No, It Isn't

I spent an hour or so today chatting with a younger developer. He was pondering going back to school, and wanted some input, some guidance. I'm unsure I helped him out, but I did give solicited advice, and that's usually fun to do when you like helping people.

Our conversation did what most "I don't know what I want to do with my life" conversations do: it meandered. It wandered from motivations ("I want to be happy." "I want to have fun." "I want to do something meaningful."), to entertainments (stories about various adventures), and various places in between.

A struggle most developers have is doing work that is interesting to them. There are different levels of "interesting" and different levels of "work." I find front-end development and performance work fun and interesting, usually regardless of the site's content. Yes, I am more likely to be interested in working on a site that millions of people use monthly than a site that's visited by two people a month (Hello, my two site visitors! Love you both!), but I still find the process fun.

One suggestion I gave was to have a side project, one that is motivating and interesting for yourself. With a side project, it doesn't matter how boring or difficult work becomes, you always have a project that excites you, keeps you moving, keeps you learning, keeps you motivated. I then went on to describe rereuse.com to him. I described my vision of the site, how it would be used, and how easy I wanted the process of decluttering to be.

As I talked about the project, I became more animated, as I do with topics that interest and excite me. When I was done, he said, "Why is that a side project? That's a great start-up idea."

And boom.

There you have it.

The fundamental problem with the start-up culture in the United States in one sentiment.

No, the idea of rereuse is a TERRIBLE start-up idea. It has only one way of making money except for advertising, though, really advertising is the "easy" way to go. Given rereuse is about consuming less and giving away crap you no longer need or want, advertising is exactly the WRONG business model for the site.

Meaning, there is no way to make money with the site.

I'm building the site because I want it to exist. I have opinions (I know, shock) about how I want to give way my stuff, and there doesn't exist a simple "take a picture, push 3 buttons, boom, stuff is gone" process yet.

Yet.

As a business, well, I will be thrilled if this site is self-sustaining.

That's right, the site likely won't even be self-sustaining. And that's okay. It helps me. It keeps me motivated. I'll have a site that I can point to as a portfolio piece. I'll have a site to include as an example in my talks (of what to do and possibly what not to do, too). I'll have an easy way to get rid of my crap in a way that I want to give the stuff away. It satisfies all my needs and wants for the site, and won't make any money. And THAT IS OKAY.

It just isn't a great start-up idea in any way, shape, or form.

And again, that's okay.

Now, back to giving solicited advice...