I have an idea, now what?

[Nano1778]

Final Edit: Thank you all so much, I now know what I need to do to move forward!

[davis196]

Ok so I have just thought of a good idea for a crypto startup, I am not going to get into detail because I have just thought of it and would rather keep this idea to myself but where do I go from here? The idea involves creating a new blockchain and allowing users to create their own tokens with ease similar to ethereum erc-20 tokens but of course for an entirely different purpose. Do I need to get this copyrighted so that no one can take or copy my idea before I even start. I don't have money or time to hire lawyers and go through vigorous legalities so can I just get started? And what should I do and how should I do it to get started. I don't know how to code cryptocurrencies but I plan to learn.

You want to create a brand new blockchain,but you don`t know how to code?
Perhaps it would be better to fork some existing blockchain, instead of creating a brand new from scratch.
Such project would require a few million dollars and a big team of developers and marketers.
You will have to launch an ICO,but this is very expensive nowadays.
I`m not sure that you will be able to patent your idea.A US patent costs around 60,000 USD.
Where are you from?

[KennyPowers]

There are many different aspects to cover when launching a project. First, you'll want to check what other ICOs/projects are doing. If you don't have basics of project management, you'll want to study that a little to at least get the general concept.
IMHO you can divide the work to be done in three sections:
Development
Marketing
Legal

1) Development - start off with a concept of a whitepaper, keep it to yourself but having things written down will clear your own thoughts on what is to be done and about what you need to think about.
Check out other whitepapers to get a feel what others are doing and what are they covering, you'll also get some ideas from them. If you don't understand the programming part you'll probably need someone to do it, but writing what your program needs to do is the input for the programming part (e.g. google "flow chart"). This way you can start having something to further think about. Also you can start discovering platforms where you can build your thing, because developing a blockchain is maybe a little too optimistic. Platform examples are ETH, EOS, ADA, XLM, NEO as top 20, and many others like ARK, NEBLIO..
Also, you'll need to separate what you can and can't do in the near future and you'll need to pick a moment when you want your idea to launch. Some ICOs don't have a product (or even a prototype) and some have. In both cases there is success, but you'll need to find that fine line by doing some research and applying methods similar successful projects do (in terms of how you'll handle things at the stage you're at)

2) Marketing - Having an excellent idea or even a product is only half way of having success in this market. Since you're not a company made of "all-stars" (e.g. dude from MIT, worked at Google etc.) and you probably don't have all the connections and resources those type of people & institutions have, you'll need to find a way to attract the community differently. Having a constant interaction with the community is a proven method of keeping the faith of your potential investors (one example I can think of is Stealthcoin, which has basically 1 "unknown" developer, but his constant work and interaction through e.g. discord, slack is enough to keep investors in believeing/staying with the project. There are other methods also, research and find one that suits you.

3) Legal - I don't know much about this, maybe someone else will comment. Because of the unclear regulatory future of the crypto industry nowadays it is common for ICO starters to state that they don't have any responsibility about basically anything (example is EOS). However, being legally covered/obligated puts more trust in the investors.

I'm open for further discussion and I hope I helped your cause a little. Good luck!

[Nano1778]

Thank you both for your responses they have helped very much! My project is relatively a simple concept and I would want to make it so that it wouldn't really need to be "ran" too much by a team of workers and that at some point it would be self sustaining. So due to this for my project I wouldn't need a HUGE amount of money for startup through an ICO.

But my question is can I run this project and create my idea without knowing how to code and bringing people on a team to do it for me? And if so has this been done by other projects that any of you may know if?

[Nauticus Supervisor]

It sounds like you're going to need to recruit or collaborate with others from each aspect of the project. IT, writers and marketing are probably the main ones you will need for now. You may have a great idea, but you will not only need someone to help you market this product or service but also writers who can turn your ideas into words that is easy and comprehensive for people to understand, and possibly want to invest in your project. From experience, it is extremely tedious (but also crucial) to make sure that everything that is written on the whitepaper and website is accurate.  

A lot of ICOs don't have an actual product or service yet, and that can be a lot harder to market. You need to start talking and getting into the community (if you haven't already). From there you can very roughly gather interest for your project. As time goes by you'll probably need to have a marketing team to tackle the social media side.

As for your question yes you can bring on a team to do it for you, but you'll need to have an understanding of how capable the team is and what skills they are going to bring to the table.

[DrakeDG]

Thank you both for your responses they have helped very much! My project is relatively a simple concept and I would want to make it so that it wouldn't really need to be "ran" too much by a team of workers and that at some point it would be self sustaining. So due to this for my project I wouldn't need a HUGE amount of money for startup through an ICO.

But my question is can I run this project and create my idea without knowing how to code and bringing people on a team to do it for me? And if so has this been done by other projects that any of you may know if?

Absolutely No OP. Blockchain is different you need to understand and study first how to code to make your program run. Its not like a free website template on the web you can use anytime. Unless your very knowledgeable in coding a program then probably you can make one, but the problem will start to arise as you progress, first is the marketing, second is legal, Unless you have friends in legal side that can advise you. Creating a Coin is not that easy as you think.  

[Reatim]

It sounds like you're going to need to recruit or collaborate with others from each aspect of the project. IT, writers and marketing are probably the main ones you will need for now. You may have a great idea, but you will not only need someone to help you market this product or service but also writers who can turn your ideas into words that is easy and comprehensive for people to understand, and possibly want to invest in your project. From experience, it is extremely tedious (but also crucial) to make sure that everything that is written on the whitepaper and website is accurate.  

A lot of ICOs don't have an actual product or service yet, and that can be a lot harder to market. You need to start talking and getting into the community (if you haven't already). From there you can very roughly gather interest for your project. As time goes by you'll probably need to have a marketing team to tackle the social media side.

As for your question yes you can bring on a team to do it for you, but you'll need to have an understanding of how capable the team is and what skills they are going to bring to the table.

Of course you can bring your own team to create the project for you. Almost 80-90% of ICO's are like that. Someone has an idea he like to put up but he/she has no coding experience. So he bring or hire a team to work under him. So he is the main driver, he oversees everything and make the final judgement. You just need to draw the concept with them so that they understand what you really wanted to realized at the end.

[DrakeDG]

It sounds like you're going to need to recruit or collaborate with others from each aspect of the project. IT, writers and marketing are probably the main ones you will need for now. You may have a great idea, but you will not only need someone to help you market this product or service but also writers who can turn your ideas into words that is easy and comprehensive for people to understand, and possibly want to invest in your project. From experience, it is extremely tedious (but also crucial) to make sure that everything that is written on the whitepaper and website is accurate.  

A lot of ICOs don't have an actual product or service yet, and that can be a lot harder to market. You need to start talking and getting into the community (if you haven't already). From there you can very roughly gather interest for your project. As time goes by you'll probably need to have a marketing team to tackle the social media side.

As for your question yes you can bring on a team to do it for you, but you'll need to have an understanding of how capable the team is and what skills they are going to bring to the table.

Of course you can bring your own team to create the project for you. Almost 80-90% of ICO's are like that. Someone has an idea he like to put up but he/she has no coding experience. So he bring or hire a team to work under him. So he is the main driver, he oversees everything and make the final judgement. You just need to draw the concept with them so that they understand what you really wanted to realized at the end.

The problem is he doesn't have a penny to spend on a team for his/her ICO project, IMO.

[KennyPowers]

Thank you both for your responses they have helped very much! My project is relatively a simple concept and I would want to make it so that it wouldn't really need to be "ran" too much by a team of workers and that at some point it would be self sustaining. So due to this for my project I wouldn't need a HUGE amount of money for startup through an ICO.

But my question is can I run this project and create my idea without knowing how to code and bringing people on a team to do it for me? And if so has this been done by other projects that any of you may know if?

As others have replied, that has been the case with many ICOs.
One example that comes to mind is Oyster Pearl, which had Bruno Block (founder) in the beginning, and when the project rolled out he started hiring people from all over the world
Start with this article https://medium.com/oysterprotocol/oyster-pearl-team-update-a40fd8abed83 and you can dyor from there if you're interested.
The difference is that Bruno is a dev, and without a dev you can't even create a ERC20 token just for the ICO, so either learn it yourself (hard way) or find someone that could help and develop the idea together (easier way).
Either way, as Nauticus Supervisor said

you'll need to have an understanding of how capable the team is and what skills they are going to bring to the table.

so check out what clean and well written code looks like (githubs of top20 coins), and try to understand what a good programmer can do and HOW he does it.

There are also examples where community has brought back the "dead" coins (mostly those abandoned by the original developers), PACcoin is a recent example (though nobody knows who the new team is).

When you develop your plan (whitepaper, roadmap etc.) an option is to try to assemble a community (where all involved parties will have some kind of benefit) that will back your idea and help to develop it.
Look @ how Solaris (XLR) is doing things (e.g. https://twitter.com/cryptotrader85/status/969091050139561985 )

[Quidat]

Ok so I have just thought of a good idea for a crypto startup, I am not going to get into detail because I have just thought of it and would rather keep this idea to myself but where do I go from here? The idea involves creating a new blockchain and allowing users to create their own tokens with ease similar to ethereum erc-20 tokens but of course for an entirely different purpose. Do I need to get this copyrighted so that no one can take or copy my idea before I even start. I don't have money or time to hire lawyers and go through vigorous legalities so can I just get started? And what should I do and how should I do it to get started. I don't know how to code cryptocurrencies but I plan to learn.

Edit: My new question is can I run this project and create my idea without knowing how to code and bringing people on a team to do it for me? And if so has this been done by other projects that any of you may know if?

Then you are basically trying to say on creating a new platform which would be similar to eth. Then i would tell you that this would be a good idea on creating another platform but as you mentioned on here that you dont have any coding skills or do have the money to start out.This is the hardest part and the reality we are facing on.We do have the idea but we dont have the capability on making it running or developed.If you can able to entrust your developing team then its your own choice.

[SoliDCoiNs]

Get the legal things done first, then figure out marketing and after you sell out the tokens or receive an investment, start with the product development. Just know that the pace in the cryptocurrency world is huge and that work has to be done fast and before the deadlines hit. Also don't do the same thing that everyone comes out with, we don't need another wonky exchange or another payment token, a P2P system that everybody else makes in the crypto ecosystem. Try to get out of the box and think what the industry is still lacking, there are a lot of untouched niches that could be covered quite easily. Whatever it is, stay on your toes, the market will eat you up and leave you without any money..
Good luck everyone!

[WorldBiz project]

Maybe join another ICO/project at first? Once you have enough experience and understand how that works from the inside,then you may do what other guys suggested.

[Nano1778]

Wow thanks for all the responses they are helping alot

It sounds like you're going to need to recruit or collaborate with others from each aspect of the project. IT, writers and marketing are probably the main ones you will need for now. You may have a great idea, but you will not only need someone to help you market this product or service but also writers who can turn your ideas into words that is easy and comprehensive for people to understand, and possibly want to invest in your project. From experience, it is extremely tedious (but also crucial) to make sure that everything that is written on the whitepaper and website is accurate. 

A lot of ICOs don't have an actual product or service yet, and that can be a lot harder to market. You need to start talking and getting into the community (if you haven't already). From there you can very roughly gather interest for your project. As time goes by you'll probably need to have a marketing team to tackle the social media side.

As for your question yes you can bring on a team to do it for you, but you'll need to have an understanding of how capable the team is and what skills they are going to bring to the table.

Of course you can bring your own team to create the project for you. Almost 80-90% of ICO's are like that. Someone has an idea he like to put up but he/she has no coding experience. So he bring or hire a team to work under him. So he is the main driver, he oversees everything and make the final judgement. You just need to draw the concept with them so that they understand what you really wanted to realized at the end.

Yes this is what I am thinking of doing and if 80-90% of ICOs are done this way then that gives me a lot more confidence!

Maybe join another ICO/project at first? Once you have enough experience and understand how that works from the inside,then you may do what other guys suggested.

Thats a really good idea but Im not really sure I have anything to offer to a team.

[shield132]

Idea can die easily without releasing of it.
You can't do it alone and there is no way to trust others for creatinf your idea, you have no guarantees that they won't hang on you.
I suggest you to go in crypto meetups, make a friends (developers for example), it's better to have experience in real life, I think it's the only correct way to feel safe.
Also I think trying to contact Envato developers isn't bad idea (I suggested both two to other user once), there are many talented people.

[Sinecoin]

If you going to attempt to put a team together your going have to have bring to something to the table.  If your bringing people to code, market, etc then what are you good for?  The most important thing is to make yourself valuable.

[Nano1778]

If you going to attempt to put a team together your going have to have bring to something to the table.  If your bringing people to code, market, etc then what are you good for?  The most important thing is to make yourself valuable.

Well its my idea and I would own the business and manage it so thats what id bring to the table.

[GamerSky]

You can get the team to sign an NDA, that's how you'd make sure none of them will steal your idea, as for the tokens/coins part you can get one of the developers to do something, and use another one to review it, offer bonus for the reviewer if he finds any sketchy codes, and make sure no one knows about it so they don't make deals with each others. Also, you can (before releasing) outsource code review to another company (another NDA here).

[Baoo]

In general, your idea is amazing, but it is a bit complicated. And if you are not professional in that field of this project or idea, then you  cannot apply your goal successfully in reality. Furthermore, maybe you need a partner who have a big knowledge of of Blockchain and codes  or you need to learn about the code of blockchain
Good luck    , and I hope  that your idea will success.

[Nano1778]

In general, your idea is amazing, but it is a bit complicated. And if you are not professional in that field of this project or idea, then you  cannot apply your goal successfully in reality. Furthermore, maybe you need a partner who have a big knowledge of of Blockchain and codes  or you need to learn about the code of blockchain
Good luck    , and I hope  that your idea will success.

Well thank you even though you dont really know that much about my idea haha.

[warningsigns]

Without money your project won’t move an inch forward. That’s the reality you need to realize and accept. You will need cold hard cash or coins to transform your plan or idea into something tangible.

I know I know and we all heard it all, there’s no harm in dreaming about big things but without the right resources it will remain a dream.

Patenting is expensive. Focus on what’s important and relevant. Unless you are reasonably certain that this idea is sustainable and potentially lucrative, you should invest your resources wisely.