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I Don't Want to Be a Founder

carolchen.me

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Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#131

Post by hobofan »

j_autumn wrote: post #120
rorykoehler wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not do an Einzelunternehmen to start. Do a UG. Not worth exposing yourself to the unforgiving and extremely aggressive Finanzamt when they decide they want to collect money you didn't expect to owe.

Can you elaborate on that? My tax adviser told me I should go for a Einzelunternehmen (especially use the Kleingewerbe during the first year) because of the reduced costs (registration costs 25EUR and thats it) and not having the overhead. I’ve heard that registering a UG costs about ~500EUR + yearly costs of around 1500 EUR. Given that this is during a beginning to try things out - without having too much money layi…

> Given that this is during a beginning to try things out - without having too much money laying around to play with it.

If that's what you want to do, then a Einzelunternehmen (without Handelsregistereintrag) should be fine and less beaurocratic overhead. Especially for bootstrapping or side-projects it's always useful to have a Gewerbe registered.

As long as you follow the best practices (specifying 0€ expected income in the first year, etc.) and don't try to do any financial trickery, Finanzamt also shouldn't be a problem. However once you start to turn a decent profit (100+k/year) and/or start to hire people, you will be required to do more bookkeeping anyway, at which point it makes sense to found a GmbH (or even two layered ones).

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#132

Post by blackrock »

georgewsinger wrote: post #38

> A lot of people claim that startups are less money, but I find for signicant number of founders, that's not true -- not because they'll definitely have a good exit, but because they're skilled in ways that allow them to raise enough money to pay themselves like they would at a big company. If that applies to you, then going to a startup probably is your best shot at getting rich! For other people, the expected valu…

Why not? You might be the CEO of your new wannabe company, but your landlord is still going to demand his monthly rent. Bills still need to be paid. It’s unrealistic to be burning through your savings, because you probably don’t have enough.

And if you had enough money, you’d probably have self-funded your startup idea yourself, instead of having to deal with pesky VC investors.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#133

Post by hobofan »

YungSven wrote: post #79
Mave83 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's all Germany based. Don't go the UG way, just found a GmbH. Please note it is possible to found it with 12500€ and have to provide the other half of the 25k€ later. My first company was without the GmbH protection and benefits. It was ok but I would not do or suggest it to anyone. Hell of a pain to migrate to a GmbH later.

I‘m about to found a UG in the next few days, so I‘m curious why you say that I should found a GmbH rather than a UG.

There are some fixed costs with transitioning to a GmbH (notary, Handelsregister, etc.), along with all the time you have to spend to change the name all over the place, which quickly amounts to a few thousand bucks.

Given that the 1€ founding is an illusion anyway, as you will need to have some money in the company to pay your accountant, Berufsgenossenschaft, (the salary you are living off if you are working full-time), etc., the benefits of requiring somewhat less (maybe 5k instead of 12.5k) are not that great.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#134

Post by hobofan »

literallycancer wrote: post #128
amzans wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the inspiring story. I’m guessing that the 25K€ probably referrers to a GmbH in Germany :) If so, would you say the GmbH/UG (Limited Liability Company) route is a good idea from the start for a solo founder of a bootstrapped SaaS? I’ve been doing my research and maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like it has quite a lot of overhead for a first time solo founder like myself. To clarify, I’m an expat in Germany,…

I think you can avoid the complicated international tax situation by not being a tax resident of Germany.

As they stated, they are an expat in Germany, so as long as they stay there for more than 6 months of the year, the are at the minimum required to pay income tax.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#135

Post by Kkoala »

Veen wrote: post #96
switch11 wrote: post #86

Could someone please explain to me what the value in this article is? It's written by a 18 year old who has never started a company So, as someone who has started multiple companies and currently running a profitable albeit small startup, what insights should I get from this article?

Does it not strike you as somewhat narcissistic to assume that, because an article isn't valuable to someone in your exact position, it isn't valuable at all? You comment reminds me of something I read recently in a novel by Ian McEwan, in which a character talks about the sort of novels she would like to read: > "I suppose I would not have been satisfied until I had in my hands a novel about a girl in a Camden bedsi…

Not that other novels are/can be interesting as well, but I would find it fascinating to read a novel about myself.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#136

Post by startup_thrway »

gkoberger wrote: post #21

I remember as I was starting my company, I reached out to a founder of a company you've likely heard of for advice. We grabbed drinks, and he practically begged me to not start a company, for my own sake. I thought he was a dick. But he wasn't wrong. Write down a list of why you want to start a company. I bet the list involves things like "building something nobody else has," "getting to program and design and do a b…

> But don't do it because you want to do it. Do it because you literally can't imagine not doing it.

What about because you can't bear the thought of having to work 8 hours a day for the rest of your life? I realize this is probably among the "bad" reasons to start a business (and it probably sounds disrespectful to people who have and will keep on doing that until retirement), but that is how I feel currently.

It may sound like a burnout problem, but there wasn't anything to be burned out by except... having to actually work full-time. I now freelance 10-15 hours per week and that feels doable but I'm not going to have a fun retirement with that (at least living expenses are covered).

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#137

Post by auspex »

startup_thrway wrote: post #136
gkoberger wrote: post #21

I remember as I was starting my company, I reached out to a founder of a company you've likely heard of for advice. We grabbed drinks, and he practically begged me to not start a company, for my own sake. I thought he was a dick. But he wasn't wrong. Write down a list of why you want to start a company. I bet the list involves things like "building something nobody else has," "getting to program and design and do a b…

> But don't do it because you want to do it. Do it because you literally can't imagine not doing it. What about because you can't bear the thought of having to work 8 hours a day for the rest of your life? I realize this is probably among the "bad" reasons to start a business (and it probably sounds disrespectful to people who have and will keep on doing that until retirement), but that is how I feel currently. It ma…

It is a valid reason. Some people start companies to actually make money. If that is your motivation it can be very powerful. I would also say that it’s going to be (probably) years of 12+ hour days that might end in failure.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#138

Post by startup_thrway »

auspex wrote: post #137
startup_thrway wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But don't do it because you want to do it. Do it because you literally can't imagine not doing it. What about because you can't bear the thought of having to work 8 hours a day for the rest of your life? I realize this is probably among the "bad" reasons to start a business (and it probably sounds disrespectful to people who have and will keep on doing that until retirement), but that is how I feel currently. It ma…

It is a valid reason. Some people start companies to actually make money. If that is your motivation it can be very powerful. I would also say that it’s going to be (probably) years of 12+ hour days that might end in failure.

Thanks. Somehow that doesn't sound as bad, as long as there is reasonable (whatever that means) chance of it working out. Although, logically, it's clear to me that it is harder than working a job. Only way to know is to do it, I guess.

And maybe see a therapist, because this dread of having to work sounds weird now that I put it in writing. And I did it for many years without seeming to suffer too much, at the time at least.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#139

Post by take_a_breath »

rickdangerous1 wrote: post #9

My take on this is: the only people who should become a founder are the people who can't bear the thought of not doing it. Anyone with less than "Give me libertly or give me death" levels of commitment should not even bother.

This seems like an unnecessary barrier to new ideas and innovation. So many of the businesses we rely on started as simple hobbies or games.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#140

Post by [deleted] »

fermienrico wrote: post #34
kipply wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am this close to changing it, this is very good

I like how according to Silicon Valley, a "Founder" is a person that has borrowed capital from VCs. I live in Silicon Valley and there are more businesses here that are not backed by VCs than otherwise. Tens of thousands of small businesses who work as hard as the top dogs sucking up to VCs, yet they're just businesses with owners, not "Startups" with "Founders". Some people still call Dropbox, Airbnb and Uber as "St…

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