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Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

richg42.blogspot.com

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Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#21

Post by bkovacev »

moxious wrote: post #8
ykler wrote: post #3

I'm unclear about what he means by "Don't blindly sign NDAs". What are the risks, and what items to watch out for would be on the checklist my lawyer would ideally provide?

NDAs aren't standard at all. They range from simple back of the napkin agreements to "we get your first born child". Blindly signing subjects you to potentially nasty term, and obligated you not to talk about certain things. This in turn can be used as leverage by the other side if things go badly. Really, it's just don't blindly sign any agreement. Unfortunately agreements are so ponderous (clickwrap) that most peop…

As funny as it sounds the "we get your first born child" clauses in the NDAs are not a rare occurrence. One NDA I was required to sign explicitly stated that every idea or functionality I developed on other projects for up to twelve months after delivery of their project was subject to review by the issuer of the NDA (not even a 3rd party) and that if anything even remotely similar to functionality I will be creating within the new project they're rightful owners of it or that they are able to sue me.

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#22

Post by rasjani »

tshanmu wrote: post #11
ernsheong wrote: post #5

A link to the product page (Basis) would be helpful to give context. Sounds like a lot of advice veers toward enterprise sales.

http://www.binomial.info - Basis appears to be a GPU agnostic texture compression product

Which is sort of interesting - while I have very little experience - I've dealt with this on QA side of things for automotive industry tooling a bit and getting the right texture format for what ever vendor and their product was always a problematic depending on variety of factors.

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#23

Post by twfarland »

trevyn wrote: post #6

Since the article goes into this, a couple things about selling into large companies: - The amount that they will try to squeeze you and give you the runaround is highly dependent on the personalities and the resources of the team that you’re selling to; it’s not generally consistent across the entire company, unless you’re dealing with a central purchasing department (hopefully you’re not, except for processing your…

I also use that billing strategy happily. There's another detail that helps with 'training' new clients on good payment behaviour - give them a small % discount on the next milestone if they pay early on the first.

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#24

Post by harel »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #2

You missed the most important part: Keep your sanity. Trying to get funding is described as "soul sucking" even by Paul Graham and in our experience this is a startup killing move. Very few people talk about mental health for entrepreneurs and for us the most challenging times was talking to investors. If a constant stream of people told you, your business was not worth spending time or money, after how many rejectio…

I guess if we started talking about those who failed we'll never stop... For every one that makes it there are scores who didn't.

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#25

Post by segmondy »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #2

You missed the most important part: Keep your sanity. Trying to get funding is described as "soul sucking" even by Paul Graham and in our experience this is a startup killing move. Very few people talk about mental health for entrepreneurs and for us the most challenging times was talking to investors. If a constant stream of people told you, your business was not worth spending time or money, after how many rejectio…

Are you speaking from experience or just repeating what you have read from other sources?

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#26

Post by 51stpage »

ykler wrote: post #3

I'm unclear about what he means by "Don't blindly sign NDAs". What are the risks, and what items to watch out for would be on the checklist my lawyer would ideally provide?

Mike Monteiro has an excellent talk[1] on contract negotiation and where to get lawyers involved. The pertinent point for me was the following:

Contract negotiation makes them fair. If you just sign whatever people put in front of you, you give up your rights to have a fair contract.

Also: The contract given to you probably represents the opposing lawyers wish list of all the things they wish they could have. Most/some of these things will be extremely disadvantageous to you. Just signing anything they give you means you submit to their wish list, not your own.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#27

Post by dahart »

bkovacev wrote: post #21
moxious wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NDAs aren't standard at all. They range from simple back of the napkin agreements to "we get your first born child". Blindly signing subjects you to potentially nasty term, and obligated you not to talk about certain things. This in turn can be used as leverage by the other side if things go badly. Really, it's just don't blindly sign any agreement. Unfortunately agreements are so ponderous (clickwrap) that most peop…

As funny as it sounds the "we get your first born child" clauses in the NDAs are not a rare occurrence. One NDA I was required to sign explicitly stated that every idea or functionality I developed on other projects for up to twelve months after delivery of their project was subject to review by the issuer of the NDA (not even a 3rd party) and that if anything even remotely similar to functionality I will be creating…

> One NDA I was required to sign explicitly stated that every idea or functionality I developed on other projects for up to twelve months after delivery of their project was subject to review by the issuer of the NDA

Saying 'required' makes it sound like you didn't have a choice -- out of curiosity, did they have other leverage over you above getting your help on their project, and did you attempt to negotiate on this clause?

I don't doubt that non-compete clauses happen in NDAs; other people in this thread to mention seeing them. But I think they're not that common either. I've seen my share of NDAs and never seen a non-compete clause. I do get non-compete clauses in employment contracts that also include NDAs as well as invention assignments and more, but I haven't personally seen a non-compete clause in a pure non-disclosure contract, that seems abnormal. But I agree completely that one should always read their contracts carefully before signing.

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#28

Post by scardine »

> 22. If you're at a company with deep pockets and you want to really have influence, offer the potential of a very large license fee for key software middleware. It works.

What is number #22 (sorry, English is not my native language)? Is he talking about clients that offered him a large licensing fee and gained huge influence over him for doing so?

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#29

Post by amorphid »

jasonkester wrote: post #16
InternetUser wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly; you are referring to survivorship bias - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

They need another catchy phrase to reply to this, along the lines of "if you never try, there's nothing to survive". Survivorship Bias is at the top of the list of "reasons not to try", and it's a shame to see it dragged out every time you see a success story. The thing I live on today was Job Quittin' Sideproject #5. The first four died without ever letting me quit any jobs. Is #5 "survivorship"? Or is it "persistan…

> They need another catchy phrase to reply to this, along the lines of "if you never try, there's nothing to survive".

I like "you gotta be in it to win it".

Re: Things learned while running your own self-funded startup

#30

Post by smt88 »

jasonkester wrote: post #16
InternetUser wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly; you are referring to survivorship bias - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

They need another catchy phrase to reply to this, along the lines of "if you never try, there's nothing to survive". Survivorship Bias is at the top of the list of "reasons not to try", and it's a shame to see it dragged out every time you see a success story. The thing I live on today was Job Quittin' Sideproject #5. The first four died without ever letting me quit any jobs. Is #5 "survivorship"? Or is it "persistan…

> Let's say the chance of getting a business working, even for a smart guy, is only 10%.

It's much, much lower, according to any reasonable estimation. For all startups, I've seen "less than 1%" on many occasions. That obviously excludes tons of failures that are never reported anywhere -- sometimes that are never even incorporated, despite trying to build/sell a product.

> Does that mean you shouldn't try?

For the vast majority of people, yes! "Try" has costs -- time, money, life, and relationships. To really try will often cost tens of thousands of dollars. Most people can't afford to gamble so much with such a tiny chance of success.

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