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GeekStack Postmortem

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Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#31

Post by riffraff »

earl wrote: post #26
ww520 wrote: post #14

This is a honest and fantastic postmortem. The lessons teach us more than the success stories. I had the same problem of envisioning bigger product goal than I can achieve; I simply overestimated my energy, attention, or ability. Nowadays I try to trim down feature ruthlessly and limit scope to the bare minimum. Work not needed are work done great. Hope it's not too intrusive. Is $10K/month necessary for living expen…

$10K/mo before taxes == $6300/mo after taxes, at least in SF. If you have a family and either rent a 2 bedroom or have a mortgage, you'll spend $2500+ on shelter. Etc etc. It doesn't go as far as you'd think.

sorry, but if you spend 2500 out of 6300 you are still left with 3800. Let's assume you spend 2000 on bills and food, which seems scaringly high for me, you are still left with almost 2k for "fun stuff".

I understand I have a point of view based on living on $1k a month in good ole europe, but that seem to go quite far.

Am I missing some other basic life expenses you have in SF?

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#32

Post by PedroCandeias »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #16
noelwelsh wrote: post #9

Very honest analysis. It did make me wonder if the author really wants to be an entrepreneur. For me, starting a business is something I feel compelled to do -- I don't think I can be happy if I'm not in control. I'm certainly happier in my current job than I have ever been in any job where I worked for anyone else. Knowing that if I don't make the business work the kids don't eat and the mortgage doesn't get paid is…

> For me, starting a business is something I feel compelled to do -- I don't think I can be happy if I'm not in control. Weird - I think I would be very unhappy as an enterpreneur. You see it as being in control - I see it as being controlled by outside forces (investors, angels, customers, contractors, employees.)

Only if you really need outside capital. Then yes. But small businesses are set up all the time with just the owner's resources. Bootstrapped entrepreneurs who build lifestyle businesses rarely make the headlines but they do enjoy an enviable amount of control over their own lives.

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#33

Post by ootachi »

PedroCandeias wrote: post #32
pavel_lishin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me, starting a business is something I feel compelled to do -- I don't think I can be happy if I'm not in control. Weird - I think I would be very unhappy as an enterpreneur. You see it as being in control - I see it as being controlled by outside forces (investors, angels, customers, contractors, employees.)

Only if you really need outside capital. Then yes. But small businesses are set up all the time with just the owner's resources. Bootstrapped entrepreneurs who build lifestyle businesses rarely make the headlines but they do enjoy an enviable amount of control over their own lives.

That only eliminates the first two outside forces (investors, angels) in the list. You still have to deal with customers and employees - in other words, the market.

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#34

Post by Estragon »

gsivil wrote: post #24

This is one of the best HN articles I've read for some time.

Yes, I'm very grateful to Peter for writing about this so candidly. He really made himself vulnerable, and is even publishing comments from jerks who are taking advantage of that (http://geekstack.com/blog/geekstack-postmortem/#comment-197)

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#35

Post by PedroCandeias »

ootachi wrote: post #33
PedroCandeias wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you really need outside capital. Then yes. But small businesses are set up all the time with just the owner's resources. Bootstrapped entrepreneurs who build lifestyle businesses rarely make the headlines but they do enjoy an enviable amount of control over their own lives.

That only eliminates the first two outside forces (investors, angels) in the list. You still have to deal with customers and employees - in other words, the market.

Well, that remains true regardless of whether you're an entrepreneur, a freelancer or a salaryman. Anyone you do work for is a client of sorts and, even as a salaryman, you can end up in charge of other people. Plus, as an entrepreneur you do have a degree of control over the course to take when engaging the market and hiring people.

As long as we're talking about control, I can't see how it's possible to trump a bootstrapped entrepreneur who has a minimal team or none at all.

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#36

Post by earl »

riffraff wrote: post #31
earl wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10K/mo before taxes == $6300/mo after taxes, at least in SF. If you have a family and either rent a 2 bedroom or have a mortgage, you'll spend $2500+ on shelter. Etc etc. It doesn't go as far as you'd think.

sorry, but if you spend 2500 out of 6300 you are still left with 3800. Let's assume you spend 2000 on bills and food, which seems scaringly high for me, you are still left with almost 2k for "fun stuff". I understand I have a point of view based on living on $1k a month in good ole europe, but that seem to go quite far. Am I missing some other basic life expenses you have in SF?

Well, $2k is probably on the low side for bills and food. Transport: $1k+/mo, roughly: $250 to park your car at home, $250 at work, $350 car payment, insurance, gas, etc. Plus $100 for public transport for your partner, plus $80 for random taxi rides. Plus savings for maintenance. A family of 3-4 can easily spend $700 - $1000 on groceries. And we haven't discussed clothes, medical, school, etc, or any savings for a rainy day. Or entertainment; just to pick an example, movie tickets run $12 in the city so taking 3 people to the movies with a shared popcorn is $50, etc. Or $200 if you get a babysitter and just take two people out to a movie plus a modestly priced dinner.

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#37

Post by keeptrying »

Honest analysis like this are worth their weight in gold. I just quit my job 4 months ago and I'm going through what your going through. I've realised I need to ship and I've already been talking to customers. I showed them the initial crappy product and understood their market a little from their product.

Stories like this really highlight the need to ship immediately, the need to talk to customers and test the validity of the idea as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for this.

Also the guys with a family who start companies are the ones with the biggest balls in SV. Kudos. You took your fear and charged right at it. I admire that!

Re: GeekStack Postmortem

#38

Post by gdberrio »

noelwelsh wrote: post #9

Very honest analysis. It did make me wonder if the author really wants to be an entrepreneur. For me, starting a business is something I feel compelled to do -- I don't think I can be happy if I'm not in control. I'm certainly happier in my current job than I have ever been in any job where I worked for anyone else. Knowing that if I don't make the business work the kids don't eat and the mortgage doesn't get paid is…

"It did make me wonder if the author really wants to be an entrepreneur."

As someone who relates to the post [i.e., been spinning my wheel's studying for a while], I totally understand the author.

I would say that what makes someone an entrepreneur is a diferent mind set: the people who want to, feel a need to do so. A need to, when you enter a cab and see something not right, start thinking "How would I solve this business issue?".

But, like everything in life, there's the funcional entrepreneur and the dysfuncional one [hope the Author doesn't take it as an insult]. Dysfuncional one's have a passion and a great want to be entrepreneurs, but have a nasty and unhealthy dose of "I want to get this absolutly perfect" syndrome. At the first try. So, we study. And research. And keep researching. And try to forsee every problem we could maybe/possibly encounter, and solve it, mentally. And, times goes by, and little is actually done (though we have a clear "vision" in our minds. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.)

The post doesn't make me wonder if the author really wants to be an entrepreneur. If he didn't he wouldn't even have started. It makes me wonder how to get out of this dysfuncional "wheel-spinning" pattern of entrepreneurship.

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