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Comment by nmccutcheon | Hacker News Reader

Okay so as recommended. I am 28 years old. I am starting business school next year and really hoping to get a couple more projects under my belt. Recently a team of us developed an algorithm which predicts stock market movement. We are still developing the algorithm and automation behind the scenes but are seeing some very good returns over the last several weeks.

I can always provide more about myself, but my idea is an app that hopes to improve the customer experience, by connecting local business and customers in a way that has not been done.

Hope this help, I think 50/50 can work and I am willing to learn or do what it takes. I have been told I am an extremely resourceful person and not afraid to put myself out there to make a project succeed.

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Thanks for providing more details.

Your start market prediction algorithm sounds really neat. Let me know when I can invest :)

Often times, 50/50 partnerships fail because of differing expectations. What are you expecting from the other half of the partnership? What will you be able to contribute?

Many ideas can be validated by with manually, before software is written.

The CEO of [Treatings](http://treatings.co) used a spreadsheet to keep track of users, and sent all the emails by hand until he validated the idea. Off the top of my head, AirPair, ZeroCater, and WuFoo were all founded similarly.

Programmers are more amenable to partnerships where you've got a manual process that can automated, than an idea.

How are you going to improve the customer experience?

Ah! thank you! I actually think that may be a really good place to start =]

Personally, I would be able to contribute the other half of the operation. I have some funding lined up already as well as some connection for expansion and marketing.

Just to clarify the manual concept..

The owners of the above companies began with say their website, and then started to build a customer base before adopting an app or further development?

Groupon started as a wordpress site. http://tomloverro.com/2010/08/19/groupon-1-0-started-on-a-wo...

For your idea there is a, 'secret sauce' that you fake until you have traction.

Say for example, your app improves the customer experience by drawing a smiley face on every receipt. You think that customers love seeing a smiley face so much that they'll come back the next day.

Rather than build a complex point of sale system that prints smiley faces on receipts, you do something simpler.

You hide under the counter, and draw a smiley face on each receipt yourself.

If people come back(validate your idea) then you can start signing up store owners.

Having several pre-sales, plus some stats about how your system demonstrably improves the customer experience will help you find an engineer to build out your idea.

If you share your USP, we can tell you how to manually validate your idea.

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