I love the story of how the AirBnB guys sold cereal boxes just to survive. Does anyone know any more similar stories about successful startups.
Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
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Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#2Haven't done it myself, but I'm guessing most startups can and do take on consulting/outsourcing gigs for side money.
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#3Someone who is a member of a lesser known six person startup (the other five of which Im sure are lovely people) took some front end development work from me, then dissappeared off the face of the earth - no Skype, no email, no phone calls - before the product could be completed, without warning. The guy is otherwise a nice person, but I get the feeling he was desperate for the cash and did a bad thing.
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean#Entrapment
(If you are not familiar with the story, in a last-ditched effort to save his car company, De Lorean attempted to traffic a large amount of cocaine. Turned out the seller was a federal agent. That is dedication)
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#5I live in a little house in one of the poorest countries in the Americas, making Flash games every now and then to fund me and my startup.
If I was back home (AU) then I couldn't have come anywhere near as far as I have - my cost of living here is like $500/month. I'm able to devote a tremendous amount of time to my startup.
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#6I live in a little house in one of the poorest countries in the Americas, making Flash games every now and then to fund me and my startup. If I was back home (AU) then I couldn't have come anywhere near as far as I have - my cost of living here is like $500/month. I'm able to devote a tremendous amount of time to my startup.
Which country?
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#7I live in a little house in one of the poorest countries in the Americas, making Flash games every now and then to fund me and my startup. If I was back home (AU) then I couldn't have come anywhere near as far as I have - my cost of living here is like $500/month. I'm able to devote a tremendous amount of time to my startup.
Which country?
Nicaragua, but all of Central America's a great place to live ridiculously cheap and hack away. Plus they're beautiful countries and latinas are so hot.
The internet's not fantastic (a crappy 1 megabit, and outages happen at least once a week), half of the TV is in Spanish, and you have to be careful sometimes since white guys are usually cashed up tourists and ripe for a mugging.
But when push comes to shove it beats trying to make $1000 rent + living expenses and trying to balance a startup around that.
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which country?
Nicaragua, but all of Central America's a great place to live ridiculously cheap and hack away. Plus they're beautiful countries and latinas are so hot. The internet's not fantastic (a crappy 1 megabit, and outages happen at least once a week), half of the TV is in Spanish, and you have to be careful sometimes since white guys are usually cashed up tourists and ripe for a mugging. But when push comes to shove it beat…
Thanks for the details. This is getting a bit off-topic, but can you describe how a foreigner should go about finding a place to live in Central America? Did you just fly there and look for "For Rent" signs or did you line something up beforehand?
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#9Built a MFA (made-for-adsense) site: http://www.snapspans.com/
:)
Re: Ask HN: Any desperate things you did just to keep your startup alive?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nicaragua, but all of Central America's a great place to live ridiculously cheap and hack away. Plus they're beautiful countries and latinas are so hot. The internet's not fantastic (a crappy 1 megabit, and outages happen at least once a week), half of the TV is in Spanish, and you have to be careful sometimes since white guys are usually cashed up tourists and ripe for a mugging. But when push comes to shove it beat…
Thanks for the details. This is getting a bit off-topic, but can you describe how a foreigner should go about finding a place to live in Central America? Did you just fly there and look for "For Rent" signs or did you line something up beforehand?
They really aren't into things like Craigslist or real estate listing sites. Houses/apartments for rent is literally done by a sign on the place combined with word of mouth, and often purely word of mouth.
Probably your best bet would be going to a backpackers hostel and finding one while you stay there - they'll set you back as little as $10ish a night, have internet and interesting people to talk to, and the people working there might know of a place and/or you can walk around looking for somewhere.