Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur • Hacker News Board

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#61

Post by aabhay » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #52

nhance wrote: post #21

I'm 16 years in and have followed a similar path. I graduated college in 2004, started my business in 2005 and never took a job. Consulting has gotten me here and I've had up to 4 direct hires with me, but my dream has always been to run a product business. I must have attempted 3 dozen different ideas by this point. But on Friday last week, we reached our 100th subscriber. Combined with other free products, we now h…

This is an underrated path, IMO. Consulting is an excellent way to hone the non-coding skills necessary for bootstrapping a company: Scoping projects, timeline estimation, choosing tradeoffs, finishing things, selling things, presenting products to others. It's also helpful to be able to get out and talk to other businesses and people on a regular basis. Bootstrapping can be extremely lonely in a way that is hard to…

Consulting is a great way to make money, period. A decently talented software developer can amass enough projects to overtake their salary at any desk job. However, I would not recommend using consulting income to supplement entrepreneurship nor to expose yourself to product ideas. The best product ideas come from experiencing some pain point yourself (as the "buyer") and meeting other buyers who, like you, know exactly what is painful and why. This is something that you cannot really experience as an outsider.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#62

Post by akrymski » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

Just because you've written a blog post or some code doesn't make you an "entrepreneur". Pretty sure AirBnB founders haven't written a line of code for example.

Creating a business is largely about sales: selling your idea to investors, customers, and employees.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#63

Post by redleggedfrog » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

In that same time period I made over 1 million in take home pay from my developer job which i turned around into residential and commercial rentals which now bring in waaaaay more than my salary. I have the advantage of being on the west coast with rising property values, but still, sometimes there are better ways than just chasing the latest startup fad.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#64

Post by brianwawok » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

orasis wrote: post #59

I’m sincerely not trying to be mean, but it’s possible you were previously simply bad at entrepreneurship. There is this dominant narrative that entrepreneurship is primarily about raw willpower and persistence despite the odds. As a 20+ year entrepreneur I do not believe this to be the case. I believe the primary skill is observation. Yes, we need to try different ideas, but what really makes a product work is liste…

Right, and that is totally okay. Maybe try going in with someone else for your next project. OP has the technical chops to deliver, doesn't mean they are good at solving problems that people want to pay money for.

Or maybe the products are indeed great, but your marketing is weak.

Either way, get help.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#65

Post by dreyfan » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

Stop building inferior versions of things which already exist. Build the things that don’t exist.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#66

Post by montblanc » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

I dont wanna sound negative but for some people giving up makes sense. Entrepreneurship could be extremely isolating and depressig, especially when its not working out, and not everyone wants a decade of failure after failure and missing out on other financial and social opportunities.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#67

Post by cameron_b » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

Msw242 wrote: post #54

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an underrated path, IMO. Consulting is an excellent way to hone the non-coding skills necessary for bootstrapping a company: Scoping projects, timeline estimation, choosing tradeoffs, finishing things, selling things, presenting products to others. It's also helpful to be able to get out and talk to other businesses and people on a regular basis. Bootstrapping can be extremely lonely in a way that is hard to…

VCs actively dissuade founders from doing professional services.

Because they don't want you helping near-domain competition with the application of the special sauce they just paid for. They didn't buy your app, they bought your time.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#68

Post by pkrotich » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

redisman wrote: post #26

pkrotich wrote: post #14

This is a classic B2C vs. B2B. Simply put B2C is tough without network effect or funding to build it. B2C - Customer/User has time, not money. B2B - Customer has money, not time.

B2B has its own set of challenges too. Making a sale can be a lot more complicated and take easily a year.

My biggest problem with B2C is you have to turn around and monetize your users (eye balls) via Ads or otherwise - now you're back to SALES, but only if you can survive to get the users! It's a catch-22 if you're bootstrapping, VC funding helps.

Enterprise sales has a long cycle indeed, but I'll say it depends on the pain you're solving and the target market.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#69

Post by whoisjohnkid » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

Are you doing this solo? I’ve found it’s good to have partner(s).

Ideally with diverse backgrounds; e.g.

  - marketing

  - engineering

  - sales

  - finance

This way the burden doesn’t fall on you for everything and you can lean on others to do their part.

IMO a lot of tech entrepreneurs take the marketing/sales side for granted.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#70

Post by mrkentutbabi » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

That's amazing. I am an engineer myself and my problems are that I am not that creative to find problems to solve like you do. Much less the persistence that you have that keep trying and trying again. Kudos to you! I hope one day I will be able to do so.