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How stupid am I being (asking for money without having anything to show)?

I am cold emailing some people, basically asking for money ($1,000 for 6 months upfront) to pay for a product I don't even have a prototype.

In 2019 we (wife and I) launched on HackerNews a job board focused on fighting the ageism in tech. It got massive response, #1 for 24 hours, featured on The Telegraph as well...Wikimedia, Monzo and others wanted to post on our board (which was free).

Unfortunately I hit the trough of sorrow and users had gone. I didn't make any money as I hadn't charged upfront.

I'm now trying to relaunch it, giving a massive discount for those who join before the launch.

I don't have a name for it. Don't have a landing page. Don't have anything now.

Would you think this is an stupid idea?

Leo Nagano
@leonagano

👋 Join WIP to participate

Guilherme Rizzo
@gvrizzo

I would never pay for something like this - especially if I don't know the person. So unless they are your friends or you had some previous connection, I think it's going to be hard. Also, is this B2B or B2C?

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Aleks Bykhun
@caffeinum

Can you start collecting their job offers right away, and maybe post them to newsletter as for now? Do the work manually while you don't have a product.

My friend had recently launched a job board using no-code tools and had gained some traction. Here's his story (google translate, original is in russian): translate.google.com/translat…

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Leo Nagano
@leonagano

Yes, I think that's the best option to start with. Do everything manually without charging anyone and see if it sticks

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Leo Nagano
@leonagano

Sure thing. Will be very difficult to make people pay for it giving the fact that they don't know me, it's a cold email, asking for money.....

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Jan Klosowski
@klos

Why are you doing this? Is it that hard to get something without money? If you didn't feel excited enough to buy a domain and put some simple landing online, are you even sure that you want to do it?

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