I would think that most people on this forum have done the same at some point. But, dust yourself off, learn by the mistake and keep going.

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

Mj talked about this in a video on youtube, when he showed the little cap that can go on a can to turn it into a bottle. I wouldn't get all worked up about someone else already doing it, and neither did he. Realize your "potential" losses and move on to an even greater venture!

 

[DeletedUser2]

so dont just sit there

go launch its competitor.

call it hookup.


Z


either that or sit there for another month, and we will be reading the next thread saying, "I just read about Skouts Competitor, and its kicking a$$"

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I wouldn't call this the price of inaction, but the price of having a lack of focus.

"Shiny object syndrome" is when consumers chase after one "shiny object" to another. The new car, the new iPhone, the new this, the new that-- there's always something "shinier" to pursue.

For entrepreneurs, it's the "shiny idea syndrome" where they examine idea after idea, and never commit to any of them. As soon as a good idea is uncovered, it's examined for a short period of time until the next shiny idea comes along, supplanting the older idea.

I get it, ideas are fun and execution is not. Knowing that is a good start to reframing focus.

 

[RogueInnovation]

so dont just sit there

go launch its competitor.

call it hookup.


Z


either that or sit there for another month, and we will be reading the next thread saying, "I just read about Skouts Competitor, and its kicking a$$"

I quoted zen because I agree on taking action, being the REAL way to follow up what you just learnt.
If you can't act on that, what is stopping you??? Figure it out, and eliminate it, cuz if I had to guess, these guys don't have that same thing stopping them, and that was why they could launch before you. (maybe they had the idea long ago, or maybe they had it after you but were better prepared, either way there is something to learn here)

I wonder if it was Skouts marketing strategy that led to such growth or if it was truly a viral explosion based off the idea. Undoubtedly it is a bit of both, but perhaps launching the strategy you had now, might give you some more information on this.
I'd certainly be interested in a part 2 to this, if only because it would show the dynamics of being the second guy to launch.

Good luck,
But try to avoid the trap of "saying you know what made it work" and get more towards actually following up on your assumptions.
Cool post!

 

[kyled427]

If you stumble upon any more great ideas for an app let me know, I know a guy with practically unlimited funding (as far as app development goes) that wants to launch an app assuming a great idea.

 

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[RogueInnovation]

I wouldn't call this the price of inaction, but the price of having a lack of focus.

"Shiny object syndrome" is when consumers chase after one "shiny object" to another. The new car, the new iPhone, the new this, the new that-- there's always something "shinier" to pursue.

For entrepreneurs, it's the "shiny idea syndrome" where they examine idea after idea, and never commit to any of them. As soon as a good idea is uncovered, it's examined for a short period of time until the next shiny idea comes along, supplanting the older idea.

I get it, ideas are fun and execution is not. Knowing that is a good start to reframing focus.

Thats interesting...

So you are saying its not due to the inherent value of the product? That there hasn't been a sufficient long term viability shown and that it could just be a spike and quickly die off?

It seems there are three inconsistancies here...
We don't know what price it actually makes (just speculation)
Don't know if it is going to be a lasting idea (yet)
Don't know if it was the market really wanting it, marketting selling it, or just some other kind of effect.

Maybe your reservation in launching it was because you weren't certain how viable it is, and the above concerns still show that this idea hasn't yet met its full potential?

Regardless, no doubt it is making money, and PERHAPS the op could have been a part of that (perhaps).
Either way, it stings when you see your own ideas being successful when you couldn't make them that way yourself.
But envy, isn't the right way to look at launching a competing product, you want to be sure of what made it good, that you can do that well also, and to add in more things that will make this a viable thing.

I dunno though...
Interesting stuff

 

[robotunicr0n]

I wouldn't call this the price of inaction, but the price of having a lack of focus.

"Shiny object syndrome" is when consumers chase after one "shiny object" to another. The new car, the new iPhone, the new this, the new that-- there's always something "shinier" to pursue.

For entrepreneurs, it's the "shiny idea syndrome" where they examine idea after idea, and never commit to any of them. As soon as a good idea is uncovered, it's examined for a short period of time until the next shiny idea comes along, supplanting the older idea.

I get it, ideas are fun and execution is not. Knowing that is a good start to reframing focus.

Yep it's my particular challenge. Frozen with fear about my debt, unsure about how to go forward (learn the skills vs. save up or borrow to pay for someone who has the skills), and general just "ohh i got a new job, i should focus on that and try not to get fired" which generally is a decent practice when you DON'T have money coming in, in any form.

It sounds weird, but my first step is to clean my room. Funny how that works isn't it?

 

[robotunicr0n]

so dont just sit there

go launch its competitor.

call it hookup.


Z


either that or sit there for another month, and we will be reading the next thread saying, "I just read about Skouts Competitor, and its kicking a$$"

Or if we're following naming trends "Houkups". Hehehe. Thanks for the motivation, as always.

 

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[throttleforward]

I think this is why the "follow your passion" advice ultimately makes little sense. All the uncomfortable crap you have do to validate an idea and get it up and running usually has nothing to do with the original business idea (which may have been born of some sort of personal passion). You either have to learn to like that crap (or at least tolerate it) like website building, sales, basic business law, managing people, fighting depression and rejection, etc. or you'll probably succumb to shiny idea syndrome. And often, it is when I have to do something really uncomfortable, like cold call businesses, that I suddenly find another idea to pursue.

I also think that the best antidote to shiny idea syndrome is market validation/testing. It makes it a lot easier to fight the rejection/depression/uncomfortableness associated with getting something launched. In my case with my current idea, it's making it a lot easier to push through knowing that I had an overwhelming market validation test, and I've now started to get lukewarm traction with the other end of my market. Without those tests and data, I'm sure I would have put this idea away by now. But instead, when I've gotten frustrated/depressed, I kick myself and think "but this idea ISN'T stupid - you had a great validation test! Figure this $%&* out!"

 

[smarty]

holy crap, I had the exact same idea, and I actually discusses it with a friend few days ago. I'm very new to the mobile apps business so I made a job post on oDesk just to see what level of interest I would attract (without disclosing the app idea).
This goes to prove that the concept of "stealing ideas" is so ridiculous and we just need to stop trying to protect our billion idea so much and take massive focused action instead. Thanks for this post

 

[rkmalo1]

so dont just sit there

go launch its competitor.

call it hookup.


Z


either that or sit there for another month, and we will be reading the next thread saying, "I just read about Skouts Competitor, and its kicking a$$"

Agree with Zen. Go be their competitor if you can. In fact, I can think of two other apps already competing with Skout ( Swipe & Tinder). Each of these apps seem to be doing just fine as well. The dating/find a friend market is huge.

 

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[robotunicr0n]

Yep its a good call. My current obstacle is that I don't have enough coding skill to make the app on my own, and I don't have enough money to pay someone who does know. I also have other app ideas that will be successful once I overcome this hurdle. Guess I should make a post on THAT to get some advice.

 

[biophase]

J. A couple of months ago I was brainstorming ideas for apps.

Instead of acting on this honestly fairly simple idea, I let it sit and kept brainstorming other ideas, thinking it may not have made me any money. Turns out I was WRONG. Fast forward to this morning, I'm browsing facebook on my phone while on the bus to work, and see a sponsored ad for "Skout". This app does exactly the same thing I had planned on doing.

A couple months ago when the though came into your head these apps were already out there. You just did not know about them. Most likely they were conceived a year ago. So it's not like your idea was a brand new one. If you would have done a Google search you would have found that they were already out there. To me, this means that this idea that came into your head was merely a temporary thought. You did not think it was worthy enough to do a 5 second google search. I wouldn't kid yourself that there was even a chance of you going through with it.

People do this all the time, they say they were going to do this and that. But they usually don't even take the first miniscule step. If you weren't going to do it a couple months ago, you aren't going to do it today because:

1) If Scout and Tinder were not out there, you would be thinking that there's not enough money in it.
2) Because Scout and Tinder are out there, you aren't going to do it because you have competition.

You can't win either way. My point of this point is show you that your brain is working against you. You are coming up with excuses to not do things and then allowing yourself to believe that you were this close to pulling the trigger. You can still TRY what you were thinking a few months ago. It's not too late because others are out there.

 

[FastLearner]

Had the exact same idea and wanted to target it to European consumers. You should definitely launch it's competitor. It's definitely not a dumb idea but most people have had this idea it seems, it makes sense.

 

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[robotunicr0n]

A couple months ago when the though came into your head these apps were already out there. You just did not know about them. Most likely they were conceived a year ago. So it's not like your idea was a brand new one. If you would have done a Google search you would have found that they were already out there. To me, this means that this idea that came into your head was merely a temporary thought. You did not think it was worthy enough to do a 5 second google search. I wouldn't kid yourself that there was even a chance of you going through with it.

People do this all the time, they say they were going to do this and that. But they usually don't even take the first miniscule step. If you weren't going to do it a couple months ago, you aren't going to do it today because:

1) If Scout and Tinder were not out there, you would be thinking that there's not enough money in it.
2) Because Scout and Tinder are out there, you aren't going to do it because you have competition.

You can't win either way. My point of this point is show you that your brain is working against you. You are coming up with excuses to not do things and then allowing yourself to believe that you were this close to pulling the trigger. You can still TRY what you were thinking a few months ago. It's not too late because others are out there.

You're absolutely correct. That being said yesterday I posted on Odesk to find a programmer to make the app for me and happened to stumble across the development group from Skout. They quoted me $90k. Exploring other options, but posting to odesk was at the least a miniscule step. I'm following through with this. May leave it for another idea after I beat it to death, but I'll be whacking at it for awhile, even if I have to teach myself to code mobile first.

INSIDERS can follow my thread in the progress forum.

 

[Rawr]

I get it, ideas are fun and execution is not. Knowing that is a good start to reframing focus.

So solid. All this talk about passion.. forget find passion. Find your blisters like that one guy said. Find something you can work on and ENJOY the pain of the process and execution. You will be better off. It is out there!!!

 

[robotunicr0n]

Since I don't have the funds to do this by paying someone on odesk (even if it were as low as $5000) I'm looking at coding this on my own. Viable options so far are Phonegap or getting a macbook and teaching myself obj-c, which I already have a pretty strong foundation in.

 

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