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My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

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Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#21

Post by cjy »

switch wrote: post #13

Please Note: This might seem critical but I'm just pointing out three problems i.e. lack of effort, lack of measuring effort and other statistics, lack of empathy with customers. My argument would be that without at least 2 of these 3 the OP will keep running into problems and keep blaming extrinsic meaningless things. * Credit to the person (aaron?) for writing this. However, the lack of measured numbers is terrifyi…

How is time spent on something in any way correlated with how much he learned?

The whole idea of failing fast is that you don't need to invest pointless time after you have learned something is not going to work.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#22

Post by diolpah »

cjy wrote: post #21
switch wrote: post #13

Please Note: This might seem critical but I'm just pointing out three problems i.e. lack of effort, lack of measuring effort and other statistics, lack of empathy with customers. My argument would be that without at least 2 of these 3 the OP will keep running into problems and keep blaming extrinsic meaningless things. * Credit to the person (aaron?) for writing this. However, the lack of measured numbers is terrifyi…

How is time spent on something in any way correlated with how much he learned? The whole idea of failing fast is that you don't need to invest pointless time after you have learned something is not going to work.

If you believe the premise and results of the '10000 hours to expert' research cited by Gladwell's "Outliers", then the obvious conclusion is that time invested is highly correlated with learning.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#23

Post by byoung2 »

kayhi wrote: post #20
byoung2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone know of place for those between launch and dead? In between "I'm shutting down because of lack of traction" and "I just got acquired for $20 million" I know a few people whose startups have become "lifestyle businesses". Though that term seems synonymous with failure on HN, for the people I know, it means being the boss, not having one, working from home (or Hawaii, Thailand, etc. for a few weeks at a time) in…

Do any of them have blogs or communities that they frequent? I would be interesting in hearing their perspective, thanks.

Shoot me an email at {my HN username} at gmail and I'll get you in touch with them

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#24

Post by diolpah »

kayhi wrote: post #8

The long and sometimes lonely path of a start up... apologies as this maybe slightly off topic. I keep seeing stories of start ups that are a huge success, launching or died. Where are all those companies in between? Perhaps it's a combination of not being exciting to report on and founders being busy (both of which could be related to working hard). Anyone know of place for those between launch and dead?

My company falls into the category you describe. We're doing well, but not large, sexy, or hipster-approved enough to be covered by the tech/startup press.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#25

Post by mattm »

diolpah wrote: post #22
cjy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is time spent on something in any way correlated with how much he learned? The whole idea of failing fast is that you don't need to invest pointless time after you have learned something is not going to work.

If you believe the premise and results of the '10000 hours to expert' research cited by Gladwell's "Outliers", then the obvious conclusion is that time invested is highly correlated with learning.

10000 hours are needed to become a master or expert at something. An expert or master is in the top 1% of people who know that skill. But with learning something, anyone could reach the top 10% within 6 months. Dedicate to learning something for 6 months and you reach the top 10%. It doesn't take much time to go from nothing to a decent skill level. It does, however, take a lot of time to go from a decent level to a mastery level.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#26

Post by mattm »

rick888 wrote: post #18
akg_67 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only point I wanted to make was that quitting job is not a pre-requisite to having a successful startup, which you were implying. I used to hear that often and naively believed that to my own peril. I discourage others to do the same however amount of saving you may have unless you are at a stage where you never need to work for money.

"Only point I wanted to make was that quitting job is not a pre-requisite to having a successful startup, which you were implying. I used to hear that often and naively believed that to my own peril. I discourage others to do the same however amount of saving you may have unless you are at a stage where you never need to work for money." If you don't have any money in the bank, then you shouldn't quit your job. Howev…

I'm at a similar point. I have about one years worth of savings in the bank and could probably stretch it to two years if I sell some stocks. I'm also young so if I blow through that money I will recover.

A friend of mine had a great idea that we are going to work on and I just thought it's now or never. If I try to work and do this on the side, I don't really see myself putting in as much as I could and it would be a regret down the road.

The "To quit or not to quit" question isn't so black and white. Definitely don't quit if you are living paycheck-to-paycheck but if you have at least a year's worth of living expenses saved up, I think it's worth it to give it a shot.

Yes, some people build businesses while they are working full-time. Other people need the motivation or time of giving it their all. It's a case-by-case scenario.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#28

Post by TWSS »

mgkimsal wrote: post #9
TWSS wrote: post #7

I fought against the need to quit my job for over a year while I was working on startups on the side. It took an idea that I was wildly passionate about and a well-timed layoff to make me realize that being "all in" wasn't just a poker metaphor the already-successful used to look down on plebes like me. That said, I'm stupidly well-placed to be working on my own idea, unpaid - I'm using the self-employment assistance…

What state are you in?

Oregon. One of only a handful of states with self-employment assistance programs - the others are Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, AFAIK.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#29

Post by DavidTO1 »

I really enjoyed reading your story. I had similar experiences with my side project as well.

In my case, I tried to take on the behemoth that is Intuit. I spent 2 years working on the same side project. In my third year, I decided to quit my job and focus on it fulltime. Six months into working on my startup I realized that I made the mistake of trying to pick a fight with Intuit since the product that I was building was too much for me to handle.

I decided to switch course and focus on niche products for the Mac App Store. Two months after my pivot, I was making a few thousand a month from my apps. I've since accepted fulltime employment and am continuing to work on my Mac Apps as they are still generating the same amount of money.

From this experience I learned its best to focus on a niche market if you are a one man band. I think your failure was because your focus was too wide. Perhaps for your next project, you should consider focusing on a niche market.

Good luck.

Re: My failed bootstrapped startup: a retrospective.

#30

Post by bignoggins »

rick888 wrote: post #3

Most of the time, if your startup is a side-project (IE: you have a full-time job), it won't be successful. Not to say that this is impossible. I've found that when you are working full-time on something, your mind is in a different place. You can also move much faster.

I disagree, it's perfectly possible. My side project started last year and I didn't quit until my revenues matched my salary. Now I'm on course for 250-300K in revenue this year. You just need to scale the startup appropriately. An groupon competitor just is not appropriate for a bootstrapped startup, in my opinion. Whereas something like an iphone game definitely is.
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