Learn to code.
Upmodded--I think this was sincere advice (wasn't it?).
Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
61–70 of 241 posts
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#62I realize this won't sound encouraging, but it seems to me that you were doomed from the start. Whoever writes the code in a web startup has to be a full cofounder-- which means a friend, not just a stranger you recruited for this project. You've inadvertantly shown why this custom exists. Trying to outsource the development would just be repeating the same mistake. Your best bets would be either to learn to hack, or…
pg, The idea was that always that she would be a full co-founder. We agreed on a low equity split initially because of the asymmetric risk we were taking. The idea was always to increase her stake 6 months into the project, but not in the way it happened. I met her through a friend, and 3 months ago would have been proud to call her my cofounder. I am going to learn to hack regardless, I am just trying to figure out…
...as the payoff for learning to hack will be a few months.
It doesn't have to be that long. Do you have any programming experience? Do you have any friends that do? With a smart friend guiding you through, you can skip a lot of annoyances when you learn to program.
This is also a prudent point - what have you been doing the last 12 months? That would have been more than enough to get the hang of Django...
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#63I realize this won't sound encouraging, but it seems to me that you were doomed from the start. Whoever writes the code in a web startup has to be a full cofounder-- which means a friend, not just a stranger you recruited for this project. You've inadvertantly shown why this custom exists. Trying to outsource the development would just be repeating the same mistake. Your best bets would be either to learn to hack, or…
pg, The idea was that always that she would be a full co-founder. We agreed on a low equity split initially because of the asymmetric risk we were taking. The idea was always to increase her stake 6 months into the project, but not in the way it happened. I met her through a friend, and 3 months ago would have been proud to call her my cofounder. I am going to learn to hack regardless, I am just trying to figure out…
It doesn't sound particularly like she believed in the idea.
I think in retrospect it would have been better to offer 50% and the same salary as you.
Going forward though, I'd say definitely learn to hack. Also find people who might help not because of a salary, but because they think the idea is cool and want to be part of it.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? Even at 35%, she's got much less equity than the original founder. If her market value is 80k, and they're taking salaries, what do you expect her to do? Talent is a marketplace. It isn't owed to anybody.
She's taking a full salary, which by itself negatively affects the startup's chances for success. She's not taking enough risk to get anything close to 35% in my opinion. It doesn't get more sweetheart that that. Too bad she was too dumb to realize that her good position could have been very good later on.
If her work makes or breaks the company, and she's worth more than 80k on the open market, and she isn't "65% stake confident" in the founder, it's not a "sweetheart deal". It's a sucker's bet.
Again, it seems like you're talking as if there were "rules" about equity participation. You would have to have an absolutely awesome idea to make, for instance, a security researcher participate in a startup for no salary. Even if you pay one $50k, and that $50k cripples the startup and maxes out hardship for everyone else in the company, it's still a sucker deal for the researcher.
I'm using a familiar example to illustrate a point. It's a marketplace, not a secret society.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get it. This isn't MTV's The Real World: Tulsa Edition. She didn't like the deal she had. She told the founder, whose stake dwarfed hers, what her issue was. It didn't work out. She left. What are you asking her to do? Stay on in an untenable situation? News flash for you: when you make a mistake signing on with a company, you aren't "honor-bound" to stay there until the situation plays itself out. If your si…
Just smells wrong, to take $6,900/mo + 6% (and agree to it) then for no reason demand more equity (which can't pay your bills) so basically the only reason to demand more equity is selfish-ness and you realize the founder is in a bad spot. - She only left cause they were out of money, I suspect she would have rode that horse to death. -I'm done debating; it was really fun, I got work to do; Im sure you do too... .rb
Unlike you, I do not want to do my work, which involves writing proposals today. =)
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#66this is a very tough position, and I certainly applaud your openness - it takes guts to get on here and tell your story.
I cannot imagine having paid this person so much money, $6900 is a lot of money, x12 is like a well paying job. To have her leave without finishing is horrible.
As your pretty far into it, all I can say is you must get to market fast. My #1 suggestion is hitting your network, find a good developer to consult with, have help you put together a road map for completion then consider your options.
Don't loose faith and don't spend another dime until you have a clear path to launch planned out. Good luck boss!
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#67I realize this won't sound encouraging, but it seems to me that you were doomed from the start. Whoever writes the code in a web startup has to be a full cofounder-- which means a friend, not just a stranger you recruited for this project. You've inadvertantly shown why this custom exists. Trying to outsource the development would just be repeating the same mistake. Your best bets would be either to learn to hack, or…
I can counter that with a real world example. I've done a startup that succeeded and got a pretty neat product out (which btw. included FPGA programming, hardware, mobile technology, and web technology - not exactly easy stuff..) and we had contractors do everything. No hackers aboard. And it worked. So it can be done.
More data points: I've had experiences with only two startups which outsourced their initial code - and both regretted it deeply (ended up in complete rewrites).
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
What was the nurse doing? Ideas aren't worth 65% of the company alone. I don't know if it's intentional but it seems like a lot of people here are talking as if there were "rules", like "x% is fair, y% is unreasonable". There are rules of thumb. But compensation is a marketplace. If the founder has no leverage, taking a lower stake in exchange for salary isn't honorable. It's just stupid. Both parties need to feel li…
I raised the funding, performed the market research, liased with many different health organisations, classifed the information in the database, wrote all the copy for the app, and created the interface mockups working with a designer.
Four possibilities spring to mind:
* Maybe you really did do a majority stake's worth of work, and she was just inexperienced.
* Maybe you didn't really do a majority stake's worth of work, and she felt like she had gotten shafted. You did start her at 6%.
* Maybe she was just a bad employee and a crap dev and wanted the paycheck. You weren't experienced enough to notice and fire her.
* Maybe through no fault of her own the project became untenable (for instance, maybe the spec changed a bunch of times, or you couldn't hammer out a reasonable set of features to launch on --- this has happened to us lots). You ran out of money, and she couldn't stay, good faith or not.
What are you going to do different next time?
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
pg, The idea was that always that she would be a full co-founder. We agreed on a low equity split initially because of the asymmetric risk we were taking. The idea was always to increase her stake 6 months into the project, but not in the way it happened. I met her through a friend, and 3 months ago would have been proud to call her my cofounder. I am going to learn to hack regardless, I am just trying to figure out…
It doesn't sound particularly like she believed in the idea. I think in retrospect it would have been better to offer 50% and the same salary as you. Going forward though, I'd say definitely learn to hack. Also find people who might help not because of a salary, but because they think the idea is cool and want to be part of it.
Why is "learning to hack" the answer here? Doesn't that leave this person with a startup with no team?
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#70i play runescape.I need cash for my account