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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

#161

Post by Axsuul »

rwmj wrote: post #104
timavr wrote: post #103

It is definitely hard and stressful, but when you have your own company, it is up to you to decide how you want to run the company. You don't have to have co-founders, you don't have to take VC money. You don't have to do anything period. It is your company, you run it and if somebody else wants to run it, they can either fire you if they have means to do it or buy you out.

This is technically correct, and running a lifestyle business can suit some people. But running a business is stressful because at the very least you have to deal with taxes, accounts, cashflow and sales that are more complex than being an employee. If you take on even a single employee it's another level of complexity on top, and you have to make payroll every month without fail. For me at least it was better to do…

To be honest, taxes, accounts, and cashflow are overestimated. There's plenty of softwar/services out there now to make this less painful.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#162

Post by tylermenezes »

I worry about the people who want to start companies. I think that's a terrible motivation that more often than not leads to failure (and drags others down with you).

I have personally never wanted to start a company. I have seen something I've wanted to change in the world, and failed to find a way to change it without starting a company.

Not starting a company would have been quite a bit less painful. I would 100% take that option if it were on the table.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#163

Post by adwn »

roboy wrote: post #54
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,…

GmbH gives you limited liability, that's its main purpose, to encapsulate risks and create a body on its own. You can just as well just register as a freelancer if there's no significant risk of going into debt suddenly or being sued. The overhead is not that big though, you have to submit tax returns, do proper accounting and you might want a tax consultant for this - that removes most of the headache, and costs you…

> You can just as well just register as a freelancer [...]

Beware: If you're registered as a "Freiberufler", you're not allowed to sell or re-sell any physical or virtual products, including any kind of SaaS (but you're allowed to have employees). If you want to do that, you have to register a Gewerbe. To put it simple, as a Freiberufler you can only sell your time or that of your employees (it doesn't matter whether you use fixed-price contracts or hourly rates), but you can't sell your software.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#164

Post by Axsuul »

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…

VCs want founders to be paid a market salary so that they can focus on their startup and not be distracted with other shiny things.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#165

Post by ian0 »

oblio wrote: post #157
blackrock wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some viable startup ideas in fin tech? Insurance by app? Stock trading for free?

Everyting in Fintech involves a mountain of paperwork and regulation. And probably a huge amount of money from the get-go.

Not true there are lots of regulatory-light fintech applications you can try like building applications on top of banking APIs. Very few people ever really use bank APIs you may find the bank will be glad to talk to you.

You likely (but not always) need a legal entity, but thats a prerequisite for setting up any business.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#167

Post by _curious_ »

Interesting thoughts Carol, thanks for sharing. It's important to have this sort of conversation with yourself when considering the foundations of starting a company. The fact that you've expressed it in such a way that others can tap into may be valuable for those like you at or approaching this crossroads. Fascinating thought process!

Not enough entrepreneurs/founders are able to have such a pragmatic and mature dialogue up front about the pros and cons. It's imperative that they do for the sake of their time and emotional well being - at the least. Kudos to you for going through it and making a decision which suits your needs.

You've said: "Setting goals like working at a certain company, promotions (up to positions like CTO) and building a specific type of thing aren't less ambitious than building a successful startup." ... and I would ask you to elaborate on that, like is there anything more "ambitious" than building successful startup or how do you perceive the scale of ambition in the context of say business/professional pursuits?

PS - I didn't know that hey.com was considered a "huge, groundbreaking" product...certainly captured some hearts and minds of the early adopter meets anti apple/establishment crowd but is it (yet) recognized outside of that bubble?

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#168

Post by adwn »

Axsuul wrote: post #155
christiansakai wrote: post #147

Is software startup by solo founders still viable anymore? Today the age of apps/SaaS seems ending. It is oversaturated, and the low hanging (low technical complexity) fruits are already taken left and right.

Yes, all the low hanging fruit has been taken but why would you want compete on that anyways? Being a solo founder doesn't mean you can't solve hard problems. “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve”

> “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve”

No, you really don't. Your "pay" is a function of the market size, your market share, the budget of your customers, the amount of perceived value you create for them, your ability to sell, your costs, and probably some other minor factors. The difficulty of the problems you solve is – if at all – only indirectly related to some of those factors.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#169

Post by celeritascelery »

a_imho wrote: post #125
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…

Probably projecting here, but the imo the no1 reason to start a business is writing software for others does not scale, while selling software/service is lucrative.

> selling software/service is lucrative.

Can be lucrative. I know many people who have tried to start a business and failed and were never making money.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#170

Post by jmschlmrs »

thisisbrians wrote: post #156

I enjoyed this article, but I think it glosses over a very important part of my (and my cofounders') own motivation for starting a company: vision. Sometimes you see or believe something that others simply can't or don't, and you want to do something about it. Trying to find a (usually narrowly-defined) job that lets you work on these things can be very hard because there usually has to be someone looking for solutio…

"[..] while still allowing for a decent income even in the event of failure." How does this work? You're just taking enough of a salary as an early stage C[X]O/founder that your downside is limited?
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