You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.[1]
Wantrepreneurs are "wannabe entrepreneurs", in the same sense that wanksters are "wannabe gangsters". Someone is saying you want to be seen as an entrepreneur, but have neither the skills, nor the inclination, to actually build anything. It is an insult. They are calling you a "poser". Entrepreneurs who have yet to succeed, but are trying, are just new or unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
If you are trying to redefine the word, to give it a positive context, I can only wish you luck.
I know what you're saying, but what I've seen is that people are unjustly called this word simply for being inexperienced. They have all the drive and are willing to do the work, but get derided for being inexperienced. Those people, who are incorrectly being called a wantrepreneur, are the people we are talking to in this post.
I'm pretty sure princess bride quotes get the win always. If you read the subarticle mentioned on HuffPo the author there makes a pretty interesting argument.
> Always be learning. Say “I don’t know”, “I don’t understand” and “I need help” EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
Jesus, I feel like that all the time on HackerNews and StackOverflow... Okay, I don't cry out I need help, but I get the I don't understand and I need help feeling more often than not.
The idea is that we help you find your first 100 customers while your building your MVP. Money changes hands, but not a lot. Don't think of it like crowdfunding in the traditional sense. It's simply a way for a founder to come out of a 30 day campaign with ~100 customers a few thousand dollars committed, and give them a better chance at succeeding.
Please elaborate. How do you do this? I mean, kickstarter's an established brand. It seems like a good idea but how will you develop the marketplace that really will be "better"?
BTW, saw the video on your site, the general idea is really awesome. Wishing you the best of luck!
It's going to take a lot of work :) However, contrary to popular belief, Kickstarter doesn't drive much traffic to projects with their own discovery features. From their own stats page [1], 72% of backers only back once. What I take from that stat is that most people are only going to Kickstarter for a single project that their friend asked them to back.
It may take a year, but we hope to establish a culture where people browse the Ramen Marketplace. We look at it like being a zeitgeist of what is currently being built.
In the mean time, what is "better" off the bat is The Kitchen -- the area where project owners can collaborate with the customers: vote on features, get comments on mocks, poll on pricing, etc.... This area gets opened up once a project hits it's goal.
Thanks for the kind words. We're really excited to get this off the ground :)
For anyone who's not familiar with the term: A wantrepreneur is an individual that desires to be, but is not quite yet, an entrepreneur. It sometimes has a negative tone that suggests they'll never be an entrepreneur.
I disagree with Urban Dictionary[1] on that definition. An entrepreneur who is trying to succeed, but has not, is just an unsuccessful entrepreneur. The negative context is what embodies the "wannabe" in "wantrepreneur", like "gangsta" and "wanksta". It is an insult. The person using the term thinks you have the desire to be seen as an entrepreneur, but neither the skills, nor the inclination, to actually build anything.
No that's not what we're thinking. We're not just giving software startups a place to raise capital. That's just the first bit. Once you hit your goal, we're building a whole bunch of tools to help you collaborate with your early customers.
Anyone that's built a startup has done that initial back and forth with the first customers. It's done with surveys and one-off emails and shared google docs. It's a mess.
We've looked at these processes, and we're building these features into Ramen (in "The Kitchen") that help founders collaborate with their early customers while the MVP is being built. That's the value we're creating.
Wantrepreneurs are "wannabe entrepreneurs", in the same sense that wanksters are "wannabe gangsters". Someone is saying you want to be seen as an entrepreneur, but have neither the skills, nor the inclination, to actually build anything. It is an insult. They are calling you a "poser". Entrepreneurs who have yet to succeed, but are trying, are just new or unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
If you are trying to redefine the word, to give it a positive context, I can only wish you luck.
[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/quotes?item=qt0482717