Official Scoutle Blog

So I had thought about a lot of things I wanted to implement and what not, but there was still no great idea of a startup. The line ‘think out of the box’… I hate it. It’s like a command from your general but you cannot force yourself into creativity.

I would suggest you just play with all ideas that you find interesting. I started working on several projects. I could use a lot of the scripts and database structures later on so I didn’t throw away time. Time is your only enemy. People asked me whether or not I had found my ‘idea’ yet. That is frustrating. Some are concerned and tell you to give it up, find a job and be happy. But you can only do that when you are satisfied and agree with it. I couldn’t… I just had the feeling the idea would come one day, even though it already took 6 months.

Together with my mother I went to Africa for a month, Kenya, Uganda and Congo (DRC). We had a lot of different experiences. Beautiful moments but also very frighting ones. For one month, I hardly could think of ‘my idea’. I guess that was a very good thing. It helped me deal with the disappointment of not having succeeded in 6 months. In fact, it gave me the energy to start again! Get that idea! Laugh at the people that told you to stop!

Now, I must say that I had a lot of support . Especially from my girlfriend and family. Of course, the fact that my girlfriend still believed in me helped so much. Probably more than I noticed. There may not be many girlfriends to find that just let you play around without showing results for such a long time. We did have our arguments, but I would recommend you to stay open and honest. I didn’t tell her “I have an idea and will let you know it soon”.

So many sites force you to do things. Even when you don’t notice it. Many force you to vote or make other people vote for you. Other websites show in various ways when your last login was, forcing you to visit their site more frequently.

Whatever my startup would be, I wanted that you should not force users in any way. Users will visit a site when they find it useful. If you force them, this will influence their user experience in a negative way. Social network sites may also have many unknown ratings. I hate it when people I never talk to want me in their ‘friend list’, just to have more friends to make them look cool. I also don’t want to be part of such ‘game’, Having to send messages or think “Mm… If I send a message to this person, my other friend will be able to see that so I need to write him something as well otherwise it is not fair.”

This is however killing on a business model where you want your users to come in every single day. But again, I wouldn’t use such a website so I would never be able to convince others to do so.

I compared things I liked with things I disliked. I hate it to be forced but of course I like it when people let me know about something I did, whatever that is. Like people say:”That is a nice picture you uploaded.” or something like “Thank you for your birthday message.” So I wanted a service that could help you get feedback but only honest feedback… If nobody is forced to give you feedback, the feedback you get is more likely to be honest.

Honesty, recognition, appreciation, benefit, relaxed, informal, voluntary. Those words crossed my mind. Just spend time on something you like and get feedback on it.