Official Scoutle Blog

The automated social networking idea became more serious when I thought about visualizing it. I thought about a little man that would actually behave like a mouse cursor. I would just activate him and he would do everything for me, on Facebook for instance. But I also thought about how funny it would be to know you friends would have just the same man on their computers. Why bother going to Facebook at all?

In that case, if it all would be automated, you just as well could send messages to people you don’t know. Because right now, one doesn’t just invite people you don’t know to join their friendlist. Sometimes you get an invitation like “We met yesterday on the street.” and that would be a meeting of 0,5 seconds on the bike. But if you would automate networking you can really find interesting people because you would be able to get to know each other, find out if you are interesting and neither of you can be blamed ‘being weird to invite someone he/she doesn’t know or ‘just doing it to increase the number of friends’. Automated should be so much more honest!

Thing is, that would only be interesting if you want a relationship. Otherwise you have nothing to offer, only your ideas or opinions. And those you can find on blogs! That is how Scoutle was born.

They say you should not rush things… I went to work with this concept right away. While working on it, the concept was growing. All things I had thought about earlier were very welcome additions. It was so cool I had finally found something. My girlfriend said she would wait for two weeks to take me serious. I rushed it and had to do some parts twice but… Automated Social Networking was born!

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”.

Of course, you will have to have an idea of how your startup would look like, what it does, why people need it and why they would use it. But to get going you just as well think of how to get press attention by the time you’re online.

I started to think about new technologies and what would be cool as well. I wanted to support OpenID. Pretty new back then so I thought it would be cool for early adopters to try my startup, even though I didn’t even know what that would be by that time. I also read about guidelines. I found out that for people with sight disabilities, image controlled websites are very hard to navigate. So that made me want to have a text-based website. One that would also work in the Lynx browser. I also noticed that language is a barrier but brings people together as well –> I wanted my startup to be easy to translate in more languages.

I researched all sorts of websites, mostly those that were succesful and the ones that could have been a great success but had failed. Why? For instance, I decided I wanted a special Press Room (A reporter may like the idea of you thinking of him and help him out). I noticed that advertisements can only be done when users can hardly see them. I did not think of any business model, even though so many books told me I should.

I wrote down things I hated on websites I liked. Advertisements, obligations, privacy concerns and such. Although I may have written down a lot, most of those notes are gone. I may have lost them. But writing it down helps you think.

Don’t say “I have millions of users in one year from now!”. That only drives you wild. You may however want to plan a little timeline.

In February 2007 together with my girlfriend I went to Milan, Italy, for about 7 months. She went there for studies and I figured I should join her. I had saved a lot of money in 2006 so I would not have to worry about that. I had one more client and the money I earned with that project could cover the rent and expenses. I figured it would be a very good idea to leave home and focus on my startup in an other environment. I resigned from my work and we left.

Our time in Milan was great and I had a lot of time to think about a startup. However, I also met a lot of new friends and that takes a lot of time as well. I will definitely not say I regret having all the great moments , but if you leave to think… Go to a deserted island and not to a big dynamic city like Milan

I wouldn’t suggest that leaving home is the way to get your idea. It may even hold you away from it. I started several projects in Milan but had to stop after a month or so. For different reasons. The idea was too big for me to handle, Google announced they would start a similar service, I just didn’t like it anymore, I couldn’t be proud of it, it would be very expensive to make or maintain or… I would just forget the idea.

Leaving home to think for 7 months seems weird and absolutely doesn’t guarantee anything. It may help but can also discourage you. It was frustrating sometimes I just couldn’t think of something while my bank account was going empty faster than I hoped it would.

When you’re in the stage of thinking, don’t stop working, studying or earning money. Nothing is changed. You’re only thinking more about your ‘idea’ but giving it all up will only give you more to worry about. It will have a negative influence on that ‘moment of truth’. Don’t think about the future afteryou have launched your startup. Continue to live the way you did.

I just continued to go to work, made websites as a freelancer. What you do need however, is support. Tell people about your dream of starting up a startup. Try to find out who thinks you’re an idiot and who believes in you. In my case, I have many dreams and people around me mostly wait for two weeks to take me seriously. I can’t blame the though. You will see most people wish you all the luck but don’t believe you will hold on longer than a month, others may just say they like it and some will ask you to keep posted. The ones that ask you how it goes and although you may hate it, those people are likely to tell you what they think. “Have you thought about this and that?” “You know, I think people would need…” You may find that annoying and say:”I have already thought about that.” or think “he, dude. I am the one starting here so don’t tell me what to start.” The people that are interested in this stage believe in you and will be likely to help you out later on.

Find support. Don’t keep a list of who is friendly and who isn’t and promise only the friendly people they can swim in your pool when you’re a millionaire. Just don’t bother people with your ideas that are jealous and may discourage you. They don’t like hearing it, and you don’t like them answering anyway.