You seem pretty sure of yourself. So when will you be releasing this product that you claim is such low hanging fruit? Right, now you know why this product doesn't exist.

hey dude, it's a free idea, you're more than welcome to it. I just thought of it a couple hours ago as I was writing that. I thought it was pretty good - especially the part about using an old smartphone with Tailscale as the hub because it has backup connectivity and power. Maybe I'll throw a prototype together this weekend if I have nothing better to do. Or maybe you should. You could be that guy.

He just explained why. Because packaging, QA, setting up a storefront, customer service, the sum total requires significant up front investment to get off the ground. Good luck raising money when your pitch is "we won't be greedy and do the things that could make even more money".

Or was your intent merely to taunt him for failing to be independently wealthy?

Like, thank you. Obviously. This is why I don't want to start a public facing business and why it's almost impossible for a person with some good ideas and a modest savings account who could build something better to do it without putting themselves in a compromised position by taking investment. If you go it alone, you basically have to put your entire net worth on the line to see whether something works, and then the second it takes off, God help you you are going to be litigated or bullied into the ground. But I still kind of have some of that old 90s / early 2000s faith that I will one day hit upon the Big Idea that I can code and bootstrap myself, and turn a profit from day one when I launch it, and never need investors. I doubt a home camera system is the one. But I have a whole wall in my office with taped-up post-its and index cards and papers, each with hand-written startup ideas. Any of which I could conceivably code and profit from if I wasn't afraid to spend 6-12 months on it and thought it could survive the regulatory environment and everything else that might come with releasing it onto the world. And that's not my job - I just keep those up there and add to them for inspiration. I just want to make shit, not deal with the business of navigating the whole corrupt world of funding and kosherizing it.

Anyway, thanks.