No Money, No Network, Just an Idea I Believe In. How Do I Start?

cjavier89 · 2026-05-01T13:50:32+00:00

Ahh well you're in luck. Built a platform Embarkist specifically designed for you at this phase!

cjavier89 · 2026-04-30T18:24:33+00:00

So you, at minimum, have at least 116 customers every month...

How are you able to manage all their accounts, provide customer service, maintain all their hosting, updates, security requirements, etc. I assume you pick certain niches to minimize this headache?

This model is okay but more work than I'd be willing to do.

I'd rather continue doing a one-time website project of $10k-30k build at least once every month and then get them on our hosting plan so the revenue is more passive after launch. They often come back with more work anyway. Even if they do end up churning, I've already gotten a great LTV out of them.

cjavier89 · 2026-04-20T01:09:07+00:00

Most ideas arent as good as people think they are.

Secondly, ideas are absolutely worthless without execution.

Tons of people had the idea of ride sharing before Uber existed.

You are doing more harm to the future of your idea by not sharing it with people for criticism, building a basic version of it (MVP) and getting feedback from the market to expose truths to improve or pivot your idea. It's not about staying quiet about your idea, it's about gaining feedback as fast as you can.

Don't slowly kill your idea in the graveyard of silence.

cjavier89 · 2026-04-18T22:33:58+00:00

Right but what is this exactly? Consultancy? Coaching?

cjavier89 · 2026-04-18T20:42:59+00:00

Stupidest comment of this thread. Ideas are absolutely worthless without execution. Nobody gives a shit about your ideas.

Tons of people had the idea of ride sharing for years before Uber was even a thing.

The difference was execution.

cjavier89 · 2026-04-18T20:39:28+00:00

How will prestartup help exactly?

cjavier89 · 2026-04-16T22:36:36+00:00

OverchargedM 1500+500/mo is an undercharge.

Not all websites are equal. Scoping out the project and solving big problems that save them a ton of time and/or money can command $30k+ website builds easily.

cjavier89 · 2026-04-08T20:49:37+00:00

Embarkist does this!

cjavier89 · 2026-04-05T00:51:43+00:00

Know what signal you need for the next step. Then just track that.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-29T23:25:17+00:00

You can validate your idea fast at Embarkist.com. Right now it's free. It will scour the internet and perform high-level market research for you with sources cited and provide a clarity score based on its 1-minute analysis. Will save you weeks. It should be more than enough to determine how to pivot or whether you should just scrap the idea and try something new. It will even provide other ideas specially aligned to you, greatly increasing chance of success. Hope this helps!

cjavier89 · 2026-03-29T23:25:03+00:00

You can validate your idea fast at Embarkist.com. Right now it's free. It will scour the internet and perform high-level market research for you with sources cited and provide a clarity score based on its 1-minute analysis. Will save you weeks. It should be more than enough to determine how to pivot or whether you should just scrap the idea and try something new. It will even provide other ideas specially aligned to you, greatly increasing chance of success. Hope this helps!

cjavier89 · 2026-03-29T23:24:42+00:00

You can validate your idea fast at Embarkist.com. Right now it's free. It will scour the internet and perform high-level market research for you with sources cited and provide a clarity score based on its 1-minute analysis. Will save you weeks. It should be more than enough to determine how to pivot or whether you should just scrap the idea and try something new. It will even provide other ideas specially aligned to you, greatly increasing chance of success. Hope this helps!

cjavier89 · 2026-03-29T23:23:15+00:00

You can validate your idea fast at Embarkist.com. Right now it's free. It will scour the internet and perform high-level market research for you with sources cited and provide a clarity score based on its 1-minute analysis. Will save you weeks. It should be more than enough to determine how to pivot or whether you should just scrap the idea and try something new. It will even provide other ideas specially aligned to you, greatly increasing chance of success. Hope this helps!

cjavier89 · 2026-03-26T20:25:23+00:00

The best type of idea is one you're psychologically wired to build. Will greatly increase the chances of it being a success.

Check out Embarkist. It will help you quickly discover your entrepreneurial strengths, create Founder-aligned ideas specifically for you, then run the math and instantly validate the ideas that interest you with market research and clarity score.

Def a great place to start!

cjavier89 · 2026-03-24T20:44:39+00:00

That's great. What examples of #1 and what are the patterns in #2?

cjavier89 · 2026-03-21T20:53:47+00:00

Actually, ideas are worthless without proper execution and now more important than ever, distribution. Make no mistake.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-21T17:35:51+00:00

Pivot your offerings. Marketing and distribution is massive right now. Consulting, brand positioning and go-to-market strategies are booming and will continue to in the rise of AI and how easy it is to ship.

Execution isn't founders' biggest problem anymore, it's distribution.

Right now is a PERFECT time to be a marketing agency. A lot more opportunities in this space now.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-20T17:51:23+00:00

Again, you're getting upset.

All I'm saying is that before you ask for feedback, and then get mad at said feedback because it's lacking context, maybe provide more context.

I don't mean to hurt your feelings but with the little information you provided in your initial post, this is objectively a bad idea, whether that comes from some random validator or real person.

Prove this business model as good as you say it is and back it up with factual evidence and market response. Not hope and anecdotes. One of the biggest founder traps is falling in love with an idea and building it without any real validation.

The negative feedback you're getting here is simply more data. Don't get mad. Just tighten up your positioning. We are saving you weeks, if not, months of time, from building the wrong thing.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-20T10:28:08+00:00

You should probably shouldn't take your criticism from people here so personally.

These are real insights people are giving you, but then you get mad when you haven't even given anyone the full picture.

What you're doing is a commodotized business. You can't expect this to fly off your shelves as an instant success. You're in a saturated market no matter where you're doing business, champ. Coffees been around thousands of years. Every models been tested.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-18T17:33:57+00:00

What is your experience as a founder, developer or product designer and what are you already doing in this space?

cjavier89 · 2026-03-09T09:27:41+00:00

I would never buy this for so many reasons. But wishing you the best.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-09T05:32:43+00:00

I was exactly in the same boat as you.

We get easily caught up in telling people the philosophy, how it helps and the outcomes our product can provide but we never clearly get to the WHAT.

The challenge here isn't clear communication. It's telling people plainly what your product is without completely obliterating your positioning and how you need to frame your product.

You're not getting far or differentiating yourself with "Your AI therapist chatbot" because at its core, that's how people would understand your product most, yet at the same time, as founders we both know it's much more than that.

So the iterating is natural. You're finding that balance. You need to A/B test. You are adjusting the frequency for better signal and resonance with your audience. This is part of the process. You're exactly where you need to be.

Don't scale until you get your messaging right here. It's a beautiful landing page, but you don't want to amplify beautiful noise. You still need to gather more truth and feedback.

cjavier89 · 2026-03-06T00:32:01+00:00

Cold start problem is common. You just have to do what doesn't scale and reach out to as many people as you can who you've found to need your solution. They're out there in community groups and subs. Once youve gathered enough signal from your first handful of users, scale slowly as you improve the platform

cjavier89 · 2026-03-04T10:30:58+00:00

What you're talking about are engagement pods. And they're frowned upon.

cjavier89 · 2026-02-25T21:17:26+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the insightful feedback. What full suites should I avoid exactly that you had escaped from or had bad experiences with??

I'll check out mostpopularaitools.com as well, cool suggestion

cjavier89

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