One day in the life of a startup
Until recently, I was unsuccessfully, I think, doing all sorts of different things in the area of IT. But somehow it happened that two events happened at the same time, which led me here. The first event consisted in the fact that the things I did and do are fairly predictable and predictable. That is, it is a money making routine. And somehow I really wanted something new, unknown, and most importantly: difficult to predict. And the second event is the coming of thought into my head. Not that before my thoughts would come or did not have the desire to know the unknown, but then these two events somehow somehow coincided in time and degenerated into what they degenerated.
So. I'm starting to do a startup. The occupation for me is completely new and it is not entirely clear what is promising. And here I will describe my actions, starting from the formation of an idea, to ... I unfortunately cannot finish this sentence, but I would really like something like “to the first million earned” :-) I will try not to hide the details, of course they will be of interest from the highly respected public. And I begin, perhaps, with a description of the idea.
')
If you have a bad memory or just a lot of things, sometime you will need to somehow arrange everything planned so that you don’t forget anything. There are lots of options. Starting from the crosses on the arm (not suitable for those who have more than one business planned), continuing to self-adhesive on the monitor (not suitable for those with a small monitor or laptop) and ending with online and offline ToDo sheets. That's about these same ToDo-lists and will be discussed. There are many of them. However, when the corresponding problem arose in front of me, I could not find one that suits me in all respects. Offline were dropped almost immediately, since I work on different computers with different OSes and different levels of access. In online, there was usually not enough of any function I really needed and it was a bust with unnecessary ones. In general, sincerely wanting to find something that suits me and not thinking about any start-ups at all, I eventually wrote my ToDo list that would suit me. Now I decided to embellish it a bit and make it a startup.
Of course, I was joking. The idea of “another ToDo-list” does not hold water. The fact that the ToDo list suits me doesn’t mean that other people need exactly the same thing. Of course, history knows a lot of examples when the implementation of already well-known and working ideas turned out to be more successful than their predecessors, but I would not hope for such in such a crowded niche as ToDo sheets.
ToDo-list helps to not forget about their tasks, but only if the tasks have reached him. And how do tasks get on the ToDo list? First, the tasks come to us from a mass of sources: from the mouth of the manager at the planning meeting, from various instant messaging programs, from the post office, from the teacher’s mouth, from the telephone, from an ad on the pole, from a piece of paper on the fridge left by his wife, etc. Next, we enter the tasks in the ToDo list, when we can reach it. At the same time, on the way some of the tasks may be lost. This is the main problem of all ToDo lists: until you have entered the ToDo list and started relying on it, you have to rely on yourself, i.e. do what the ToDo list should free. I would like to expose the solution to this problem to the public.
It is necessary to create a ToDo list service in which the ability to create tasks for other users of the service and control the progress of execution will be implemented. Those. you wanted to meet me and discuss some question. You do not need to call me on the phone and make an appointment, which I will forget about, because I am talking on the phone while driving to the office and do not have the opportunity to put it on the ToDo list. It is enough to create an assignment for me “to meet tomorrow at 14:30 on the issue of prospects for high-rise vegetable growing” and send it to me. When I get to the office, I will enter my ToDo list and see your incoming tasks. Further options are possible: I can immediately drag it into my plans, but I can change it at 14:30 at 15:00 and send it to you for confirmation. But these are all the little things that I don’t want to dwell on. If we dream up a little, then we can very quickly conclude that such an approach allows us to wrap a very large part of the information flows into a single place.
One more example. I'm looking for a perl programmer job. The service allows me to join the group "work". Well, to indicate that I am only interested in tasks for perl programmers. Next, the person who is looking for the perl programmer sends the task to all members of the “work” group. With proper study of the issue, both I and the employer spend on it all a couple of clicks.
Here it is also necessary to take into account that moment that the initiator of the task usually remembers better than the performer. Have you ever noticed that giving tasks to others is easier than doing what was given to you? This is usually due to the fact that the initiator of the task is faced with his need repeatedly, in contrast to the performer for whom this is just one task. A simple example from life. My wife asks you to buy a frying pan. You can easily forget about it, because, between us, you do not feel the need for this pan. The wife is experiencing and therefore asks for it again and again. Or once sends you a task through the service described.
Well, completing the description of the idea, I will note another important feature: control over the course of execution. By giving someone a task through the service, you get the opportunity to track the status of the task. Due to this, the manager can sum up the completed tasks for the month and charge the salary, the teacher can give marks, etc.
I tried to describe the idea of a startup without unnecessary details, which in fact, in my opinion, are also interesting. And I ask the respected public to comment on this idea. Your opinion is very important to me. In the future, I will continue to talk about the project and the shifts taking place in it.
UPD: I was told here that in Remember The Milk (a recognized authority among online-ToDo lists) there is an opportunity to send tasks between users. I already wanted to kill the startup, but it turned out that RTM is still in a very embryonic state (Although the guys are great and can develop the idea and most importantly quickly implement new functions). In the following posts I will develop the idea of sending assignments. This is a much more extensive topic than it seems at first glance.
So. I'm starting to do a startup. The occupation for me is completely new and it is not entirely clear what is promising. And here I will describe my actions, starting from the formation of an idea, to ... I unfortunately cannot finish this sentence, but I would really like something like “to the first million earned” :-) I will try not to hide the details, of course they will be of interest from the highly respected public. And I begin, perhaps, with a description of the idea.
')
Startup idea
If you have a bad memory or just a lot of things, sometime you will need to somehow arrange everything planned so that you don’t forget anything. There are lots of options. Starting from the crosses on the arm (not suitable for those who have more than one business planned), continuing to self-adhesive on the monitor (not suitable for those with a small monitor or laptop) and ending with online and offline ToDo sheets. That's about these same ToDo-lists and will be discussed. There are many of them. However, when the corresponding problem arose in front of me, I could not find one that suits me in all respects. Offline were dropped almost immediately, since I work on different computers with different OSes and different levels of access. In online, there was usually not enough of any function I really needed and it was a bust with unnecessary ones. In general, sincerely wanting to find something that suits me and not thinking about any start-ups at all, I eventually wrote my ToDo list that would suit me. Now I decided to embellish it a bit and make it a startup.
Of course, I was joking. The idea of “another ToDo-list” does not hold water. The fact that the ToDo list suits me doesn’t mean that other people need exactly the same thing. Of course, history knows a lot of examples when the implementation of already well-known and working ideas turned out to be more successful than their predecessors, but I would not hope for such in such a crowded niche as ToDo sheets.
The real idea of a startup
ToDo-list helps to not forget about their tasks, but only if the tasks have reached him. And how do tasks get on the ToDo list? First, the tasks come to us from a mass of sources: from the mouth of the manager at the planning meeting, from various instant messaging programs, from the post office, from the teacher’s mouth, from the telephone, from an ad on the pole, from a piece of paper on the fridge left by his wife, etc. Next, we enter the tasks in the ToDo list, when we can reach it. At the same time, on the way some of the tasks may be lost. This is the main problem of all ToDo lists: until you have entered the ToDo list and started relying on it, you have to rely on yourself, i.e. do what the ToDo list should free. I would like to expose the solution to this problem to the public.
It is necessary to create a ToDo list service in which the ability to create tasks for other users of the service and control the progress of execution will be implemented. Those. you wanted to meet me and discuss some question. You do not need to call me on the phone and make an appointment, which I will forget about, because I am talking on the phone while driving to the office and do not have the opportunity to put it on the ToDo list. It is enough to create an assignment for me “to meet tomorrow at 14:30 on the issue of prospects for high-rise vegetable growing” and send it to me. When I get to the office, I will enter my ToDo list and see your incoming tasks. Further options are possible: I can immediately drag it into my plans, but I can change it at 14:30 at 15:00 and send it to you for confirmation. But these are all the little things that I don’t want to dwell on. If we dream up a little, then we can very quickly conclude that such an approach allows us to wrap a very large part of the information flows into a single place.
One more example. I'm looking for a perl programmer job. The service allows me to join the group "work". Well, to indicate that I am only interested in tasks for perl programmers. Next, the person who is looking for the perl programmer sends the task to all members of the “work” group. With proper study of the issue, both I and the employer spend on it all a couple of clicks.
Here it is also necessary to take into account that moment that the initiator of the task usually remembers better than the performer. Have you ever noticed that giving tasks to others is easier than doing what was given to you? This is usually due to the fact that the initiator of the task is faced with his need repeatedly, in contrast to the performer for whom this is just one task. A simple example from life. My wife asks you to buy a frying pan. You can easily forget about it, because, between us, you do not feel the need for this pan. The wife is experiencing and therefore asks for it again and again. Or once sends you a task through the service described.
Well, completing the description of the idea, I will note another important feature: control over the course of execution. By giving someone a task through the service, you get the opportunity to track the status of the task. Due to this, the manager can sum up the completed tasks for the month and charge the salary, the teacher can give marks, etc.
I tried to describe the idea of a startup without unnecessary details, which in fact, in my opinion, are also interesting. And I ask the respected public to comment on this idea. Your opinion is very important to me. In the future, I will continue to talk about the project and the shifts taking place in it.
UPD: I was told here that in Remember The Milk (a recognized authority among online-ToDo lists) there is an opportunity to send tasks between users. I already wanted to kill the startup, but it turned out that RTM is still in a very embryonic state (Although the guys are great and can develop the idea and most importantly quickly implement new functions). In the following posts I will develop the idea of sending assignments. This is a much more extensive topic than it seems at first glance.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/49548/
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