51–60 of 78 posts
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So I guess you know quite a bit about linux then? :) What field is your startup going to be in?
> So I guess you know quite a bit about linux then? No, the _other_ big three letter IT company. Hint: was started by a prior US presidential candidate.
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> Show it to industry contacts. You need industry contacts first. Suggestions? > Take over the world. (Microsoft) "Left as an exercise for the reader."
"You need industry contacts first. Suggestions?" Work. Go to trade shows. Hang out on Internet forums with people in your target market. Make friends with folks. It doesn't work so well for me, because I'm 2 years out of college and not in a particularly client-facing job. However, the OP is 36 and in a big company. You ought to have some sort of professional contacts by then, right?
My impression is that the best way to meet investors is to live in Silicon Valley. That sounds like it's leaving out a lot of steps...
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'"You can do it too!" works better when they aren't telling you to pursue a different strategy than they did with no specifics.' I didn't think I needed to do so, since I assumed everybody here has read all of pg's essays, seen Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start, and read a few other useful books about startups. While everybody who's built a business (I'm on my second) has at least a few things to teach others in the sa…
> I respond to posts here with specific advice whenever there's a question I feel qualified to answer. You haven't explained how your start-up succeeded without YC. > seen Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start I hope you're kidding about that.
Nobody asked.
I'll take your response as somebody asking.
In both cases, I made myself a recognized expert on an Open Source project that I liked a lot and that I liked the people involved (Squid in the first case, Webmin in the latter...though the first also included a huge amount of Webmin-related work and inspired the second). And then I founded companies built on making some Open Source project easier to use, more powerful, better documented, and more popular. The first never really made it out of the "consulting business" stage, though I constantly tried to convert it to a product business...had I been in the valley, I would have been able to make it work the way I wanted it to. It was a hardware based business, and for that you need volume, which I didn't have the capital to deal with--closing a big sale in the server appliance industry can cost tens of thousands of dollars before seeing any cashflow from it. So, stay out of hardware if you don't have the capital to see it through. Even then, you probably ought to stay out of hardware. So, the first one did not succeed without YC, by my standards, but did buy me a 350Z and keep me in food and houses for 7 years.
The primary thing worth learning from the first business (which I built without not only YC but without any outside investment for involvement) was that you can't do it alone. Get a partner, get to the valley (I don't even bother saying get to a "startup hub" because nobody is doing deals in Boston), get to work.
As for the second, here's what I know so far:
1. Start or join, very early, an Open Source project.
2. Work on it for several years. Get millions of downloads and millions of users.
3. ...
4. Profit!
"> seen Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start
I hope you're kidding about that. "
Of course not. Guy's a great motivator. Can't start a business worth crap (see Truemors), but he has a lot of good stuff to say about marketing, salesmanship, morale-building, and lots more. Some accidental experts really do have good advice.
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"You need industry contacts first. Suggestions?" Work. Go to trade shows. Hang out on Internet forums with people in your target market. Make friends with folks. It doesn't work so well for me, because I'm 2 years out of college and not in a particularly client-facing job. However, the OP is 36 and in a big company. You ought to have some sort of professional contacts by then, right?
I appreciate that you mean well; it seems that you're advising people on how to do something you haven't done, however, which is the same situation as at the top of the thread. My impression is that the best way to meet investors is to live in Silicon Valley. That sounds like it's leaving out a lot of steps...
You'd be surprised how easy the "get contacts" step becomes when you're in the valley. I was. I fought it for years, as I loved living in Austin. But, events where you can rub elbows with investors happen every single week here...it's a world apart from anywhere else.
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VirtualMin also was started before Joe et al got into YC. There's a difference between "Getting into YC would help my business" and "I need to get into YC to start my business".
YC's value, as is repeated often, is in the advice and contacts. Finding 30 investors that will sit through your demo is something most developers don't know anything about. GGP is conspicuously silent on how to pull off that trick without YC. > There's a difference between "Getting into YC would help my business" and "I need to get into YC to start my business". Astounding! Who else have you told this to?
It's not as hard as you think. The difference YC offers is that you're already at stage two of the VC or angel process: Vetted candidate. You get to do a one hour presentation for one member of the VC firms, maybe a partner, instead of having a ten minute phone call to make your pitch. You still have to meet the investors you want to talk to...but they are actively looking for deals in the valley every day. Go to events and you will meet them. If you build something popular, some will even come to you (maybe the hungrier ones...Sequoia isn't Googling for new investment ideas).
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> I respond to posts here with specific advice whenever there's a question I feel qualified to answer. You haven't explained how your start-up succeeded without YC. > seen Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start I hope you're kidding about that.
"You haven't explained how your start-up succeeded without YC." Nobody asked. I'll take your response as somebody asking. In both cases, I made myself a recognized expert on an Open Source project that I liked a lot and that I liked the people involved (Squid in the first case, Webmin in the latter...though the first also included a huge amount of Webmin-related work and inspired the second). And then I founded compa…
Actually that's how this whole debate got started -- I asked: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=52613
> because nobody is doing deals in Boston
So in your opinion would YC be better off doing both batches in Silicon Valley? My impression is people would be better served living there and flying to Boston for Demo Day 2 than vice-versa.
> but he has a lot of good stuff to say about marketing, salesmanship, morale-building, and lots more
http://valleywag.com/tech/silicon-valley-tool/guy-kawasaki-2...
http://www.nowpublic.com/don_t_be_a_dude_yamaha_a_gripping_s...
http://techdumpster.com/2007/08/03/toolbox-profile-1-guy-kaw...
> Guy's a great motivator.
In a "scared straight" kind of way, sure.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
'"You can do it too!" works better when they aren't telling you to pursue a different strategy than they did with no specifics.' I didn't think I needed to do so, since I assumed everybody here has read all of pg's essays, seen Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start, and read a few other useful books about startups. While everybody who's built a business (I'm on my second) has at least a few things to teach others in the sa…
> I respond to posts here with specific advice whenever there's a question I feel qualified to answer. You haven't explained how your start-up succeeded without YC. > seen Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start I hope you're kidding about that.
Getting into YC isn't even an answer in itself, other people here are just trying to tell you it is possible to do without YC. You know, people did start companies before YC.
Hope it will work just the way you want. Good Luck.