alt Hacker News> When I asked an AI how I would go about judging interest, building, raising funds, and manufacturing, it seems doable but expensive
Just a thought: make a small business out of setting up people's home networks and small business networks. The cost is negligible, you will learn about unmet demand, and you will be able to reach people who aren't technical in the process. It will cost you some money, in the sense that your service fees would almost certainly be less than your day job. On the other hand, potential customers would be paying you for market research and product development. In some respects, the market research will be more valuable in the sense that you are working with potential customers.
I say potential customers because selling a kit will reach different people. On the otherhand, it will tell you what has to go into that kit. For example: I doubt that flashing DD-WRT to existing hardware will suffice. There will be some people interested in that (someone else does the research, fear of bricking), but would those people commit to buying and setting up your product? Throw in a setup wizard that makes setting up ad blocking, VPN, or anything else that major vendors don't have much interest in simplifying, and you will likely have more success.
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This is an idea that a platform like Kickstarter used to be great at validating. I did this in 2012 and found around 500 users willing to pay for an open source photo management software.
Finding customers will be difficult. I suggest finding a couple and then talking with them to learn what they want first and then understand their willingness to purchase by offering them a device at a cost.
For me - I’m in the market. I flashed my Asus router with Merlin. I’d do the same for my next router. What might lead me to buy my next device from you?
- I like to support independent vendors when I can. (See caveats below) - I would like a built in way to keep the firmware up to date … mine is old. - I would want to understand the commercial equivalent router based on specs to make it easier for me to decide if it will meet my needs. - The rest is provided by DD-wrt.
Happy to be user #1. Contact in profile.
As someone who has worked for MSPs serving small and mid sized businesses, I would not do this. They aren't going to pay you monthly, they have very little free cash for invisible things like this. There's just no value add here. If anything goes wrong, you're on the hook. You'll need insurance for sure. They may not pay you. You'll need a lawyer on retainer. If their printer stops working, you'll have to prove it wasn't you and you're not getting paid for that time.
Stay far far away from small businesses unless you want it to be your full time job.