Agile Business on the Web (long)

[wmspringer]

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Less active members will probably be the ones less experienced and knowledgable in IT and thus effectively be 0 EV project contributors.

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One note I'd add to this: something that would be obvious to you and me might be a total mystery to non-computer literate people, so they might come in handy for usability testing.

[fm191124]

first off 2+2 is about as good a place to find as any, to look for intellegent people, who surf the internet all day and who are willing to take risks (which is what is needed for the basic ideas and outlines when building a website)

i assume all technical skills, even if the investors have them, will not be used anyway.

I however think there should be a weeding out process of some sort.

obv. no programming or website design skills are needed (because of the team) but depending on the demand, there should be some type of elimination process. I would like to know and have faith in the other owners.

[CrayZee]

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Less active members will probably be the ones less experienced and knowledgable in IT and thus effectively be 0 EV project contributors.

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One note I'd add to this: something that would be obvious to you and me might be a total mystery to non-computer literate people, so they might come in handy for usability testing.

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That's what actual users are for.

Also, I should make note on my comment about "great, viable ideas." This is generally overrated. The handful of founding members are the most important assets of a startup. Ideas are frequently dropped and directions changed (as to be expected from being small and agile).

A general understanding of business is a def. plus, but having smart people w/ technical skill is more important.

[Mr. Now]

There are many ways to skin a cat.

[maxtower]

Mr. Now,
How about instead of everyone spending $300 to develop a couple websites, how about spending the $30k on purchasing 5-6 websites which are already constructed and have current users and at least some income. Then the 100 man investing army can each help publicize the sites in the hopes that one or two of them would take off.
I looked around quickly at what sites are for sale, and it seems many fully developed quality sites could be bought for around $5000.
Another big plus would be if the individual sites had some kind of synergy that could be taken advantage of.
Once a site has seen revenue and income stream improvements, the group could decide to sell the site for a profit or just pay out the dividends from the income.
Max

[Mr. Now]

Those are interesting ideas. If an existing site's traffic can be leveraged to jumpstart a closely related idea, and/or if the site has robust SEO on essential keywords, and solid PageRank, $5000 can be quick and cheap.

For example it costs 100s of hours to develop good SEO on competitive search terms, and you have to let it mature over time, at least 4 months.

There are pros and cons to both sides of the buy.vs.build aspects. For example, the code under the site can be unmaintainable-- and often is.

[fm191124]

if you can buy a site with not much traffic, improve upon it, put adsense on there, you can probably turn a profit in 1-2 months, with very little-no work

[StupidAcesSigh]

What do you think about paying some college kid who is taking web design to make the site to lower expenses?

[avfletch]

[ QUOTE ]
Those are interesting ideas. If an existing site's traffic can be leveraged to jumpstart a closely related idea, and/or if the site has robust SEO on essential keywords, and solid PageRank, $5000 can be quick and cheap.

For example it costs 100s of hours to develop good SEO on competitive search terms, and you have to let it mature over time, at least 4 months.

There are pros and cons to both sides of the buy.vs.build aspects. For example, the code under the site can be unmaintainable-- and often is.

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The code being unmaintainable shouldn't really hold the project back. You would probably get most mileage out of an "Under new management" relaunch anyway so can take the opportunity to redo the site how you want and improve both the look, associated SEO and underlying code in one go.

What you're really paying for in these circumstances is the existing traffic not the site itself.

[Mr. Now]

To build a complete site today, a team is needed. At a minimum you need a good visual ui designer and one very skilled alpha geek.

A young person new to web design can do well by joining a company that develops sites for small businesses. After that experience you can gain a better idea of where your skills and talent are, and where you fit. You may find you enjoy SEO for example. Every city has small web dev/design firms you can join.

The model here is to deploy a highly skilled team using best practices in development and software project management to quickly deploy high speculative, low cost bets in high-growth areas of the web.