How to start a company with no free time • Hacker News Board

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#61

Post by headmelted » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:18 PM UTC

softwarefounder wrote: post #57

drieddust wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's always bits of time to work on your task list on your phone or flesh out a bit of meta-code in your to-do list, and now I'm able to do the brunt of the "thinking" work in the shower or I want to move to this model of working but nothing seems to stick. Do you follow any specific routines or use tools to manage yourself? I have tried a lot of tools but nothing sticks.

To some extent, I think it comes from necessity.

As a father of two, I can confirm this is the case.

If I get the opportunity now to even open my laptop I know I'm on borrowed time. As a result, most of my thinking is done on my commute, and I find that just being aware of that really does make me focus in a way I never could before.

Incidentally, I find now that I'm much less likely to fall into the trap of starting things that will never be finished because I'm forced to put off getting hand to keyboard. It's like I'm pitching ideas to myself, and I'm my own harshest critic.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#62

Post by brightball » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:23 PM UTC

marktangotango wrote: post #39

drieddust wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's always bits of time to work on your task list on your phone or flesh out a bit of meta-code in your to-do list, and now I'm able to do the brunt of the "thinking" work in the shower or I want to move to this model of working but nothing seems to stick. Do you follow any specific routines or use tools to manage yourself? I have tried a lot of tools but nothing sticks.

I did this, what worked for me was leaving myself a note of where I left off and exactly what to do next at the top of my task list; "validate input x on form y" for example. Just a simple 'trick' that really worked, for me at least.

Going to try this

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#63

Post by annekate » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:23 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #18

I find my productivity gets hung up sometimes between the 'doing' and the 'learning', this is particularly painful when I consider the 'learning' to be non-useful later. A common case for me is 'use this library/package to complete the task to do this thing', I want to write the code that uses the package, the package API is opaque, it speaks in a language that makes sense if you have been playing with a dozen differ…

"If I don't give myself permission I perceive all of that time as wasted just trying to get the package to do what it does and I need it to do so that I can forget it and move on." Wow this is really insightful. Also, the best and most reliable engineers I've worked with are very meticulous about reading the docs. They end up down less rabbit holes and it saves time in the end.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#64

Post by er0l » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:24 PM UTC

I think I agree with everything but #1. Completely shutting off from people who although may not invest, can still provide valuable information or advice as they may have experienced something you have not.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#65

Post by tomovo » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:25 PM UTC

reducesuffering wrote: post #26

BadCookie wrote: post #25

I can't help but think the author has her priorities completely messed up. A brand new baby and a husband with cancer, and she decides that starting a company is the best use of her time? Sorry, but it's beyond bizarre to me. Just because you can do something by sacrificing your health and your time with your family members doesn't mean that you should.

The cancer popped up after the company was started and received funding. Based on the blog post, it sounds like the baby and husbands issues come first priority. This leads to any free time being used towards the company and causing her to maximize this time through the methods mentioned. I don't think it would be healthy for her to 24/7 be worrying about others, and the startup seems like a worthy outlet.

Yeah, sounds more like the family situation may have helper her realize it's really important for one to waste no time in life and to do as much meaningful stuff as possible while they can. Hence the title.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#66

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:28 PM UTC

ggregoire wrote: post #24

I'm surprised by the points 1 and 3. I started a company 2 months ago as solo founder and I work everyday on the product (a SaaS for small/mid companies). I really have no free time to do marketing yet or promote my idea. I just focus on having a MVP. 1. "Decline invitations from VCs to drink a coffee" I've never received any attention from a VC, like probably most founders when they started their first company. It s…

[deleted]

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#67

Post by er0l » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:33 PM UTC

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #21

civilian wrote: post #5

I have a related question for the author or anyone: How do you keep your energy up to code in the evenings on your own project, after a full day of coding at the office?

I would say this really depends heavily on how motivated you are to begin with. When I was working on my side project while I had a full time job, I would: 1. Get off work at 6 and get home at 6:30. 2. Eat something very simple (no carbs because it will make me sleepy) 3. Start working from 7:00 4. Work till 6:00am (that's 11 hours, which is 3 hours more than my day job) 5. Go to sleep at 6:00 and wake up at 10am and…

Wow, this does seem intense. Did you work through the weekend? Did your performance at your day job suffer? How did you manage to keep focused during the late night/ early morning hours?

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#68

Post by annekate » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

ladytron wrote: post #60

BadCookie wrote: post #25

I can't help but think the author has her priorities completely messed up. A brand new baby and a husband with cancer, and she decides that starting a company is the best use of her time? Sorry, but it's beyond bizarre to me. Just because you can do something by sacrificing your health and your time with your family members doesn't mean that you should.

Who are you to judge her priorities? Watching an infant can be brain numbingly tedious, and so can sitting in waiting rooms for hours at a medical office. Maybe the startup gives her husband a positive distraction to focus on instead of his treatment and it gives them something good to talk about. You have no idea. A startup might be the perfect antidote to balance out her other duties to her family. Remember that al…

I am her cofounder and I can verify she is not normal. She is exceptionally capable, hard-working and focused. When she is with her kid she is 100% a mom. When she is at work she is 100% a founder. When her husband needs her, she is there; she managed all of his care, down to staying up late reading medical research papers so she could understand his test results.

A lot of people would have given up. I certainly wouldn't have blamed her for a second if she had. She chose to fight and I'll be damned if she isn't winning. It's inspiring to see.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#69

Post by ThomPete » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:45 PM UTC

lubujackson wrote: post #12

After having a baby I struggled to switch from marathon coding sessions to trying to punch out code in hour, half hour or even 10 minute increments. The best advice is what she said - plan and divide tasks ruthlessly. There's always bits of time to work on your task list on your phone or flesh out a bit of meta-code in your to-do list, and now I'm able to do the brunt of the "thinking" work in the shower or wherever,…

I have done the same with my side projects and I have two kids plus a full time job.

I even built a tool that let me add contextual notes or todos to my files, folders, applications, open documents and websites for the next time I picked it up (I am not a developer but a designer) and turned that into a pretty successful notes app.

Now my even bigger project which require me to split things into even smaller buckets is easy to always know where I left it off without having to find the notes again as they are always right there.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#70

Post by logicallee » Fri, Nov 18, 2016, 9:51 PM UTC

a_imho wrote: post #10

3. Don’t go it alone Using the money time duality is a bit cheating to be honest. At least in my experience people with 9-17 jobs don't have that kind of money to hire people.

I think we should be respectful of the audience that this blog post is and isn't for -- where it says that VC's can be "quite persistent" asking for coffees, this kind of shows you the kind of audience this is written for. And yes, if you're the kind of person that in the words of the article:

>I would say “Hey, during these next couple months it will be very tough for me to meet in person, but I’d love to still help how I can. Can I help with anything over email and we can go from there?” It turns out this was a great way to get to the point with people. Most people admitted they didn’t have anything pressing to discuss though some would respond with specific questions. One person let me know he was just interested in participating in our round whenever we raised money. We ended up contacting him when we did raise money and he did participate.

If you're the kind of person for whom "many VCs were extremely persistent", and for whom if you say, "is there anything I can do just over email?" and a VC writes back, "Yes, just let me know when I can send a check" (obviously not in these words), and then when you're raising money they do participate --

well, that is the kind of audience who has the money to hire people :)

So this blog post is very useful and helpful, but not for everyone.