How can I protect my idea, and some other random questions

I recently agreed to discuss with someone who wanted to launch a website and an app. She had questions like «How much does it cost to build a website or an app?» or «How can I protect my idea?». These are questions I have been asked a few times, after asking myself the same questions when working on my first startup and projects.

I thought it would be a good idea to compile the answers in an article! Some of these answers are controversial, and this is the point of view of someone that failed to launch a startup, successfully run multiple side-projects generating a bit of revenue, and co-founded a startup soon to be successful 😀. Most important advice: do not listen to advices 😅

How much does a website cost?

That depends. It really does. How much does a car cost? How much does it cost to build a house? That depends on many factors.

It actually mostly depends on your budget. No this is not a business trick to get you to spend more. I can create a website for $500 if this is a landing page without features. And if you need a real professional, robust and kick ass product, our people at Whoz can involve a whole team and build one for several hundred thousands euros!

So you need to define: what is your budget, what does the website do (roughly), if you need a unique design, how robust it needs to be… Then I can give you an estimate. But maybe building the website is not your first step after all…

Should I build a website?

Probably not. Like everyone, especially web developers, I like to get my hand dirty and do the easy and fun part first, which is coding. But after doing (or trying) to build many products, I am now convinced that building the website (or the app) is not the first step. Instead, the first step is to build a community or find clients. You should not have a website up until you have a first interested client. And you should not build an online community website before having a very active Facebook group stuffed with 500 members (or 50, but at least a few!). And even then, maybe Facebook is the right tool for the job. Build a community, and then ask them what they need (or at least what they think they need).

How can I bootstrap a project then?

I recently launched a new project, and I think I finally have the right process to launch something very fast.

This is intended for a product sold to clients. For a community, I am part of many active Facebook Groups and that seems to be the best tool at the moment (or LinkedIn Group).

1. Make sure you have an interested client (or several).
2. Choose a brand name. Does not have to be fancy, you can change it later if needed, the idea is to start fast. Do not protect it. Make sure the domain name is available with a .com extension.
3. Register the domain on Hover and take an email account alias with it ($18 per year).
4. Create a landing page on Carrd ($9 per year) and setup the domain to redirect to the page.
5. Get a logo. I have a good designer on Fiverr or a virtual assistant that can do this well ($10).
6. Share the website with the clients and iterate.

Total spent: 2–3 hours, $27 per year and $10 setup.

How can I get over the chicken and egg problem?

Let’s say you are building a two-sided platform where people can book a hairdresser. It is two sided because you need hairdressers to signup, but they wouldn’t if you don’t already have users. That is a chicken and egg problem, each side needs the other side to commit.

If you are in this situation, you can Google it for answers. Actually that is a whole advice by itself: Google all your questions.

One solution is to fake it until you make it. For example you can use fake users and/or fake hairdressers to make it look like it’s active. You can also fake the algorithm: register hairdressers without their approval, and when they get a booking, call them and work as a middle man.

My business model is advertising, what do you think?

I think you are going to have a very (very) hard time, even though it might be very rewarding if you pull it off. Contact an advertising agency, they will give you a few KPIs, that will help you understand the kind of trafic you need to make a living… I’d say it’s always better to have another business model first and consider advertising later when you have a big community.

How can I protect my idea and brand?

After many years reading about startups, discussing with founders and founding two, I became convinced of one thing: you can’t protect an idea, and even if you could you probably should not spend energy trying to.

Go fast, be the first out there showing and selling your idea, while the worry ones are still figuring out how to protect the same idea. Many people will have the same idea as you, the only difference is who will execute first?

Regarding brand protection, I would say it’s a waste of time, money and energy while you are still small. Do it later. You can still change the brand later if necessary, it will be a good occasion to communicate!

As I said, this is my point of view to quickly launch an idea out there. Many would argue that you need to develop the website first and then invest 50k$ in advertising, because that worked for them. I will let you decide 🙂