So I have an idea that could be worth millions or more with the right execution. It could be like Uber for a different industry, and completely put an entire industry out of business, or at least put a huge dent in it.

It just hit me yesterday and I've been thinking about it and I know it could be massive. Problem is I don't have much capital and I also don't have the internet knowledge to put it together - a lot of it is web-based.

I could raise capital on kickstarter but someone could knock off my idea.

Obviously nobody here will believe me, and that's OK, lol, but I'd love suggestions on how to find a business partner who is trustworthy and not a hack. So far I've used Craigslist and only found hacks, people with low integrity and ethics, who exaggerate their expertise.

I have some experience in business and the most important quality to me is integrity. I need to find someone who is a man of their word, won't backstab me, and will work with me, not against me, to achieve a very ambitious goal.

Thanks for any tips!

Any wealthy relatives?

Any estimation on cost for a prototype? If may be something you can bootstrap for a period of time.

Not money that's as important as a web developer... maybe I'd give them equity in exchange for free developing... or I could use kickstarter to raise money perhaps and scrap the partner.

I'd hate to ask relatives. Just seems bad... money and blood and all

Have you typed out your concept? It'll allow you to flesh out your idea and have a presentable for a potential partner.

It's going to be web or mobile based? Why don't you get started on some type of mockup? With a mockup it will be much easier to map out what the product will look like and in turn it will become easier to price out. Balsamiq is a great tool and you can get a free trial.

I think you should get started right away. If you can disrupt an industry, it can be big.

I think with your lack of technical background and lack of capital- you will be unable to find a developer that meets your specifications. I think you should pivot your focus to dominating your local major city. Could the business model be operated through cell/sms? Based on your two posts so far, I'm not convinced you are an internet marketing wizard. Best case scenario- you go viral, have a weak action plan, get out executed.

Your focus should be on acquiring local customers cheaply & focus on laying the foundation of a scalable business. You can manage the cell/sms part at first yourself- you will be able to outsource it once you can confidently write a script. You will be focused on refining your target market. You will network. You will sell. Finding "drivers" or "sellers" is easy if you can actually make other people money. The key is to making money is by providing a platform in which others can make money(amazon, uber, airbnb, etc).

You can also supplement your local marketing efforts with social media. Social media should be a supplemental focus, not a primary focus. You can focus on refining your target market and minimizing customer acquisition costs.

Now you have a solid infrastructure in place. You are dominating your local market, have solid cash flow and an investible business. Now you just need to find some gasoline to pour onto the fire. You will have the opportunity to choose an investor rather than seek an investor. Now you can focus all your effort into launching your web/app business model nationally.

Happy to have a private chat with you OP

this is me - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30...eting-1419944/

I am sure quite a few people in BFI can vouch for me at this stage.

Why should anyone care about your idea if you're not willing to invest in it first? If your idea is super easy to replicate, and only requires $, why does the business partner need you?

You mentioned integrity, but what about your own integrity? You have: no $, no skills, no prospects. Who's the hack, you or the guys from craigslist?

Don't post anymore about this - go learn how to prototype it yourself.

You have good forums i think blackhat one of them

Never heard of basamiq! Thanks for that tip.

I just started so I haven't done much but scribble some things on a piece of paper. And I've tinkered with names on godaddy. I know it will be hard to hand my baby over to someone who will have power over the website. That is why I'd want a partner who develops sites. But then a person working for me would have less control thatn a partner, so that would be good. I just lack the capital.

Thanks for your post.

But I'll need a website first, since it is website based. I couldn't do this business without a great website, with lots of tools for users. Take Uber - I don't think they could have had a business without an app that could support rapid growth. I could be wrong though.

I will pm you. Not sure affiliate marketing is the right play for this site, but possibly. If it is it's good to have an expert here.

There are various thing you can contribute to a project but an idea is worth 0 without at least some minimal already working prototype. I assure you there are thousands of people who had your idea before and more of them think of it every day.

Here are things you can do if you want to roll it with it:

1)raise money and pay competitive salary to people you hire
2)learn some programming yourself, make a working prototype then look for people willing to work with you on it

1) is a good idea if you feel strong as a manager/businessman. No reasonable person is going to agree to "you do all the work and if it works out we split profit" which is equivalent to "maybe I give them equity in exchange for work". The problem is that you are giving equity of something not worth anything yet. Even if you find a sucker (likely someone young and not experienced) the reality of the situation is going to settle pretty soon for them and the resentment is going to grow.

2)is the best way. Chances that you have a valuable idea in tech not being a tech person are close to 0. Even if by some miracle you thought of something really special you are very likely missing important obstacles/details like existing patents, technology limitations, costs of infrastructure, work required to get it done etc.

Go learn to program a bit. Try making a prototype then talk to people, you will have something real to put on the table.

That seems pretty silly to be honest. Most CEOs are good at leadership, sales, and people. Usually skills opposed to being a good programmer. I have tried to learn programming and after about 5 minutes I wanted to jump in front of the nearest freight liner.

Besides, it's not a technology; it's a service. Maybe I wasn't clear about that from the start. But basically the technology that it would run on would be the same that is currently used on sites found around the world. I was thinking I could contact a site developer for a similar, non competing service and have them do my site. I could negotiate it down because they have already done something similar, so it would be really easy for them.

Still there is the problem of money. But one thing always separates a man with a dream from money: a sale. I'm sure if I can flesh out my idea on paper and get in front of an investor, I would have an investment.

Thinking about it more, I don't want a business partner. That would just be messy. I want an investor with some experience who could chime in from time to time, but be mostly hands off. (It's his money, so he'll do what he wants, haha).

The bad news is there is already a competitor. They look like they have a team of about 20, with funding, and a pretty good site. I don't like it, but I'm biased. I don't think they're doing it properly, but they do have a lot of things figured out that I haven't figured out yet. So that's good and bad news. It's good because it proves there is a market.

I wish I had someone to talk to about this........ such a huge opportunity

You should work in sales/business development for the competitor. You have a passion for the industry and product so leverage that by being a great sales rep.

If your idea already exists is there really any harm in sharing it here

F it. I'll make another post on here where 2plus2 can analyze the business together.

The competitor is YourMechanic

Well, they've been in business since 2012 and are not a household name yet

It's a good idea, but the implementation is hard. Youd need to be able to scale out quality and service, which is extremely difficult if not impossible. I would think the technology issues wouldn't be that bad if you kept the options limited.

The issue isn't getting people to use the service, it's controlling quality and cost. If I wanted an oil change I would like a service like this. If I wanted more serious work done, I'd rather take it to someone I trust. Obviously he would have some sort of service where he would pick up the vehicle, service it fully and return it to the owner when the work is complete, at a comparable price point. That's difficult to pull off. He still needs the equipment, the mechanics, the pick up/drop off costs, and advertising.

Without an edge in controlling supplies or labor costs, the project seems enormously difficult. Putting it together and selling the idea to a major company like jiffy lube or pep boys may be interesting, but I don't even know how that would work.

Good idea op, bad business. Looking for a need/convenience and providing it is a good way to come up with a good idea, but being able to execute it and still make a profit are even more important.

Great post, thank you. I have actually come to the same conclusion over the past week. There are just sooo many moving parts (no pun intended) to make it a difficult task. And not something that I'd want to kill myself trying to figure out. I agree that people wouldn't want some hack working on their car for major issues. You said oil change, and I have been thinking that that could be a better option - mobile brake service, tune ups, and oil changes. Much smaller jobs, that most mechanics can easily do. The temptation is to get greedy, but this could be more feasible. Anyway, I don't think I'm going to continue with it.

But, I am talking to my mobile mechanic friend about going into business locally. We are kicking around the idea of having a business with lots of mechanics, and sending them out to do jobs. The major problem we are face is, most mechanics doing side work won't want to give up a large cut of their fee. A mobile mechanic is cheaper to begin with - then cut their fee by having me take half of it? Seems like a hard sell.

Another idea that sprang from that is, a marketing/sales organization for these side working mechanics. I think this could be a niche that isn't really explored.

But really I would like starting a business with my mechanic. I could do sales, and he could do mechanics. We can start small - weekend warriors, and then branch out as we grow, and hire a few guys. Again, the problem is how I'm going to make any money out of it, since my cut will be so small. I'm thinking 20%. We'd need a high volume of guys. Or hire young guys who can work for less, or immigrants, but still they won't be happy with half cut.

Just spitballing here.

If you want a more streamlined idea, try doing just one thing and finding a way to cut costs to make it profitable.

At one of my old jobs they had a local auto shop offer a service of changing the oil in your car while you are at work. Leave you car keys at the security desk and give them your credit card number and location of the car and they will take care of it. I'd go to work, call them at 9am, leave the keys with the guard, and do my thing. At the end of the day I'd stop by the guard desk, go to my car, have the receipt and details on a printed piece of paper on my seat and drive home. Easy as pie and it costs me exactly the same as it would if I took it in myself, without the wait.

Maybe you should try something exactly like that. Hand out fliers at local businesses advertising only oil changes. Make the price competitive. Find a way to lower costs by buying oil or oil filters in bulk (or however mechanics save money by scaling up).

Obviously there is a lot more detail involved, but I'm just trying to guide you into streamlining the idea. You want to start with something you can absolutely handle and that you can do well. Whether it's doing automotive work or making hamburgers, if you can do it well, sell a lot of it, and control costs, you have a winning formula. If you try to tackle too much at once, especially without expertise, you are absolutely doomed to fail.

Good luck bro.

So your plan is to take a super obvious idea that is already being executed by funded tech people who are a couple of years ahead of you...

BUT you don't have the skills to do any of the work to create it really. So you want a 'partner' who will execute this genius plan you have for equity?

I guess I'm not understanding what you bring to the table. You're a salesman... This business is about putting salespeople out of business (the service advisors at car dealerships specifically). Your skillset has very little value here.

I've told you this isn't a very good idea nicely in the past. I hate to crap on your dreams here, but this is a really really bad idea. You haven't said anything other than 'I believe in it' to justify why it's a good idea. This is not how smart business people operate.

You are definitely right that in a few years someone is going to do this correctly and you're going to say 'I had that idea years ago!' Lots of people did dude. Ask Mark Zuckerburg how much ideas are worth and how much execution is.

Maybe, just maybe it's because you provide no value to begin with.

I came up with the idea of the first down line on TV for the NFL two years before it was implemented. Still butthurt about that.

The most tilting thing about this whole thread is that you've clearly never worked in the industry. I managed the service department for a Honda dealership for 1.5 years. I'm telling you that mechanics are VERY aware of exactly how they are paid. Right now how people pay for service on their vehicles falls into three categories.

1) Service department at a car dealer. This is the most expensive option. Parts frequently have 50% profit margins and service is sold for 90+ dollars per 'labor hour'. A labor hour is an arbitrary number assigned to each type of repair that is used to bill customers and pay technicians. Usually the dealership pays their technicians (who are very skilled generally) 20-35 dollars per labor hour. You cannot match this option for credibility as they have the name of the car maker on the building and certified technicians.

2) Mechanics shops. These tend to be significantly cheaper than car dealers. Frequently the sell you parts at a smallish markup and try to source the cheapest available parts. The best shops with loyal customer bases charge the same per labor hour rates as dealers, but most charge closer to half. These are your apps main competition.

3) Side work by mechanics that is generally sold on Craigslist or to people who know the technician personally. This gets done on an ad hoc basis where the person who needs the work usually goes out and buys the parts themselves and negotiates how much money they are going to pay the tech for the job. This generally pays the tech more than his job does, but costs the customer significantly less than it would cost for options 1) or 2). Auto parts stores thrive on this exact type of trade.

You should know all of this already, but you clearly don't. You're just like all the other wannabe business people out there who start businesses without doing basic market research first. People in this thread told you about your competition and now I'm telling you about the market you want to be in. Please explain to us what value YOU bring to this besides having a really obvious idea that other people who actually work/live in this industry are already executing.

One last thing: technicians are very savvy about getting paid as much as possible. Most of the smarter blue collar people are. Truck drivers, mechanics, and construction people fall into this category. The remotely competent ones are not cheap and never will be. They will work for whoever is paying the best with the best working conditions. You want their money? You have to earn the **** out of it.

Man you're realy making some wild ass assumptions about me that are actually insulting but its a forum so whatever. I have worked blue collar jobs. I respect mechanics. That's part of the appeal of my idea. I want to help mechanics find side work. The problem is a lot of them are foreign or bad at sales. Thats where id come in. If a mechanic could get side work at a decent rate, where its fair and worth their time, why wouldn't they?

And again, im not saying i have the answer yet.

I'm making assumptions based on your posts. You have no data to back up your assertion that many of them are foreign or bad at sales. It's actually quite the opposite. Every mechanic I've ever met hustled his ass off away from work. They do not need your help.

This is why it tilts me so much. You are trying to solve a problem for people whose business you don't understand using technology you don't understand. You're solving the wrong problem.

You're trying to cut the shops out by directly connecting the mechanic with the customer. You're trying to solve the credibility problem that outside mechanics MIGHT have in dealing with people like yourself.

The less price sensitive people do not want to deal with a foreign mechanic who isn't certified in any particular way. You have to be using the certified people to even get them to let you look at their car. The certified people don't have the problem you are describing. The non certified people just use craiglist to sell their services and are absolutely NOT going to cut you in for 20% of the hilariously cheap amounts of money they charge for car repair. It's a huge catch 22.

You still haven't typed a single sentence that proves you have any idea what you are talking about. I was nice initially because I figured I could help you out of this disaster waiting to happen while still being polite. Then you kept going. Then you said tilting stuff. Now I'm tilted. That's my fault, but it's your problem now