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My Startup has 30 Days to Live

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Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#211

Post by mscarborough »

prakster wrote: post #206
patio11 wrote: post #97

So, it sucks, but it happens, and it won't matter nearly as much in June 2014 as it seems to right now. Your co-founder will, hopefully, not find out about this through guessing "Is this my company?" on Twitter, but rather in hearing it from you. You may be heartbroken about it, you may cry a bit (totally OK). Then, you will put on your Responsible Adult pants, call your employee into the office, and tell them the si…

And one more thing: Don't wait for the 30th day. Do it tomorrow.

Very true.

Talking to your co-founder "sometime this week" and your employee because if you don't fire him you "fucking won't make payroll" for all of two paychecks should really have been the first moves.

But then, this doesn't sound like someone who cares about much else other than deflecting failure onto his investors and co-founder.

No need to be defensive about it if it did not work out, just go talk to your people.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#213

Post by cheez »

GuiA wrote: post #152
cheez wrote: post #91

And in 90 days, you will be served with divorce papers.

Screw you dude. For someone with over 1k karma and an almost 3 year old account, you should know better than this. This is a community meant for us, hackers and entrepreneurs, to help and support each other out. Posting shit like this when a guy is exposing his deepest anxieties to the world and reaching out for help should make you ashamed.

It's the reality of the situation. Unemployed men or men who earn less than their wives are more likely to be divorced. He needs to manage the situation with his wife carefully. Don't show her that you are worried. Don't share your problems with her.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#214

Post by BlackDeath3 »

alsostayinganon wrote: post #86
ansible wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By this time I had added in for-pay features to the free product to augment advertising and was making well over $1000 per day. I started plugging some of this into advertising to accelerate the growth but most of it was being distributed to me as the only shareholder. Things were going peachy until the servers crashed again. What was stopping you from hiring a couple full-time devs (and devops) at this point? And…

Fear, immaturity, naivety, idealism. It took me a long time to get over the fear of others relying on me to support their family/lifestyle. I think deep down inside I felt like my business was a fad and since I didn't have a clear vision of where it would be in 3-5 years I didn't feel comfortable having others reliant on it for their livelihood. I started it when I was 19 and since it wasn't on purpose and I couldn't…

That's a very interesting story. Thanks for sharing!

There are so many interesting people on this site...

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#215

Post by kxu »

Well, lesson learned.

> What happens next? Hard to tell without precise context, but: as far as I can tell, your company just needs money (paid customers I guess); you cannot be good at your (too many) jobs? Fine, if your company is B2B there is only 1 job to get done right now: business development, if you cannot do it yourself, let's find the best business dev guy you can in your industry. BTW "biz dev" is the only kind of guy I can sincerely hate and love at the same time; that's how I recognize them.

My 2 cents.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#216

Post by rastyyle »

hidingmyname wrote: post #5
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…

You should. I feel fucking shitty about this.

Good luck with the convo man. I've been through similar situations on both ends and its not easy for either side. Hopefully he has a healthy respect for you and understands the circumstances involved. No telling how he'll react but let him vent if he needs to.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#217

Post by vacri »

mindcrime wrote: post #191
unimpressive wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about startups in the Silicon Valley Business vernacular, which has some strange definitions for common words. (See: Disrupt)

We're talking about startups in the Silicon Valley Business vernacular, Are we? I'm not in Silicon Valley, and what happens there is of little consequence to me. I, for one, only care what startup means in my vernacular. For what it's worth, I consider a "startup" any business that's intended to grow into a very large business, where the definition of "very large" is somewhat fuzzy. But I don't think you have to have…

I dare say that your vernacular is not locked to the definitions of words from several centuries ago.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#218

Post by 90002 »

jakejake wrote: post #198
mst wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask yourself: who did you compete with to hire that developer? Are they still short of somebody? The one time so far in the history of Shadowcat I've had to cut people for no reason other than lack of money, I talked to managers I knew at other companies who might have an interest in the sort of talent that I was about to force onto the market. Two people finished working for me on a friday and started a new job on t…

I have a similar guilt when we're hiring and I wind up with several great candidates. sometimes I have 2 or 3 people and I wish I could hire them all. I feel like it's a waste if I can't at least create something out of the situation. Especially considering it's hard to find good people and I have friends who are often looking for staff. A few times I've contacted the candidates and asked if they would allow me to pu…

Good to know that we still have some good people in the world who care about one another.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#219

Post by 90002 »

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…

Hmmm, very interesting and strong viewpoints. However, wouldn't you say this is what is wrong with the industry now? Investors looking to make a few bucks rather quickly than having patience and seeing something flourish over time? Granted, not all startups, if any, actually quite blossom after a longer period of time, but I think it's a bit unfair to expect such rapid growth or success in such a small time. Nevertheless, I believe founders must be more cautious when it comes to taking money from folks who may have such narrow vision for the future. Due diligence should be happening on both sides of the table, and all entrepreneurs must understand the reality of the industry now compared to 10, 15 years ago where there was much more tolerance for high risk ventures and little bit more patience.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#220

Post by ronaldx »

greghinch wrote: post #85
bilbo0s wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...“Cut out that pesky client that generates 80% of your revenue, they’re a distraction on the road to executing $OUR_BIG_VISION”..." "...I can't help but ask, what did you expect?..." I can't help but ask what the VC was thinking??? Serious question. I know we don't know all of the details, but this seems, on the face of it, a very bad idea. I would assume there must have been much better methods of handling that c…

Without knowing more about the OP's business it's hard to say for sure, but I can give some thoughts based on my own experience. I'm going to assume they are a B2B company of some kind based on the limited description. In this capacity, when you are starting out, often you have a very small customer base. You likely know each of your customers individually. And as individuals, they have their own thoughts and opinion…

Ditching a client who generates 80% of revenue - and enough to provide for 2 people - is akin to quitting a good job with no job to go to.

If you have a client like that who is hindering to growth, then a dominating strategy would be to spin-off rather than ditch. You can afford to put 1 or 2 people on that work while you build from what's already been done.

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