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Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

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Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#51

Post by spking »

e9 wrote: post #28

Founding engineer 8 times. 5 exits(2 sold shares back to investors, 2 acquihires, 1 acquisition). Never really made any significant money. I would make 10x more if I spent same time at big tech. Milage may vary but my 2 cents if you want to be entrepreneur or work for a startup: 1. Enjoy the process (You can push harder and longer if you enjoy what you do and at the end it won't matter if money doesn't come because a…

Nothing wrong with being a solo founder and I doubt the two “90%” reasons you cited are true the majority of the time.

https://solofounders.com/

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#52

Post by tomcam »

dieselgate wrote: post #48
tomcam wrote: post #32

What do you mean by succeed? To me, it's very specific. It is to live without debt or a mortgage in a safe place where I can afford medical insurance (which currently costs me $65,000/year). It also meant being able to spend as much time with them as my children required. I guess you could say it took me from ages 21-38. If you count study as a child, 12-38. However by the time I was 23 I was already super happy. I h…

> farm in town Genuinely curious where this might be, the only place I can think of might be Tillamook, OR!

Redmond, WA

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#53

Post by tomcam »

y-curious wrote: post #45
tomcam wrote: post #32

What do you mean by succeed? To me, it's very specific. It is to live without debt or a mortgage in a safe place where I can afford medical insurance (which currently costs me $65,000/year). It also meant being able to spend as much time with them as my children required. I guess you could say it took me from ages 21-38. If you count study as a child, 12-38. However by the time I was 23 I was already super happy. I h…

Can you give more details on the business you purchased? Any resources you found useful to learn this process? It’s something I’d like to do after waging away

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3gbx78/til_t...

It was an eBay-related business that I had used many times. The resources I used were common sense and a realistic perspective on business, neither of which I was raised with :O. I went in knowing it might be a ripoff so I didn't go into debt. Just used up some of my retirement account.

There was little time for due diligence so I developed a relationship to the owner of the business to help calm my nerves.

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#54

Post by sublinear »

cpursley wrote: post #49
sublinear wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's gotta be a ton of people in their 20s working remotely and living on a boat right now. They don't have to bust their ass like an entrepreneur either. They're just normal employees. What is it with boats anyway?

They are RVs for the water. Pull up anchor and bring your living space with you.

Yes, it is dangerously adjacent to being the trailer trash of the sea.

Having a new deck and topiary does not make it a luxury yacht.

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#55

Post by asdev »

jason_zig wrote: post #43
asdev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

were your projects in spaces you were familiar with? I feel like that makes the dart less random. Also I feel like it's hard to get customers/users on calls

well they were all websites so they had that in common but not much else. I would recommend starting off with an app store of some kind since getting initial customers is a real pain unless you already have some lined up due to past work experience / networking. That said, with enough time and screaming into the void you will get someone to walk through the door. Best to ask them as many questions as you can while th…

where did you get your ideas from then? did you have domain knowledge already? can DM you if you want

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#56

Post by e9 »

spking wrote: post #51
e9 wrote: post #28

Founding engineer 8 times. 5 exits(2 sold shares back to investors, 2 acquihires, 1 acquisition). Never really made any significant money. I would make 10x more if I spent same time at big tech. Milage may vary but my 2 cents if you want to be entrepreneur or work for a startup: 1. Enjoy the process (You can push harder and longer if you enjoy what you do and at the end it won't matter if money doesn't come because a…

Nothing wrong with being a solo founder and I doubt the two “90%” reasons you cited are true the majority of the time. https://solofounders.com/

World is large and I only get to see and experience slice of it. Thanks for sharing the link.

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#57

Post by Cider9986 »

30minAdayHN wrote: post #47
Cider9986 wrote: post #5

I'm not an Entrepreneur, but I will probably become fairly well-off, slowly by following the Bogleheads strategy.

There is a huge assumption here that being an Entrepreneur, the only desire and success definition is to become well-off. Assuming your statement in good faith, it is not the only outcome. So offering Boggleheads strategy as an alternative or get the same outcome as Entrepreneurship is misinformed. I've come across a few friends when I shared I was building something or working for a startup, their immediate question…

You're right in that I made the mistake by not responding to the original prompt of the thread, it was specifically directed at entrepreneurs, so I shouldn't have answered with a passive wealth building strategy. I totally took it off topic, like if a diabetic asked how to manage diabetes, I essentially answered that if you don't have diabetes, you don't have to worry about it.

I more latched onto the time and succeed part, that's why I answered at all.

But, I never said that entrepreneurship is only about money, or that it can be replaced, I simply shared a way to succeed in life, which I think is cool.

There is something to be said for wealth equaling success, however. If happiness is success and wealth buys happiness, which it does[1], then wealth is success, in my book. Success is relative, for someone, they could be poor and unhappy, but have lots of kids and think that's what success means. I think it's about happiness in life.

I think it's cool that people can succeed(gain happiness from not worrying about finance, among other benefits of wealth) even without taking on all that risk and burden of entrepreneurship.

I definitely respect people building things. I was just sharing my personal path.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnjennings/2024/02/12/money-b...

PS: It seems I started a trend of "entrepreneur" being capitalized, whoops :)

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#59

Post by syntax-sailor »

sublinear wrote: post #18
cromka wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unironically, living on a boat and working on my own thing is my dream right now.

There's gotta be a ton of people in their 20s working remotely and living on a boat right now. They don't have to bust their ass like an entrepreneur either. They're just normal employees. What is it with boats anyway?

A machine for living. I like sailing, it's just very expensive and time consuming..

Re: Ask HN: Entrepreneurs, how long did it take you to succeed?

#60

Post by jason_zig »

asdev wrote: post #55
jason_zig wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well they were all websites so they had that in common but not much else. I would recommend starting off with an app store of some kind since getting initial customers is a real pain unless you already have some lined up due to past work experience / networking. That said, with enough time and screaming into the void you will get someone to walk through the door. Best to ask them as many questions as you can while th…

where did you get your ideas from then? did you have domain knowledge already? can DM you if you want

you can email me if you want: jason[at]zigpoll.com

Ideas came from building something that I wished existed. Honestly I didn't overthink any of them and I'm glad I didn't. If you do too much market research it tends to make your vision seem less exciting IMO.

Either way my whole point is to just iterate on your initial idea for long enough that it goes from being "your fun idea" to "your fun idea that people are willing to pay for". Then just repeat that loop until you retire :)

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