Ask HN: Trouble doing my own startup

Find a b2b problem that is within your ability to solve and where you know at least one party that could be your launching customer, and where there are lots of other customers. This could be a lawyer, a doctor, your dentist, some industry contact, whatever. Then solve that problem and sell your solution to that first contact and ask them if they can point you to others that might need the same thing. Sell, rinse, repeat. And meanwhile, every new customer should be relentlessly pumped for information about how you can improve your product.

It will take you about three years to get a business off the ground in this way. Faster if you are lucky, slower if you are unlucky or if the market isn't large enough. In five years you may match your bay area salary, in a decade you might be ready for an exit (or sooner, again, if you are lucky). Keep it bootstrapped if you can at all afford that.

>I think this is true for challenging established or med/late stage startups but I keep running into seed/Series A startups or agencies

True - but if you're running into a bunch of early-stage companies, why not try to join one instead of dealing with the headache of founding one? You'll probably be able to command a decent equity percentage, and influence the product or service in a myriad of different ways. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

>Because I'm not pursuing a specific idea I'm very flexible and it's hurting my chances. I have a chicken and an egg problem between figuring out the business & finding the right people to help me with it. The advice I read online suggests focusing on the people first (since the biz idea changes a lot) but I'm not super sure about it.

There's the crux of the issue. Figure out what you want, and hopefully in doing so you'll quickly discover what you need. If you don't know what you want to build, how can people help you?

Try narrowing it down to maybe 2 or 3 different ideas, and testing the waters. Example: "I want to develop product/service ABC, and to do so I need a person with a ______ background; but if I want to develop product/service XYZ, I need a different sort of person, someone with a _________ background"

Focus on the people, yes, but also focus on what you want to build and the people will fall into place as you'll know what you want out of every person you meet.

You should learn, "think small". Here periodically appear posts, about this.

Than, You will create solid foundations, which will give You possibilities, to finance command, with well funds and/or positioning.

That's all startup wisdom, You should early become profitable, or get somewhere money, for lot of MVPs.

My successful friends, who grew few startups, said, "first yearS, You should make new MVP every 1-2 weeks, so 50-100 MVPs in two years".