You could probably get a team, pay them in equity, try getting some investors to invest in this. Social media blows up if it’s good, if it has a feature no one else are offering you’ll eventually have alot of users on your app

Yeah blowing up as a social media app basically comes down to what niche you fill

Honestly timing is also very important, i feel like every social media app has it’s 15 minutes and then userbase starts declining. There’ll be an opportunity for your app to be the next big thing but rn i feel like nothing can compete with Tik Tok. I’d work on the idea and launch in 2 or 3 years

To increase userbase at the start you need an app people really want to use (or they'll be off it super quick) and you need to know people personally who would use it. And would have to convince them to convince their friends to try it out. You'd have to push it super hard. It's a lot of sales type work initially which can suck

What worked for facebook initially is they made it exclusive. That helps a lot if you can actually pull it off but better to not ignore potential customers

when people say build it, you dont need a fully working & scalable product. you just need a low level prototype. it's a literal pre-set cycle; there are explicit stages and there is basically a straight up list of linear actions to follow to make a startup. it's incredibly easy and vastly overblown for how "impressive" it is.
bring a prototype to investment rounds/bootcamps - you can search VCs in your area. VCs & Angel investors are literal smooth brain brainlets who will invest in anything, they deserve to have their money taken from them. firstly, make sure to actually incorporate. search up some buzzwords and make a succinct presentation alongside market research. present it alongside your prototype. hire contract HR & PR. get a co-founder to help w/ hiring engineers/etc. post-seed investment

Don’t even get me started on starting a start up

setup a team and build up your product (you will need funds, so need to loans etc). Eventually you will have the investors knocking at your door if product is good as your company grows.

Also get a good lawyer and accountant from the beginning

start up tech sounds like the hardest most saturated s*** on earth

I remember reading that Snapchat didn't make a penny for 12 years, then it began turning over a profit. Seems like you need a lot of patient investors above all

Yeah because there’s a new startup wanting to be the next Facebook every f***in day

perhaps finding other small startups to network and gain experience will help you with your journey to complete your start up.

jus tell me the idea bro i got u

In to read later

Imma keep it real with you chief a social media app as a first startup probably wont work

If you can find a way to sell it to professionals to cut their costs or something tho it might

Step 1: Learn C++

I’ll be back for step 2

Op has never seen the social network

You never seen the social network or look at how twitter took off?

you make it, then start getting people on it, most likely using resticted access to boost its appeal

you'll need seed money for servers and s*** too

if s*** gets popular quick enough, companies will start looking at it and come to you.

Also, i think you're better off making a niche sm app like tik tok/snap. as in not usual that would compete with facebook or twitter

as someone that did a couple months as an unpaid intern for a social network...Id just rec going to the entrepreneur club at your school, offering them equity, and finding a meshing point for your vision

if you can find the right guy, business students who specifically look for the start up lane have so much f***ing drive, you won't have to manage anything you don't want to. Just make sure you smooth over the legalese before even linking up with someone, bc 9 times out of 10 they're going to know more than u (I was also a CS major at one point)

if you can get past that fundraising stage, I think you'll mentally feel better

I started my own start up, it's a robotics based business but the MVP grind and seed capital begging is the same.

Honestly just build it, make 100 demo users, don't lie to investors and say they're real, just show them how the service works with the demo accounts. That's enough to get you seed capital if it's a good idea.

Best way to start getting real users is to either do a giant ass flashy launch with a lot of ads, or to make a platform that actually works better for something people need. Like are you making a competitor to instagram, VSCO, Reddit? Advertise there.

You aint goin anywhere without knowing how to advertise, CS will only get you so far. Aint no one investing in an idea that's for sure. Rent or build a server and get writing.

TBH though taking investments is always desperate and/or dumb, just grind your MVP and start netting a profit, f*** investors, they aint donators, they'll take their money back and then some whilst f***ing your business over.

You don't need seed money for servers, that's a myth. Just design the website smart, you can always generate more money from impressions via ads than it takes to host them.

Most idiots do take seed capital to build their servers up though, just like most idiots spend 7 years paying off their car, doesn't mean it's necessary.

True i don't know all that much, but the second part is a good point.

wouldn't it depend on the traffic you're getting though?