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Why you shouldn't start a startup

laurentk.posterous.com

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Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#21

Post by lolizbak »

andreadallera wrote: post #14
lolizbak wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comon', you know what i mean :) I'm not saying i have an "engineer-level", but i'm good enough to throw an MVP together. Try out http://fastfwdme.com , it works fine for a small project I developed. Of course there are years of training to be a good hacker, but my point is that you can achieve a sufficient level to test ideas out yourself.

Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...

... and sorry to make your cringe :)

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#22

Post by saddino »

rgarcia wrote: post #16

Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people comin…

It's never too late to become an entrepreneur. I took "secure" jobs for four years and then sold my services as a contractor for almost another six before I launched my first startup. IMHO, for the risk-averse, forming an LLC to contract your services is one of the best ways to learn how to run a business. And the $ you've (hopefully) saved will help you bootstrap when you decide to take the plunge.

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#23

Post by localhost3000 »

andreadallera wrote: post #14
lolizbak wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comon', you know what i mean :) I'm not saying i have an "engineer-level", but i'm good enough to throw an MVP together. Try out http://fastfwdme.com , it works fine for a small project I developed. Of course there are years of training to be a good hacker, but my point is that you can achieve a sufficient level to test ideas out yourself.

Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...

who would you rather work with, a "biz guy" who has built a prototype that can't scale or a "biz guy" who has been talking about an idea for 3 months but doing nothing?

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#25

Post by klbarry »

zeemonkee wrote: post #17
patrickod wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe that's another reason that the mean age for founders is quite low. I mean if you're older and have dependents it's not the best time to throw your salary out the window and go it alone.

The mean age for founders in the US is 39: http://blog.checkadvantage.com/2011/02/09/baby-boomers-job-m...

Not for the type of start-up we talk about on HN.

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#26

Post by kristofferR »

andreadallera wrote: post #14
lolizbak wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comon', you know what i mean :) I'm not saying i have an "engineer-level", but i'm good enough to throw an MVP together. Try out http://fastfwdme.com , it works fine for a small project I developed. Of course there are years of training to be a good hacker, but my point is that you can achieve a sufficient level to test ideas out yourself.

Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...

Why not build something yourself and find a dev when scaling is needed? With Rails it's quite easy to create okay code that'll work just fine in the beginning. The code obviously won't be great, but it'll scale to a couple of thousands of users without major problems.

There's no point of spending a lot of money on a professional developer until you have validated that your business idea has any potential. That's especially true in most early startup where money is really scarce.

And even if you don't plan to be a technical founder, it's quite a good idea to at least could program a little bit. It will make it much easier to communicate with developers and understand technical issues.

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#27

Post by andreadallera »

lolizbak wrote: post #20
andreadallera wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...

Andrea, I agree. But depending on where you are, "finding a good dev" can take months, more if you're looking for a partner. And it's easier to attract talent with a working prototype than with ideas around a beer...

I was probably mistaken, let me rephrase: it's awesome that you, as a business guy, actually took the time and had the patience to learn Rails, no matter what the results - and it will surely impress the developers you will try to hire in the future. Between that and Rails is easy, learn it yourself and save money there's quite of a difference :-)

If you want to be an awesome business guy, learn how to code so you can talk with your devs more effectively. But for the sake of your project don't try to replace them :-)

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#28

Post by viandante »

localhost3000 wrote: post #23
andreadallera wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...

who would you rather work with, a "biz guy" who has built a prototype that can't scale or a "biz guy" who has been talking about an idea for 3 months but doing nothing?

I would rather not work with any developer who underestimates business guys at this level.

Now, if you want to make the next "To Do" app, a dev can be fine, but if you want to do something useful, you will need a biz guy.

I mean, this thinking from the dev side is exactly why companies today are full of crappy products (SAP, Windows, etc.).

Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup

#29

Post by lolizbak »

andreadallera wrote: post #27
lolizbak wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andrea, I agree. But depending on where you are, "finding a good dev" can take months, more if you're looking for a partner. And it's easier to attract talent with a working prototype than with ideas around a beer...

I was probably mistaken, let me rephrase: it's awesome that you, as a business guy, actually took the time and had the patience to learn Rails, no matter what the results - and it will surely impress the developers you will try to hire in the future. Between that and Rails is easy, learn it yourself and save money there's quite of a difference :-) If you want to be an awesome business guy, learn how to code so you ca…

Of course, you're right. And I think we agree.

The other thing is that in tech startups, being the "crunch the number and shit slides" guy can be quite frustrating. Knowing how to put up a prototype yourself is pretty satisfying!

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