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Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

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Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#21

Post by DTrejo »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #19

Relax. I have no problem living in New York on $3K/month gross pay. That's 36K/year. Since you are working at this startup for essentially free, you should be able to convince them that you actually can only afford to work there 3-4 days/week as opposed to 5-7 which is what you are probably doing right now. If you free up some time, you will be able to find some temporary/part-time consulting work doing database admi…

If he were to take your advice, maybe you could elaborate on the less obvious ways of saving money?

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#22

Post by nostrademons »

cperciva wrote: post #13

I'm worried about that 1-in-20 (?) chance that we don't manage to line up funding in time You should be worried -- and if I were you I'd re-evaluate your odds. My guess is that a startup which would print money would still have more than a 1-in-20 chance of failing to get funding at the moment. Assuming you definitely want to continue with this startup (and think about that carefully -- sometimes there's a reason why…

I'd second this. If the company founders are not a.) In YC b.) best buddies with venture capitalists or c.) have previously started & exited from a startup for multimillions, I wouldn't count on them having any chance of getting funded. And even then, their odds aren't that good.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#23

Post by mhb »

asnyder wrote: post #18
vaksel wrote: post #10

cut your living expenses...have a car? sell it for a beater. Have high rent? Move to Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens or Jersey City(if your work is close to penn station). Or if your parents live locally, move in with them(I did this). Switch to a ramen diet....stop going out, stop buying shit. Stretch every penny. You won't believe how little you can live on, if you cut out all the bullshit. Start working on your contac…

It's likely he doesn't have a car, most New Yorkers don't. I'd also recommend switching to a fruits and vegetables diet, instead of ramen. There are enough dedicated fruit stores in New York that make fruits and vegetables cheaper and healthier than ramen. In New York, an example of this kind of store would be "Three Guys From Brooklyn", or "Circus Fruits". With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food ex…

And if you're eating ramen, try to find some without the MSG that most brands have in abundance. Blech.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#24

Post by curiousgeorge »

You should assume funding will not happen. Follow your intuition here. And then calm down and realize that 5-7 months of living expenses isn't exactly scraping by. Follow everyone else's advice on cutting costs, and look for part-time work.

Your deeper problem is the expectation that someone else will invest in a company with a large team, obligations to cover back pay, several months of development behind it, and no road map to profitability. If your company is pinning its hopes on a long shot instead of figuring out how to get a revenue stream, that is your problem right there. How it gets solved depends on the company. The standard way is called bankruptcy.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#25

Post by mattmaroon »

cperciva wrote: post #13

I'm worried about that 1-in-20 (?) chance that we don't manage to line up funding in time You should be worried -- and if I were you I'd re-evaluate your odds. My guess is that a startup which would print money would still have more than a 1-in-20 chance of failing to get funding at the moment. Assuming you definitely want to continue with this startup (and think about that carefully -- sometimes there's a reason why…

Your startup doesn't have a 19 in 20 shot of being funded AFTER you get a term sheet.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#26

Post by ryanwaggoner »

asnyder wrote: post #18
vaksel wrote: post #10

cut your living expenses...have a car? sell it for a beater. Have high rent? Move to Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens or Jersey City(if your work is close to penn station). Or if your parents live locally, move in with them(I did this). Switch to a ramen diet....stop going out, stop buying shit. Stretch every penny. You won't believe how little you can live on, if you cut out all the bullshit. Start working on your contac…

It's likely he doesn't have a car, most New Yorkers don't. I'd also recommend switching to a fruits and vegetables diet, instead of ramen. There are enough dedicated fruit stores in New York that make fruits and vegetables cheaper and healthier than ramen. In New York, an example of this kind of store would be "Three Guys From Brooklyn", or "Circus Fruits". With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food ex…

With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food expenses below $60 a month while maintaining a healthy diet.

Is that a typo? $60/mo eating fruits and veggies? I live in SF and I have a hard time imagining doing that here, let along NYC...

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#29

Post by gravitycop »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #26
asnyder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely he doesn't have a car, most New Yorkers don't. I'd also recommend switching to a fruits and vegetables diet, instead of ramen. There are enough dedicated fruit stores in New York that make fruits and vegetables cheaper and healthier than ramen. In New York, an example of this kind of store would be "Three Guys From Brooklyn", or "Circus Fruits". With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food ex…

With these sorts of stores you can easily bring your food expenses below $60 a month while maintaining a healthy diet. Is that a typo? $60/mo eating fruits and veggies? I live in SF and I have a hard time imagining doing that here, let along NYC...

This can help: free food for hungry hackers:

http://images.google.com/images?q=food+not+bombs+san+francis...

http://images.google.com/images?q=food+not+bombs+new+york

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#30

Post by Eliezer »

mattmaroon wrote: post #25
cperciva wrote: post #13

I'm worried about that 1-in-20 (?) chance that we don't manage to line up funding in time You should be worried -- and if I were you I'd re-evaluate your odds. My guess is that a startup which would print money would still have more than a 1-in-20 chance of failing to get funding at the moment. Assuming you definitely want to continue with this startup (and think about that carefully -- sometimes there's a reason why…

Your startup doesn't have a 19 in 20 shot of being funded AFTER you get a term sheet.

I realize this is a cheap shot... but... 95% probability of a startup being funded? You didn't work on the software that rated mortgage default probabilities, did you?
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