HACKER Q&A
📣 valachio

What should I do now to find my next project?


Bit of background about me:

I'm 22. Over the past year I built a small Internet business that is making about $20k/month. The business is basically fully automated now.

My dream is to build a great consumer tech company, something like Google, Facebook or Reddit. I'm not interested in building B2B businesses. I'm interested in building something that a lot of people use.

This means I have:

  - lots of free time
  - no need to worry about money
  - some money to put into my next project
  - enough programming skills to build any website or mobile app
What I don't have:

  - Good connections for co-founders or investors (I'm a bit anti-social)
  - US passport (I'm Canadian, but I want to move to US)
  - Not much deep expertise in any leading technology
I've been quite frustrated recently. I finished building a new project that is not working right now, and I'm not really motivated to work on it anymore. I feel somewhat disconnected from building something "big".

I realized that instead of jumping head-first into a new project, it may be worth taking the time to explore some things. However, "exploring" feels bad because I feel lost and purposeless. I realized that I'm the happiest when I'm working on some great project. Ironically, "work" isn't really work for me. I feel sad when I'm taking time off. My dream life would be to work 12 hours a day, every day, building a great company.

As I'm writing this, I feel pretty bad. I woke up this morning and didn't do anything "productive"; just reading and playing some games. I really want to work on something great but I have no idea how I'm supposed to find the next thing to work on.

If you were me, what would you do?

  👤 ocdtrekkie Accepted Answer ✓
When you think of "something like Google or Facebook", remember that Google and Facebook are evil, and it's a matter of time before someone is looking at something more ethical. Build a business that isn't based on ads.

Your best connection for a co-founder or investor is right here: You're on HN. If you do something super interesting, the right people see it here on HN, people will come to you. Pretty sure it's like half of why YC runs this thing.

If you want to build something that you're excited about, it's got to be a problem or a need that speaks to you. Remember that Google built an ad-powered search company that now controls everyones phones and email and web browsers. Facebook built a way to rate hot girls in college and now is everyone's social group. They got there not by starting at world domination, they started at a single product and then grew beyond it by leveraging the strengths of the technology and talent they had.

👤 wakatime
Try prototyping apps/products for yourself or friends. At least if they don't become big companies they were useful and hopefully fun.

> I woke up this morning and didn't do anything "productive"

Stop thinking about it, enjoy your free time by going outside more. My most creative ideas appear when I stop looking for them.

Also, this related post is on the front page right now:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21324768

👤 Findeton
Why don't you try to scale your business up?