Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Startup has 30 Days to Live

mystartuphas30daystolive.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 239 posts

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#51

Post by noir_lord »

calinet6 wrote: post #11

I've been through all of this, it sucks. But this line sticks with me: "Honestly think the only thing that keeps my health and my marriage intact is my running." I gotta start running. That's the one thing I always get wrong. Good luck. Just remember, this happens all the time. For you, it will be a learning experience. In a year's time, you'll be in a new situation with almost a completely new life, and your experie…

For me it's cycling not running (arthritis runs in my family and one knee is pretty fucked from a football injury).

It's literally the only thing that keeps me going some days I reward sustained effort with a ride and a ride wakes me up, clears out the cobwebs and I get some of my best work done after a ride.

It also helps that I've lost more than a stone (14lbs) in just over a month by switching diet and cycling 200 miles a week :).

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#52

Post by UK-AL »

greghinch wrote: post #29

I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…

Bootstrapping is often the first phase of a vc powered company. Facebook was bootstrapped...

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#53

Post by ikailan »

marcelftw wrote: post #44

> "The day we set foot into the doors of the accelerator, we had a business that DHH would be proud of" DHH is well known for being against investors in general. Why would he be proud ? My point of view on this : investors are OK while the funder(s) have more than 51% share, and therefore still making the decisions. You kind of sell your thing to satan here brother, you shouldn't have. You are not in charge of what y…

I think you misread his paragraph. He was proud of the business the day in its state that day he walked into the accelerator (and presumably for some time before), not BECAUSE he walked into the accelerator.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#54

Post by UK-AL »

mathgeek wrote: post #3

"This week, I need to speak to the other founder and fire our first employee before he leaves on a planned vacation. He’s a good developer, but I won’t fucking make payroll next week if I don’t clear him and his severance out of the company." Is it wrong that I feel worse for this employee than for the author? He's looking forward to a (probably well-earned) vacation, and he's about to be forced into a job hunt inste…

Its why I don't get the idea that being an employee is a 'safe' option. Your only as safe as the company you are working for. And frankly you look better as failed founder, then a developer at a failed start up.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#55

Post by vidarh »

I recognize a lot of this from startups I've been involved in.

At the height of the bubble I co-founded a vanity e-mail business. We wanted it to be a paid service. Our only competitor was a paid service. But when we looked around, we saw ludicrous valuations per user for users that provided little to no revenue. And the VC's saw it too. And everyone were seduced into going for a free service and figure out monetization later. So that's what we did.

Of course the bubble burst, and the lofty valuations disappeared, and we had to hunker down. The business survived, but we fired 45 or so people - the vast majority of the team, and the VC's lost most of their investment.

I have two big takeaways from that experience: Be conscious whether or not you want to gamble. A gamble can be worth it, but you may be much happier building a company that'll stand a reasonable chance of giving you steady returns and pay you a salary than taking a long shot at millions. We started out wanting that reasonable chance, but got seduced into the long shot without really thinking about it.

Secondly: Keep in mind the VC's often have a vastly different risk preference than you. A founder is usually investing all his/her time in a single business, often for years. A VC spreads their investment over a wide range of companies, and spreads risk accordingly. For them, it's not such a big deal if a few of their portfolio companies fail, if they get the occasional massive return, so it may make sense for them to be willing to take risks with your business that are not in your interest.

It's vitally important to think through how much risk you're ok with before going out and getting investment, and to look for money accordingly, as well as consider how much control you're willing to give up depending on how aligned you think your interests are with the profile of any investors you bring in.

Failures makes valuable lessons (and I've had more lessons...).

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#56

Post by Kurtz79 »

nhangen wrote: post #50
greghinch wrote: post #29

I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…

I don't agree with this because I don't think all bootstrapped businesses have to stay small. The advantage bootstrapping gives you is you can use revenue to find product/market fit, at which point you can start scaling. The problem many 'startups' make is they run out of money before getting to that point.

I think the OP was arguing against calling a bootstrapped business a "startup", and on that ground he has a point (at least according to PG's and Wikipedia's definition of a startup).

That is to say, a bootstrapped business can be a startup (if it gets to the point where it focuses on fast growth) but not necessarily (as in the case of businesses with gradual or no growth).

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#57

Post by joezydeco »

mathgeek wrote: post #3

"This week, I need to speak to the other founder and fire our first employee before he leaves on a planned vacation. He’s a good developer, but I won’t fucking make payroll next week if I don’t clear him and his severance out of the company." Is it wrong that I feel worse for this employee than for the author? He's looking forward to a (probably well-earned) vacation, and he's about to be forced into a job hunt inste…

That's a tough spot and I've been there, as the employee that's on the fence as the management nail-bites over accounts receivable and wondering if they can make payroll.

I've since learned that you keep your ears to the ground at all times, in ANY company you work for.

You don't sit in your cube with your Dr Beat Headphones on, you listen to office talk. You overhear that phone call from a vendor asking where their overdue payment is. You notice the rise in closed-door meetings between management and the CFO. You make friends with the assistant that cuts the checks. When you've done it long enough, you know where you stand and when it's time to get the hell out before you're caught with your pants down.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#58

Post by ChuckMcM »

jpdoctor wrote: post #38

> I’m scared. Congratulations: You're normal. Look at it this way: You are commanding on a battlefield, there are a helluva lot of guys about to die. If you freeze up, they all die. So make some fucking decisions, save as many as you can. Throw some into the line of fire for the sake of the others. It's what battlefield commanders do. The gods have chosen you for this role, rise up and do your best. You will make som…

I think commanding on the Battlefield is the wrong metaphor, we use it a lot but its not a battle, its a sport. When you tell your developer you can't afford to pay him any more it isn't that he (or she) "dies" its that they move on to their next job. Is it painful? Of course. But it isn't death.

Sports analogies work better since there is always next season with some of the same and some different players. You decide to go for the touchdown for the win instead of the field goal to tie on 4th down. Its a choice, it works or it doesn't, you go on to the Superbowl or your don't. The decisions tomorrow will be affected by today but you will still have decisions to make.

Start-ups (and I think this is one, and I think pizza stores are start-ups too) are sprouts of a business. Sometimes they grow into bushes, sometimes trees, sometimes they can't develop enough to stay alive and they die after a while. But a start-up "dying" isn't people dying. Its people going on to do something else. For non-founders their work day may proceed pretty much unchanged other than office environment and neighbors in a new job somewhere else. As for founders? Well it demands reflection and inspection to glean the maximum amount of understanding about what worked and what didn't. Sadly its the only way to learn some of those lessons.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#60

Post by nhangen »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #56
nhangen wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree with this because I don't think all bootstrapped businesses have to stay small. The advantage bootstrapping gives you is you can use revenue to find product/market fit, at which point you can start scaling. The problem many 'startups' make is they run out of money before getting to that point.

I think the OP was arguing against calling a bootstrapped business a "startup", and on that ground he has a point (at least according to PG's and Wikipedia's definition of a startup). That is to say, a bootstrapped business can be a startup (if it gets to the point where it focuses on fast growth) but not necessarily (as in the case of businesses with gradual or no growth).

You may have missed mine. I'm saying that aside from investment, startups and bootstrapped have many similarities. Both are focused on growth, it's just that one is smarter about it (generally). Most of the startups the OP is referring to don't have a mission other than to get acquired before they run out of money. My preference would be to call these 'startups' burnouts instead, and reserve the name for the real businesses.
Post reply on HN