Are you fearful of crashing and burning financially or just uncomfortable with the uncertainty of the situation? (or both)
The startup scene is certainly uncertain at the moment - then again, uncertainty is its defining experience anyhow. Learn to live with uncertainty - balance your work life with things you know you enjoy and that are always there.
Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
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Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#52Aside from the obvious advice to keep your expenses as low as possible, I think you might consider a change in attitude. You are playing a game with a positive expected value, but the rules of the game are such that payoffs are very large and very rare (if you've read The Black Swan, think Extremistan). Unfortunately, the game of "paying my rent check" and "eating on a daily basis" follows a different set of rules. You've been allowed the privilege of taking a risk due to your savings; once they are gone you will be playing a different game. When that time comes you may just decide that "some business guy's lame vision" is a decent alternative to being hungry on the streets coding Haskell. The choice is up to you.
Also, stop feeling scared and terrified (your words). These emotions are not helping you in any way.
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#53You could have mentioned what your startup was. Free publicity. Also, people here might provide some input about whether the odds of getting funding really are 90-95% for your type of startup.
I strongly recommend spending part of your time (one or two days a week) looking for a job to hedge your bets.
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#54Finding contract work is not so much work, especially if you are willing to code in Java. Personally I dread the day when I will have to do so again, but it is better as starving. Plus, 3 to 4 months can pay for the whole year.
Just check the typical sites, I had good experiences with jobserve.co.uk (they don't only cover the UK - but I am in Europe/Germany).
iPhone contracting seems to be quite popular atm, too. If you already have a Mac, might be worth looking into. Personally I still shun the investment of getting a Mac+iPod touch.
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#55There's a lot of good advice here from other posters on living frugally which is all good stuff and I highly recommend you take what people have said on board about living cheaper. I'd like to make a comment about your situation as a whole.
You left your job in April, that's May through to January where you've had no salary. 8 months. You're looking at 'another 5-7 months' before funding in a recession. In effect, what you're saying is that you're looking at 12 months of unpaid work and wiping out your savings in the middle of an economic downturn in the hope that you'll find a business investor who has the cash to fund your deferred salaries, anyone elses deferred salaries (and if you're the only one then you need to change that) as well as investment moving forward.
In any economic climate what you're suggesting doesn't make sense to an investor, you need to either write that entire year's salary off or drastically change what you're doing. An investor is not there to fund salaries, especially backdated ones. If you want to move forward, you need to find a revenue stream. If you can't find a revenue stream but want to stay involved then you need to find a job and cut your involvement back.
The suggestion about Thailand makes a lot more sense than it first seems. Moving to somewhere that costs a lot less to live with your current 5-7months of new york money will give you a hefty safety net, you could take interesting projects on as and when and could possibly retain some involvement in the startup working from somewhere like Thailand, Morocco, Mexico or even the mid-west.
I hope it works out for you, if you are determined to keep at this project full time unpaid then you need to move out of NYC sooner rather than later. I would advise that you reconsider your level of involvement as this is not a profitable or revenue generating opportunity, which is what you need right now and over the coming year.
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food expenses below $60 a month while maintaining a healthy diet. Is that a typo? $60/mo eating fruits and veggies? I live in SF and I have a hard time imagining doing that here, let along NYC...
You have to know where to go, what to buy, and what to cook. I've been a vegan for a number of years now and I could live off $60/mo if I wanted to. The main point is convenience. If you don't want the effort of preparing food then it costs a lot more. Simple staples like lentals, rice, etc supplemented with vegetables is a crazy cheap way to eat. In SF districts like the mission it's easy to get cheap fresh fruit an…
Please, tell me some of your secrets. I'm interested in cheap living/eating. :)
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#57I'm worried about that 1-in-20 (?) chance that we don't manage to line up funding in time You should be worried -- and if I were you I'd re-evaluate your odds. My guess is that a startup which would print money would still have more than a 1-in-20 chance of failing to get funding at the moment. Assuming you definitely want to continue with this startup (and think about that carefully -- sometimes there's a reason why…
A serial entrepreneur friend who's looking for funding on his 5th startup right now: """You pretty much have to have a working product, thrilled customers and a revenue stream right now for VC's to look at you."""
Getting funding has gotten pretty tough here in the Valley. I can only imagine that the funding scene is going to be a lot worse in New York.
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to know where to go, what to buy, and what to cook. I've been a vegan for a number of years now and I could live off $60/mo if I wanted to. The main point is convenience. If you don't want the effort of preparing food then it costs a lot more. Simple staples like lentals, rice, etc supplemented with vegetables is a crazy cheap way to eat. In SF districts like the mission it's easy to get cheap fresh fruit an…
Please, tell me some of your secrets. I'm interested in cheap living/eating. :)
Sounds like an excellent topic for a blog post - very hacker related, I would think.
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to know where to go, what to buy, and what to cook. I've been a vegan for a number of years now and I could live off $60/mo if I wanted to. The main point is convenience. If you don't want the effort of preparing food then it costs a lot more. Simple staples like lentals, rice, etc supplemented with vegetables is a crazy cheap way to eat. In SF districts like the mission it's easy to get cheap fresh fruit an…
Please, tell me some of your secrets. I'm interested in cheap living/eating. :)
Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
#60Move to Thailand and chill for awhile. It will help you get your priorities back in line and that 5-7 months (if based on NYC living expenses) could last a few years.
What about the visa? My experience is that cheap countries get incredibly expensive if you need broadband and a reasonably secure neighbourhood. Or are you talking about living in a hotel on a tourist visa? That only works for 3 to 6 months and I'm not sure it's possible continue working for a NY startup whilst in Thailand.
We stayed in Chaing Mai for about a month, had broadband access. The people we were staying with were renting a large house for about $400 a month. You can take a weekend trip to Cambodia or Vietnam and get a renewed visa when you come back. Or travel around SE Asia in general. You can do that indefinitely and it's quite cheap, even in relatively urban areas. Definitely cheaper than NYC(!)