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Now is the time to do a startup

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Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#61

Post by moron4hire »

quaffapint wrote: post #59
moron4hire wrote: post #55

"Platitudes are meaningless." - Benjamin Franklin These sorts of articles start to annoy me after a while. It's a lot of noise and very little signal. Everyone has 15 bullet-pointed list articles for 10 ways you can start your startup, but they're all just platitudes that don't suggest any real, actionable information. The best one in this particular bunch is the "I can't quit my job" one. There are many ways in whic…

Agreed. It is astounding when you go look in the app and web app directories how much there is and how many come out each day. To be able to rise above that will never come from a 10 points post. Now I just have to figure out how to meet these marketing magicians.

I've found the best way is to get involved in a diverse group of people who are gathered for a shared interest other than work. If you go to Marketing MeetUps, you'll meet networking cheese-heads. They're in pitch mode and they are trying to get what they want out of you. If you go to craft-brew beer clubs, video game enthusiast clubs, film clubs, etc., you'll almost surely meet someone who does some kind of work you need (eventually, one day), but you also get to know them as people. The type of work that it takes to build a company requires a lot of trust between you and your cofounders, so I think it's just best to start with people you already know.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#62

Post by mason240 »

tlogan wrote: post #43
mason240 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replace mortgage with rent and the issue is still the same. If you are single you can probably move in with parents or a friend to save on costs, but that is almost impossible if you have a spouse and kids. There is a very good reason behind home ownership: After 30 years of mortgage payments, you own a house. After 30 years of rent, you have nothing.

The key part is "30 years"....

Even after 5 years you are still going to have more equity in something then if you are just renting.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#63

Post by quaffapint »

fleitz wrote: post #58
quaffapint wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the follow up. I just added the url to the profile. You bring up the crux of the problem - Getting that email list or phone list. Beyond a few beta signups, I don't have one. I've contact places for reviews, even offering them a chance to provide their readers with free codes, but I guess I haven't contacted the right places, since I get no response. I've contact places that I think the service would be a…

I'd make a wordpress plugin, seems like the perfect market for what you're doing. Make the plugin so that when their account expires it displays ads for your service. Also PHPBB/other forums. Essentially the market seems to be everyone with a webpage who isn't using AdSense, is that correct? Seems like the value prop is: "Sell more ads, spend less time doing it", I'd focus heavily on the money aspect, and less on the…

Yea, you pretty much got the market, it's for everyone that wants to sell ad spots on their sites and manage any existing affiliate banners or what have you and not spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to work a million knobs and switches. Seems like a good value prop to focus more heavily on.

Funny thing is I have a wordpress plugin for my somewhat similar downloadable version of this app. I'll have to create one and expand for other environments for this hosted version.

Thanks for your insights, it's valuable and appreciated.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#64

Post by refurb »

zecho wrote: post #36
refurb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that a lot of people ignore in this equation is that you might end up owning the house, but you paid a lot more for housing than you would have if you just rented.

That's most likely untrue unless you find a rent controlled apartment or you compare apples to oranges in housing. Sure if you compare an $800/month 1-bedroom flat to the mortgage on a quarter million dollar home, there will not be parity, but you need to compare apples to apples. In my area, $800/month is standard for a very modest 1-bedroom apartment with maybe heat paid. $800/month can also pay the mortgage and ut…

Rents don't always increase for a couple reasons:

1) Landlords often delay rent increases to keep good tenants. Of the apartments I've rented over the last 15 years, this has been the case.

2) Even hot markets have down periods in terms of rents. SF saw decreasing rents in 2009.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#65

Post by marcosdumay »

jaf12duke wrote: post #12
debacle wrote: post #8

Out of all the ways to verb the concept of creating a high-velocity, high-agility, growth-oriented company, "do a startup" might qualify as one of the worst.

What would be the best?

I dunno, but "do a startup" is verbing a substantivated verb.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#66

Post by vinceguidry »

The harder objection the author doesn't acknowledge:

I don't want to destroy my life, relationship, and peace of mind by devoting multiple years of 4-6 hours extra a day on top of my current job to squeezing a stone until blood runneth forth.

Then quitting my job on the basis of that tiny flow of blood to devote 16 hours a day to squeezing that stone even harder until the flow turns into a river, at any point from zero to money I might be sued or the market might evaporate, or the federal government might decide to step on me. If you don't have a safety net, any of these things can ruin your life.

Starting a business, even in tech where the barriers to entry are effectively limited to time, is still the exclusive province of the well-heeled. If you can throw three to five years of your life away and have nothing to show for it, you are either well-heeled or extremely driven.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#67

Post by mtviewdave »

mason240 wrote: post #13
dingaling wrote: post #7

Excuse Number Five: who is going to pay my mortgage for the next 18 months? Unfortunately, the Western world's mindset of house ownership means that most people who want to do something different generally can't do so until their 50s. Solving that might stimulate innovation and start-up creation. Imagine an environment where basic accommodation and sustenance was available to everyone. People would have the freedom a…

Replace mortgage with rent and the issue is still the same. If you are single you can probably move in with parents or a friend to save on costs, but that is almost impossible if you have a spouse and kids. There is a very good reason behind home ownership: After 30 years of mortgage payments, you own a house. After 30 years of rent, you have nothing.

>Replace mortgage with rent and the issue is still the same.

Seconded. I've have owned a 3 bed/2.5 bath condo in Mountain View for 14 years. Right now my total monthly cost is about the same as a 2 bed/1 bath apartment in one of the major apartment complexes in M.V.

The thing about mortgages is that ideally the way it should work is that you buy something that fits within your budget, and your payment remains mostly stable while your salary increases due to inflation and/or promotions. The first few years I owned my condo, my finances were indeed tight, but eventually that eased.

The idea that a mortgage is incompatible with being a startup founder seems to be based in the misconception that because a new mortgage is expensive and burdensome today, it will be expensive and burdensome forever. When in reality, after a few years the equation can change quite dramatically.

Of course, everyone's experience is different, and one can make choices that indeed keep a mortgage expensive and burdensome. But you can do that with renting, too. The question in both cases is simply "can I cover my housing costs for a year or two without a salary?".

Personally, when I contemplate becoming a first-time founder (and yeah, I'm in my 40s), the fact that I own rather than rent isn't a big consideration.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#68

Post by Killswitch »

refurb wrote: post #35
Killswitch wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about anywhere else, but where I am (Midwest USA), I can pay $800/mo for a nice 3+ bedroom house, a nice plot of land, 2 car garage, etc in a nice neighborhood, or I can pay $700 for a 2 bedroom apartment. Sure I'm saving $100 a month, but in the end, the house is worth more and goes back to what was stated earlier. After 30 years you own a house.

Of course location makes a big difference. If you're in a market where the house price to rent ratio is favorable, then it can make sense. Of course, when you sell your house you're on the hook for the 7% commission, plus all maintenance items. The sort of stuff a renter never pays. I'll just say that I ended up renting when all my friends were telling me I was stupid not to buy. Three years later I walked away from…

Definitely agree with you. There's pros and there's cons. Just gotta figure out if the pros outweigh the cons for you in your particular circumstance. I am a renter and get the same thing said to me "Why rent when you can buy?!" I don't know if I want to spend the next 30 years living in this area, so that's why I haven't bought yet... Although I am thinking of buying a house in the next year.

Re: Now is the time to do a startup

#69

Post by mlchild »

moron4hire wrote: post #55

"Platitudes are meaningless." - Benjamin Franklin These sorts of articles start to annoy me after a while. It's a lot of noise and very little signal. Everyone has 15 bullet-pointed list articles for 10 ways you can start your startup, but they're all just platitudes that don't suggest any real, actionable information. The best one in this particular bunch is the "I can't quit my job" one. There are many ways in whic…

"Just do it" is an unactionable platitude, but many athletes still find it inspiring.

The push off the cliff is as valuable as the plan for learning how to fly on the way down.

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