Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#1

Post by ced83fra » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 10:51 AM UTC

I am a wantrepreneur. For over 7 years, I have wanted to start something. Really hard, wanted. Surely, I have tried to find an audience for a twisted "Come Dine With Me" (but who would host 3 others random unknown people in their own house??), have started some websites (extractemailaddress.com, linux-commands-examples.com) in the hope to get a big enough niche audience... But all I can get is an average of 8€ per month of donations, which barely covers my hosting costs.

I am trying to get new ideas done. But after one day of programming for my job, I am exhausted and I cannot extract any brain-juice any more. And if I try to work during the week-ends, I can't rewind enough for the next week. And my progress are damn slow. It seems I would need a year to achieve what a good programmer could do in a week.

It seems to me impossible I would be one day a Takuya Matsuyama who makes enough for a living with its app (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18216783), let alone be a Mark Zuckerberg. Even if I have some theoretical knowledge of starting things, as I have read news, stuff, feedback on HN and other sites for years.

Creating a successful business seems to me like the only viable career path to me. I don't see myself as a good developer (maybe it is due to the First month in a new company imposter syndrome, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18257767). So this is not a long-term plan. And I have nerver learned to do anything else. So the only thing left is to create some things, and be successful enough in at least one to make a living out of it.

What should I do?

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#2

Post by CyberFonic » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 11:13 AM UTC

You are being too hard on yourself. The people you mention are outliers, one in a million or more.

Without knowing more about your skills, experience and interests it is hard to make suggestions. But I'll try anyway ...

Instead of focusing on your desire to be an entrepreneur, why don't you stop and look about you and see what problems, challenges, etc exist (there are literally hundreds if you look empathetically). Look at those problems that resonate with you and sketch out how you could address them. Not all solutions involve computers, programs and websites. Eventually you could stumble across a problem that you can see a solution to and can see how you can focus your knowledge, skills, experience and connections to implement the solution. Often times, the solution will involve reaching out to other people, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#3

Post by wimgz » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 11:14 AM UTC

1) Don't judge yourself after one month at your company, it takes time to fit in an learn the ropes

2) Don't be too hard on yourself. Your brain needs some rest. Rest as long as you need. Don't ever compare yourself to Zuck, you see a billionaire now but he was a student when he started FB, and probably as lost as you are.

3) Not much time? Focus on the essential: find a real problem to solve. Maybe a problem you have, maybe a friend's. Maybe something related to your hobby. Don't focus too much on coding, maybe you can solve problems with a simple spreadsheet for now, and build a site when you have your first customers

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#4

Post by Latteland » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:34 PM UTC

Nit: It should be "wantapreneur" instead of wantrepreneur.

And I'm in the same boat you. I am so tempted to go off on my own.

edit: fixed my typo or your term :-)

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#5

Post by meowface » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:40 PM UTC

Latteland wrote: post #4

Nit: It should be "wantapreneur" instead of wantrepreneur. And I'm in the same boat you. I am so tempted to go off on my own. edit: fixed my typo or your term :-)

"wantrepreneur" sounds way better to me.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#6

Post by tomasien » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:41 PM UTC

Creating a successful business is DEFINITELY not the only viable career path for you or anyone. I'm not sure where you're getting that idea but, luckily for you, it's super super wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#7

Post by java_script » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:42 PM UTC

Maybe not a wantapreneur but more of an entremanure.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#8

Post by wizwazzle » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:52 PM UTC

Entrepreneurship can be boiled down to one command (don't crucify me): Find a need, or make one, and fill it.

So start by learning the problems that people have and truly validate that problem's existence and significance in their lives.

The second thing I would consider are your execution abilities. Looking at your websites, it's clear that web design isn't your strong suit; it seems your strong suit might be having deep knowledge of the linux ecosystem (taking a guess here). Then again consider your market size.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#9

Post by keeptrying » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:52 PM UTC

I've seen Mark Cuban use "wannapreneur" many times on his show and I've heard others use this term.

I spent a good week trying to figure out what they meant because the term never seemed to correlate to the size of the success of the pitch they were hearing.

At one point someone came in who has built some kind of underwater propulsion device which was the culmination of 3 years of work. He had a pretty polished prototype too and was currently working as an engineer for one of the big 4 tech companies making a large salary. This guy had never tried to actually sell his product to anyone. He just kept building. And I remember again Cuban calling him a "wannpereneur".

At that point it struck me that the apparent definition of wannapreneur is "Someone who wants the trappings of an entrepreneur (ie the social capital, the identity etc) and goes to all the entrepreneur conferences but doesn't actually _find customers_ and try to _sell_ a product to them." Its a threshold of actually putting yourself out there with a product and selling. Thats the line.

By this definition you definitely aren't a wantapreneur. You are an _entrepreneur_ but you haven't found your audience and product yet.

----

You have to remember that becoming good at entrepreneurship means being decent at finding cofounders to complement you (ie being easy to work with) and/or being good at a few of the things to do with business: building, marketing, sales, hiring. If you're trying to do evertyhing on your own you have to be at least average in all these areas. Are you at that point?

If you aren't then find books/courses in those areas and try to become good in those areas (very hard to do) Or find co-founders to complement you.

You're on your way. Keep your income and keep trying with different ideas.

Best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#10

Post by com2kid » Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 7:54 PM UTC

YCombinator Startup School heavily emphasizes leaving your day job and committing 100%. I'm trying to start something similar to your Come Dine With Me, but out in public instead of at people's house. (plug: https://www.thawd.net coming to Seattle soon!) Devoting 100% of my mental energy to it means I have been able to iterate on the idea itself quickly, spend time talking to people about it (which is itself exhausting!) and completely engulf myself in the startup community.

There are people who devote 100% of their mental energy to whatever they are doing right now. Those people are not going to be successful with side projects. When I am building something, it is on my mind 100% of the time, waking up, showering, getting dressed, driving, eating, all the time.

I cannot do 2 projects at once.

In regards to coding, being a good programmer is only a small part of running a business. Marketing, managing a team, working with designers, and inspiring others with your idea are all skills that are incredibly important.

The code needs to work, sure. And hopefully it is reliable, but just as important, the business needs to work. You need to be able to send cold emails, handle rejection, and be able to put a smile on your face on demand at any time of day at any place meeting with anyone.

Of course before you quit your day job, make sure you have an idea that people want. Throw some marketing $ at it and see what your conversion rate it, even if it is to a "sign up for more info" form.

Go out and talk to people on the street, one of the most difficult things I did, which was step 1, was literally go to different neighborhoods, walk up to people, and ask them about my product idea. Especially for mass market products, this is a quick, and painful, way to cycle through ideas really quickly.

Also, for your email address extractor, have some sample input there. It'll go a long way towards explaining your value prop.