81–90 of 103 posts
While I have done my best to abide by PG's rules there are some habits I just can't give up. I could easily ruin whatever prospects my startup has by my pig-headed determination to give people what I feel they need rather than what they say they want.
Why not write/compile and publish Carnegie-style book about hackers and startups? =) Like 'How to stop reading websites and start doing things.'
If you want to "stop reading websites and start doing things" though, you should be, you know, doing things, and not reading books. :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...but I'm working in an area where domain knowledge is extremely important..." If you had a design/marketing/seo cofounder that was willing to hunt for sales/bizdev opportunities, domain knowledge for that person doesn't have to be THAT deep and would bring huge benefits. "The vision behind tarsnap, from 2.5 years ago -- an online snapshotted backup service with a tar front-end, a heavy emphasis on security, and a…
If you had a design/marketing/seo cofounder that was willing to hunt for sales/bizdev opportunities, domain knowledge for that person doesn't have to be THAT deep and would bring huge benefits. I think you might be overstating things here. I've found my domain knowledge to be very important when selling tarsnap -- being able to convincingly explain why tarsnap is secure and efficient (and why the competition isn't!)…
I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…
There seems to be some confusion among the HN user about the actual starup definition. Many people call a startup even outside projects and websites made for fun. PG says "The essential task in a startup is to create wealth", that pretty well rules tarsnap out as a startup, I guess.
I think plenty of the 'wannabe' startups here are a bit like kids 'playing house'. If you say hey, it's just a blanket and two couches they get mad at you for breaking the illusion.
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I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. Quality is a vector, not a scalar. What's the average of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? I don't think that's a meaningful question. But the vector sum of their skills was a startup with amazing technical and artistic skill, product focus, business aspirations, charisma, and salesmanship. And I'…
I learn that it's even better than that: You're the FreeBSD Security Officer, which presumably involves a great deal of practical expertise in reviewing and fixing insecure software. cperciva has a bit of a history of surprising people with his credentials: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079
9 is a transient, since we only started charging last week. 10 is partially a result of 9, as we do consulting to fund ourselves.
This is a great list though. I can think of real-world examples from the last year that reinforced each of those things on the "have" list.
This is the real startup killer for our last startup. But it goes with other problems like get ramen profitable. Since you are not profitable and you need to eat, you will be very easy to be distracted..
Do you know, what are living expenses in SFO? There are about USD 500/month in Czech Republic :)
I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…