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Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

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Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#44
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "my business isn't producing revenue because I'm not full-time focused on it." I've fallen into this trap and learned the hard way that full-time focus was not the issue. What was/were the issue/s if you don't mind me asking?

It’s always product market fit. If the product is right it will find users.

It seems as though a lot of startup founders and product managers succumb to this illness. I've worked for a number of startups that have always had a number of people who were building things for nobody but themselves. These features, and in one case - product, were not anything any customers were willing to pay for. Instead a lot of these founders think it's their sellers and double down on ineffective solutions like thinking something such as MEDDPICC will solve the "sales" issue, except what they should be doing is having honest conversations with prospects and customers.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#45

Everyone wants to not work for someone else and be the decision maker and lead a team. Entrepreneurship starts with being a builder.

Eh… most of the people I know are much happier not dealing with the overhead of running a business. We work 9-5 so we can have money to live.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#46

Everyone wants to not work for someone else and be the decision maker and lead a team. Entrepreneurship starts with being a builder.

> Everyone wants to not work for someone else and be the decision maker and lead a team

Speak for yourself; can't think of anything worse, myself. Very happy to let others take care of that sort of thing.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#47

Everyone wants to not work for someone else and be the decision maker and lead a team. Entrepreneurship starts with being a builder.

I think there's some kind of echo chamber or distortion field among entrepreneurs, which makes them believe everyone's goal in life is entrepreneurship, "being your own boss" and some nebulous idea of "success".

It's really not. I'd much rather minimize the amount of stress and working hours in my life, thank you very much.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always product market fit. If the product is right it will find users.

It seems as though a lot of startup founders and product managers succumb to this illness. I've worked for a number of startups that have always had a number of people who were building things for nobody but themselves. These features, and in one case - product, were not anything any customers were willing to pay for. Instead a lot of these founders think it's their sellers and double down on ineffective solutions li…

Founders should be doing sales (not leading it, doing it) until at least 1M ARR. That solves a lot of that issue.

Maybe it's a difference between bootstrapped mindset and VC-fueled one.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#49
post #20

Kind of sad to think that a company just went bankrupt, while their employees were working on their own companies instead. No blame for OP. But what should managers do in challenging situations to prevent their team from losing focus?

> But what should managers do in challenging situations to prevent their team from losing focus?

Force them to spend 12 hours in the office, of course.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#50
> You know those ridiculous motivational videos that say entrepreneurship is all about courage and a little bit of misery at the beginning.

The purpose of motivational videos is to sell advertising targeting the sort of person who watches motivational videos. That's it. Shouldn't be taken at all seriously (or watched at all, really).

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