Ask HN: Who is currently broke due to being in a startup?

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 11, 2010, 9:32 AM UTC

lionhearted wrote: post #48

garrettgillas wrote: post #23

This post actually makes me feel kind of grateful. I have kept my day job while working on my startup and am still single. I'm 27 & I work from home. The upside is that I have a place to live and work comfortably, I'm not broke and I can support my "startup habit". The downside is that I never get much sleep, my girlfriend hates it, almost everyone I know says that I should quit my startup and get married like a norm…

> The downside is that I never get much sleep, my girlfriend hates it, almost everyone I know says that I should quit my startup and get married like a normal person Be careful in your long term thinking with your girlfriend. I've seen a lot of guys work like crazy while their girlfriend doesn't like it, and the guy thinks, "Well, if this pays off she'll understand." In my experience - not true. People have different…

Post by twidlit » Wed, Aug 11, 2010, 10:13 AM UTC

HouseMan wrote: post #47

The good news is that you are at the bottom and things can only get better...if you're focus is tight, your execution even tighter, and you zero-out the emotion of not wanting to fail and look at where you are as dispassionately as you can. I've had to shut-down two start-up's--the lead developer lost his mind on the first (1996) and the money ran dry on the other (2003). In each case, I went and got a job. It sucked…

Post by rdl » Wed, Aug 11, 2010, 10:24 AM UTC

spotted_at wrote: post #30

mgkimsal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I assume you meant 150k per year? Obviously money going out with no income depletes cash on hand. However, it would seem making 150k for a year or so should buy you a pretty big runway. I'm guessing you have a lot of outgoing if it feels like it's disappearing 'fast'.

Yea, 150k. I thought I had enough savings to last about 2 years; I was wrong so I am seriously cutting back. If mainly feels like its going fast because I was accustomed spending what I want and not seeing my bank account drop. Now that I don't have anything coming in thats not the case. The impact of what I spend is much more visible now.

Post by retube » Wed, Aug 11, 2010, 11:39 AM UTC

mebassett wrote: post #52

I'm broke. but I'm a student and am pretty much use to it. I decided to do a startup (sneffel.com) over the summer instead of finding an internship, I was hoping it'd be profitable by the end of the summer. I tried selling to basic users/consumers with no real customer in mind. I really thought it would work at the time. As you might expect, it didn't happen. Now it all appears obviously silly. In any case, I'm broke…

Post by javery » Wed, Aug 11, 2010, 11:59 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #36

Can I recommend consulting for smoothing out cash flow issues? It has really helped me this summer -- the time it cost my development schedule has been worth the peace of mind gained by not having to either smash my piggy bank or borrow four paychecks worth of cash at consumer interest rates.