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How to start a company with no free time

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Re: How to start a company with no free time

#121

Post by ladytron »

ihaveajob wrote: post #13
drited wrote: post #6

For those with babies on the way like the author and reading material to get through for business, I found that a text to speech app like @voice with a good sounding voice like the AT&T voices, plus a Bluetooth earpiece helps a lot. Baby needs a bottle? Earpiece on, start listening. Baby needs a walk in the buggy? Same. Baby wakes in the middle of the night and needs to be in your arms for a while to get back to slee…

In a similar vein, I have become quite the expert at using conversational style apps (including the voice to text transcription on iOS), since I can't type while doing baby chores, but I can surely dictate.

Frank Gilbreth set up a dictation machine for Lillian Gilbreth so she could dictate management books while she was breastfeeding... I think in the 1930's :-).

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#123

Post by brianwawok »

chrisabrams wrote: post #27
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…

I'm curious as to what the author's goal in writing this point. The point itself could have been achieved without mentioning VCs. It's pretty rare to "persistently" be contacted by any VCs, even if you live in SV. Most the startup founders I know would love to have this VC "persistence" problem.

Building her brand I suspect. "Look at meeeeee"

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#124

Post by 31reasons »

nols wrote: post #117
ryandrake wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, kind of bizarre, especially as point #1. How would a VC even know you're working on a start-up? I also don't get random E-mails from VCs asking me whether I am working on a start-up and if so would I like to drink a beverage. Is this really a common problem for people?

She's a lot more popular than your average person, and more tied into SV than most. Her resume includes Google, Youtube, Twitter, and Postmates before founding her own company, plus she's got 35K followers on Twitter and had a TechCrunch article written about the startup. I think a lot of what she wrote is applicable but she also moves in spheres the average person doesn't.

So looks like this article applies mostly to people like her.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#125

Post by 31reasons »

brianwawok wrote: post #123
chrisabrams wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to what the author's goal in writing this point. The point itself could have been achieved without mentioning VCs. It's pretty rare to "persistently" be contacted by any VCs, even if you live in SV. Most the startup founders I know would love to have this VC "persistence" problem.

Building her brand I suspect. "Look at meeeeee"

Exactly. Its kind of similar to Hollywood where people boast about their connections to so and so producers, directors etc.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#126

Post by gyardley »

When I read articles like this, I realize just how differently I'm wired than, well, the sort of person who writes articles like this. And I kind of dislike articles like this, because there always seems to be an implicit prescriptiveness underneath them - you can start a company even when you've got no free time, and therefore you should start a company even when you've got no free time.

HN, if you happen to be wired like this person, go right ahead and do what she does - but if you're wired more like me, and the only thing you want to do after your baby's born is look after it and be with your spouse and take in the whole experience, you should go ahead and do that without a second thought.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#127

Post by kohanz »

eximius wrote: post #113
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,…

What if I actively don't want to think about my code in the shower? Work/life balance and all that jazz.

I think this is mostly being talked about in the context of starting a company or a side project. I can understand that you would feel that way about a day job and of course it's completely optional, but if you don't feel eager to work on a project that you've taken up your own initiative to start, then that is probably worth re-examining. You won't always feel that way, bit most of the time, at least. I'm currently working on a new product idea and I literally could not stop myself from thinking about it during my free brain cycles if I tried.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#128

Post by criddell »

wehadfun wrote: post #49
smustin wrote: post #14

Thanks everyone for the awesome feedback :-) By the way you can find out more about what we're building at https://winnie.com .

Just checked out your listings for Dallas. May need to actually talk to some locals some of these places are not what I would call kid friendly. Fair Park is in a sketchy part of town and basically no mans land outside of September-October. The 6th floor museum is about the Kennedy Assassination. Doubt many kids would find that interesting. I was really surprised to see Twin Peaks and Bone Daddys on there. You know t…

I looked at it for Austin and the first results are mostly parks (my kids never liked parks), then it gets weird. A Brazilian steak house? Then Twin Peaks? Twin Peaks is basically Hooters. But I guess because they have a changing table in the restroom, they are a good place to take kids.

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#129

Post by keyle »

I swear you could write any counter-intuitive article with a top 5 list of highly controversial steps and make it to HN front page. Like "10 tips to make a unicorn in your sleep". Tip 1, don't sleep, you don't need it anyway. Tip 5, remember to catch some sleep, sometimes.

Pardon the pun but you had me at "force yourself to do things imperfectly".

Re: How to start a company with no free time

#130

Post by _faster_ »

logicallee wrote: post #111
_faster_ wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectful? Give me a break, you've been successfully gas-lighted. >where it says that VC's can be "quite persistent" asking for coffees Lets be pragmatic. How many VC's are we talk about, 5? 10? Can we not read a little bit of a veiled humble brag into this point on the fact that the number isn't mentioned and that if the number is 5 that the author couldn't spare 5 hours over "multi months" to meet with someone sig…

I'm sorry I didn't see your reply sooner. if you see this in time to edit, please tone it down by two notches, come on. The OP (of the article) is here answering questions, and we're one community. you yourself are the article author in a few years if you want to be. You know "what does this person do" because they are up-front about it: what they do is "Winnie, helping parents navigate the world with their children.…

How dare you. If someone wants to defend themselves they have every opportunity to do so but I (and I think the HN audience) don't appreciate being-

1. patronised about things like: "this kind of shows you the kind of audience this is written for". How pathetic, as if there are some levels of access beyond which peons like us cannot comprehend. and

2. Your concern trolling. Where I come from we believe in the scientific method and meritocracy. You are entitled to your opinions if you can defend them and your attempt to stifle discussion is reducing efficiency.

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