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How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

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Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#21

Post by armandososa »

arthur_debert wrote: post #20
armandososa wrote: post #15

One question: If you're a freelancer working remotely from home, why don't you move somewhere cheaper? On latam most people live at $5 a day, you can live like a frikin' sultan with $500. Live there for six months at 2 hours of consulting work and finish AppIgnite, then return with the product done. btw, I'm a super-fan of TechZing even when I got bad publicity there ;)

I'm not sure where in latam you're thinking about, but at least in Brazil these numbers are way off. Yes, you can live with $500 a month, but you'd go without many luxuries such as internet connection, cel phone and so on. Major cities (the largest 2 or 3) in Brazil have a cost of living very close to cheaper cities of the USA. If you move to smaller towns, you begin to deal with other issues (lack of infrastructure…

but I'm talking $500 a day.

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#22

Post by pbhjpbhj »

abstractbill wrote: post #13
edw519 wrote: post #5

Very inspiring, OP. The little tips and tricks are always helpful, but what is best is getting us to think, "If he can do it, then so can I." One giant question, though. You describe a life where you often squeeze in a few hours on your start-up here and there. This sounds like it would work rather well for repetitive tasks like stuffing envelopes, folding apparel, or answering emails. But what happens if you have tr…

I used to think I needed long uninterrupted stretches of time to do good work. It turns out I was wrong. I'm working on a side-project now, putting in less than half an hour a day (but making sure to do it every day). Strangely enough I'm making better progress in many ways than when I had the luxury of spending many hours on side-projects. I'm blogging on my progress, if anyone is interested: http://prehacked.com (r…

>I'm working on a side-project now, putting in less than half an hour a day

Is that including thinking time? Do you have commuting time or some other time without responsibility for other people in which to think?

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#23

Post by pbhjpbhj »

anonymous236 wrote: post #4

A friend of mine started VC-backed company when his 3 kids were 2-4 years of age. That was several years ago and since then the company has grown to 400+ employees, millions of paying customers and went public with the market cap of over 500 mil. Call it an "old-school" start-up if you will. His HowTo is nannie s . That freed up lots of time without making him feel like he was neglecting or taking away from his child…

>His HowTo is nannies. That freed up lots of time without making him feel like he was neglecting or taking away from his children.

"How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids"

Your friend is not raising those kids though is he? It sounds like the nannies are. The kids maybe are not being neglected but he is neglecting them.

People, it seems, sometimes don't care about raising their offspring just as long as someone does. To me that is really weird, why choose to have children if you're going to get someone else to raise them?

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#24

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ahi wrote: post #11

>Obviously, if you do the math $500 per day isn't a huge income for a family of three living in a relatively expensive area like Pasadena, CA Just a little perspective, median income for a family of 5 in California is $66,106, so $500/day may not be huge but it's certainly large.

We're a family of 4 living on the equivalent of $50 a day, 60% of our income gets paid out on mortgage costs. We're not in Pasadena though.

Median income adjusted for purchasing power (based on Wikipedia figures) would be about half your quoted amount , $34000.

I can't quite imagine having equivalent of $250 a day. You must have a lot of savings.

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#25

Post by warren_s »

run4yourlives wrote: post #18
armandososa wrote: post #15

One question: If you're a freelancer working remotely from home, why don't you move somewhere cheaper? On latam most people live at $5 a day, you can live like a frikin' sultan with $500. Live there for six months at 2 hours of consulting work and finish AppIgnite, then return with the product done. btw, I'm a super-fan of TechZing even when I got bad publicity there ;)

3 kids.

AND a wife. First (and most importantly) of all, you need to convince your partner it's the right option.

It's easy enough to talk about "geo-arbitrage" (or whatever Tim Ferris calls it) when you're single and unattached - it's another thing to uproot a family of five and move to another country.

If you can get to the point of both partners buying into the plan, then you need to consider things like schools, healthcare, appropriate housing for 5 people, etc. That's of course assuming you are eligible for a visa to live and work in the country you'd like to move to.

It's not impossible, but it's a lot harder when there are other people involved, some of whom depend on you for everything.

To be honest, for a family, simply moving a bit further away from the city to somewhere with a lower cost of living would probably deliver more utility for far less effort than changing countries.

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#26

Post by addoway »

You can do whatever you believe you can do. Don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Yeah it's hard especially if you have children and a family, but it is not impossible. It's only as tough as you let people make you believe it is. Starting a startup is difficult already, but if you have the brains, the will, and a true solution to a real problem you will win.

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#27

Post by annajohnson »

My husband and I quit full time jobs to build our second startup, whilst also having two kids to raise (8 and 6 years old). I don't feel like it's hard at all. I'm pretty disciplined, so I guess that helps. Perhaps I also see the world differently. But overall we're happier, we spend more time with our kids than when we were in jobs, and life is great.

I would also point out that the 'family business' is nothing new. Sure it may be somewhat different when you're building a business to scale, but there are plenty of examples of family businesses where the parents work huge hours and are also raising kids. Heaps of examples come to mind where the parents are literally managing the store 6 or 7 days a week, and somehow looking after children as well.

If you see 'having a family' as a barrier then it will be a barrier. Personally, raising kids and building a startup has never been an 'either/or' choice. In fact, since I love my kids and also love building a company... nothing could be better than having a life where I get to do both.

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#29

Post by cubix »

brlewis wrote: post #17
edw519 wrote: post #5

Very inspiring, OP. The little tips and tricks are always helpful, but what is best is getting us to think, "If he can do it, then so can I." One giant question, though. You describe a life where you often squeeze in a few hours on your start-up here and there. This sounds like it would work rather well for repetitive tasks like stuffing envelopes, folding apparel, or answering emails. But what happens if you have tr…

Using a Lisp dialect helps me pick up where I left off: http://ourdoings.com/2006-05-01 Sales/marketing seems to require extended effort though, or money.

Your comment is intriguing, but the link is broken.

Re: How I'm Bootstrapping a Startup While Raising Three Kids

#30

Post by brlewis »

cubix wrote: post #29
brlewis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a Lisp dialect helps me pick up where I left off: http://ourdoings.com/2006-05-01 Sales/marketing seems to require extended effort though, or money.

Your comment is intriguing, but the link is broken.

Sorry, done manually from the phone. I will check the link after posting this time.

http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-05-01

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