Focus. Focus. Focus.

The reality is that none of those things (except 8 and 11, which have strong offerings already) listed are billion dollar ideas.<p>This is just a reiteration of the current Internet strategy:<p>1. Target a niche. 2. Create a strong base. 3. Grow like mad. 4. Move into other offerings.<p>This is exactly what trees in a dense forest do - they grow up as fast as possible, and then when they're on top they branch out to both absorb more sunlight and prevent competing trees from outgrowing them.<p>So the real message is 'focus, focus, focus, until you get big and then try and do everything in your space before the second-starters outpace you.'<p>I'm not saying this is a bad thing - from an ecological perspective, it is very good for the forest, but not so good for the trees.

This is great. We've been hearing the mantra of MVP and focus for quite a while now, and it's nice to see an example that really lives up to the focus mentality.<p>I hope Rocketlease takes off soon-(as a tenant) I hate having to take paper forms, worry about making a "typo" and needing white-out, then having to fax it back to the apartment within a 24 hour period.

If you haven't, I highly recommend reading Jonah Lehrer's book <i>Imagine</i>: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Creativity-Works-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0547386079" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Creativity-Works-Jonah-Lehrer/...</a><p>It turns out that there are two sides to creativity: a more left-brained tendency to focus on something and take it to completion and a more right-brained tendency to have inspirations and insights.<p>It certainly sounds like you've got the left-brained part of it down, but I don't think that shutting out new ideas like this is a good idea. What's important is being able to recognize which random ideas are worth entertaining and which ones aren't. I know that if I shut out all of my random ideas, I'd have dismissed some of the best ones.<p>This isn't just an abstract question either. Having really great ideas that are executed well is the difference between a product that merely does its job and a product that people love and tell all their friends about.

So I've got a question for ya. At what point do you know your MVP is actually a MVP? Part of the issue with focus, as I see it, is what if you focus on the wrong thing. Do you have metrics in mind to know when to bail or pivot? A stop or limit (I forget which is which) point.<p>So I'm curious about what you are planning to watch for? What signs will tell you to focus on something else?

Excellent write up. And most of all thanks for highlighting your service. I'm entering my 2nd month as a landlord so I don't need your service right now. But I know I would have used it a few months ago when looking for our first tenant. I'll bookmark your site for future use. If things go well, I won't be needing it for a few years though (fingers crossed).

Have you encountered any legal issues with this? I've only briefly looked into property management/rental issues but I have seen some states that require a person to be a licensed real estate broker in order to negotiate a lease.<p>Do you process applications but leave the actual lease agreement to the property manager or owner?

Did anyone else notice that the link to the product web site was on the text "online apartment applications" rather than the product name "Rocket Lease"? I know it's good SEO to backlink on the keyword, but it still seems grey-hat to me.

I feel for you re the advice. Simple ideas are subject to the "bike shed" phenomenon. Since people are able to understand your product, they assume they know what you should do next.

That's a long list of things rocket lease does not do.