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Started a stupid company. Failed.

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Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#401

Post by dennisgorelik »

gxespino wrote: post #245
dennisgorelik wrote: post #126

You are in an unpleasant situation, but not in a tragedy by no means. To put things into perspective: imagine you have successful company but got pancreatic cancer. Your to-do list is pretty straightforward: 1) Put your failed startup aside. 2) Find a job ASAP. 3) Try to save your house. Your family would need it. Beg your bank to give you ~extra month until your next paycheck. 4) In about a year you may return to th…

I disagree about the house. Lose it. Strategic foreclosure is 100x better than continuing to pay for something you're going to lose anyway. Ride it out as long as you can, save what you can from the mortgage payments, then move into a rental when it's time to go.

1) Generally rent is more expensive than owning the house of similar size (in SF and NYC it's probably not the case though).

2) Moving big family is stressful and time consuming.

3) Generally it's better for your karma if you pay your debts.

If the situation is desperate then foreclosure could make sense. But healthy software developer in the US is hardly in desperate situation even if his startup just failed.

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#402

Post by marincounty »

hoggle wrote: post #232
richardlblair wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH, when I first started following Zed on twitter I thought he was an ass, but recently something changed. Now he just seems like a normal dude who kills it.

Have you ever seen him talk? I love this video where he is debunking a lot of which is holy on HN - at BubbleConf 2012 "Peddling Luck": https://vimeo.com/53494258

He's brutally honest. I don't know why people can't be more honest. I knew 7 guys about 15 years ago who started a gaming company. It became successful. When ever they talk about their now defunct company--they all lie about how they became successful. The truth is one kid had a rich, lawyer father. The father set everything up, and completely funded the company for years. Everyone of them leaves that out of the "I want to get laid speech". It's nauseating. The ironic part of their company success story is they sold out too early, for 500K a piece. As far as I know, everyone of the 7 dudes is broke now--or just game testers. The two guys I kept in touch with thought they were going to make a fortune in the stock market with their big brains; they lost everything in 2008.

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#403

Post by dsarch »

avenger123 wrote: post #99

You are a husband, and a father. To me, that is never failure, no matter what happens. Keep it together for your family. Your kids and wife need you right now. You are the pillar of the house and if you stand tall your strength will make the rest of your family emotionally better off. So you may lose the house. Happens to a lot of people. Whatever money you have right now or can get, keep it. Stop paying any of your…

Amazing comment !

I do not know the level of despair this man has been going through to, but I'm sure this kind of comment will make him feel better.

Thank you for your kindness, world really need more people like Zed and like you.

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#404

Post by alexpatton »

zedshaw wrote: post #13

Hey, other comments are going to give you a few lines telling you to not quit, that you should hang in there, and that it'll be alright. That may be true, but to me it sounds like you're possibly not doing well enough to make any of that possible, and you probably need to find work fast. Here's what I want to do: 1. I have a little list of companies looking for employees that I'll send you. Not much just companies th…

Zedshaw, you win coolest guy on the Internet today. Your response may have made Thanksgiving bearable for me by reminding me that good does exist in this black-friday-world.

Thank you.

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#405

Post by kennethtilton »

fiatjaf wrote: post #66

Seems like a troll.

The interesting thing to this old fart as a newcomer to HN is that it really does not make much difference whether or not he is a troll. Unless of course he opens that PayPal account.

What I am fascinated by is the unquestioning support from so many. It speaks to a community with a strong "we're all in this together vibe".

Whether or not the OP is a troll or a psych grad doing research does not change what came after, and what came after to me is the big story here. my2.

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#407

Post by _gtvz »

You sound almost exactly like me 2 years ago. 1. House in default, to be foreclosed 2. 3 kids under 6, wife was pregnant 3. Years of trying startups and all out of cash 4. Utilities all to be soon cut off 5. Getting any bit of cash to buy food

What I did.

1. As much as I swore never to return to work, I got a contract job (6 months). It stung, I wasn't in a good headspace at that time.

2. Borrowed some money from my family to cover the mortgage.

3. Saved my house from foreclosure by 6 hours using the borrowed money and my salary.

4. Kept the business running in the background and working on it at night.

5. Worked for 12 months, paying back everything, enjoying seeing my family eat good food once again and getting the occasional night out. What a treat to go and see a movie once in a while :) I can tell you going to the bottom gives you an incredible perspective on money and not what you think either.

6. Built up my contacts and pivoted my business. Lots of hard work and 2 years later I have 2 offices and a team of 7 people. (this is obviously a longer story, but for another day)

I recommend you get a job for the short term and get your life back in order. I can tell you that trying to grow a business while you are incredibly stressed about how you are going to eat or keep the lights on will only result in panic decisions and they will be bad.

If you have a passion to change the world, your families life and your own for the better, you will get back to business soon enough. Business owners have a burning passion to succeed at all costs and only consider this a temporary set back.

(Just a side note, some people have a fantasy of working hard (but not really), having lots of fun, getting traction easily, getting investment, get bought for a few billion and live happily ever after. If this is your plan, I would suggest setting up a career path, it will lead to a much happier life than a startup, in which the failure rate is very high and you have to be prepared to fail many times. Not work towards failure, just accept it as part of the journey.)

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#409

Post by tifareth »

no-brainer wrote: post #362
tifareth wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like you - the genuinely transparent and fearless - are the only ones capable of sincere gestures. The scoundrels and cowards hate you because your honesty makes them self-conscious, so they'll fight you on grounds of "politeness". Thank you for your honesty. Whether you care or not, know that the people that value it -truly- do (unlike the cooze that reacted on you). Also, thank you for your amazing coding le…

I'll upvote any use of the word "cooze" especially one so apt.

;D

Re: Started a stupid company. Failed.

#410

Post by tifareth »

JackFr wrote: post #375
tifareth wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like you - the genuinely transparent and fearless - are the only ones capable of sincere gestures. The scoundrels and cowards hate you because your honesty makes them self-conscious, so they'll fight you on grounds of "politeness". Thank you for your honesty. Whether you care or not, know that the people that value it -truly- do (unlike the cooze that reacted on you). Also, thank you for your amazing coding le…

> People like you - the genuinely transparent and fearless - are the only ones capable of sincere gestures. Bullshit. I assure you that I am very little like Zed -- apart from my fear and opaqueness, I also appreciate the mean as an excellent first-order summary statistic -- and yet I am very sincere in my belief that your response is pure vacuity.

How can someone opaque and fearful make sincere gestures? Sincerity is only possible through honesty and integrity. Honesty and integrity require courage.

As for the mean as a first-order statistic, we clearly have different values... I like mine better.

Cheers!

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