[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Small Ideas vs. Big Ideas?
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Ask HN: Small Ideas vs. Big Ideas?
I've been thinking about this one for a while, does it make sense
to work on small ideas? Something like a utility a PDF converter or
a small game and attempt to make it into an asset generating $10K -
$30K in MRR? Or is it better to aim for building something as big
as you can? My thinking around that is it's pretty much the same
effort to build something small or something big (especially since
you have to start small to go big). Might as well go for the big
ideas. But curious if others have different views (or similar for
that matter)?
Author : amukbils
Score : 19 points
Date : 2025-02-17 22:19 UTC (41 minutes ago)
| realPubkey wrote:
| By buildings small things, you will find ideas for bigger things
| that people actually need.
| amukbils wrote:
| So build small things to get to big things? (I guess you can
| decide at that point)? This maybe successful as a strategy to
| find "big" ideas ...
| dustingetz wrote:
| 10k MRR no debt solo biz more or less means retirement in a high
| COL country. I would worry about maximizing your odds of success
| amukbils wrote:
| But if you're already there tho :), I don't know if retirement
| is the right path ... I would think it's aiming for something
| big ... I cannot imagine a life of relaxation .. especially if
| you're young and healthy .. also building big gives you the
| power to do more good in the world .. no?
| mlboss wrote:
| You can always go big after starting small. The most important
| thing is to start. There are 1000s of small things which are not
| visible unless you start.
|
| The effort to do something small is definitely less than when you
| try something big. And my little experience even hitting small is
| exponentially difficult.
| amukbils wrote:
| Agreed on the first point, but I'm once walked with a VC who
| told me the the owner of this restaurant (him pointing at a
| restaurant) works harder than Mark Zuckerberg .. I found to be
| likely true.
|
| So the concern here is that it may be as hard (or very similar)
| to start something small vs trying for something big .. I will
| note that going for something big also likely means starting
| small (so again same effort)
| 827a wrote:
| Every single big thing started as a small thing. Every single
| one. Google was once just an algorithm and some math. Slack was a
| chat app some game devs built to talk to each other.
|
| The Path Appears To Those Who Walk.
| amukbils wrote:
| If I understood correctly, you're saying starting small is best
| because things that may seem small may actually be a thread to
| something big .. even if it isn't obvious .. but the habit of
| starting things will be the truest test .. this is a good one.
| cjs_ac wrote:
| It depends on what sort of life you want. I'm not a 'wheeler-
| dealer', so I'm keeping small. You need to go big to become a
| billionaire, but then it takes over your life.
|
| You also need to think about what your product actually is, how
| many people want it, how much they want it, and how much they'll
| pay for it. Market size might make the big-or-small decision for
| you.
|
| Finally, I think you need to consider what sort of problems your
| individual knowledge and experience gives you insight into. There
| are already thousands of PDF converters crowding search engine
| results. You need to find something that no one else has thought
| of (even if it's just a variation on someone else's product) so
| that there's something that makes your users want to give _you_
| money, rather than just using whichever competitor was top of the
| search results today.
| kdazzle wrote:
| I don't think it's a binary thing that you can just pick. I think
| you need to have experience to know what the big ideas are for an
| industry - especially now that the low-hanging web 2.0 ideas seem
| to be pretty well picked through.
|
| You mention Zuckerberg - even Facebook was made through having
| experience in the right market and taking an existing product to
| the next level, and probably a bunch of iteration along the way.
| m463 wrote:
| maybe you need to answer this question: Are big ideas just a
| collection of small ideas?
| adamrezich wrote:
| You should probably not confidently believe that you can make a
| "small game" that is guaranteed to generate $10k (let alone $30k)
| MRR.
| brianbreslin wrote:
| You can build a $30k MRR business with 1% the effort you need to
| build a $30M MRR business. Once you escape a certain size/scale
| the day to day operations grow in scope. So do you want to deal
| with HR or payroll? Do you want to have to keep bringing in $100k
| worth of google ads traffic a month?
|
| The question to think about is can the small idea potentially be
| big? Or is it a TAM limited scope? Don't forget there is
| horizontal vs vertical scaling to think about too.
| grandempire wrote:
| You won't find one true answer that fits all use cases and your
| lifestyle. What approach motivates you?
|
| The general YC advice is to find a way to validate your idea and
| "fail quickly" with the least amount of time and effort.
|
| That's kind of orthogonal to the potential scope of the problem,
| but applies to how to get started.
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