what about non-technical founders?
Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
81–90 of 181 posts
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#82We never made any money, and I was the only permanent technical staff (but also technically the CTO) but we had some amazeballs clients - Samsung, Siemens, Tesco, RIM (while they were still cool), and so on.
When we stopped being able to pay me a salary, I turned it in to a real CTO job at a 150 person software company. Our client list gave some real credibility there, as did being able to talk a good talk and looking presentable in a suit.
I suspect this was a phenomenal career move: the previous startup CTO stuff, and any future small-company CTO stuff will be "real" in the eyes of recruiters because I've also managed a big team, budgets, etc - the "real CTO" role validates all the hacking code at smaller companies while claiming to be CTO.
I think there can be a credibility gap for a 30 year old team leader at a profitless company calling themselves a CTO, but having also done a more traditional CTO role at a bigger company allows you to regain that credibility. I can talk confidently about CapEx, OpEx, I've been through a rubber-glove-type due diligence process, been deeply involved in high-level strategy ... I feel like I could spend the next ten years doing 3 people startups again, but then walk in to another "big" CTO role if it didn't work out because of this.
Anyway, ultimately that wasn't what I wanted to do, as much as it was incredible experience. So the wife and I packed off to somewhere warm and cheap, she has a job that pays the bills and for the flat. I'm keeping myself busy by running a one-person R&D lab for a large listed company whose industry I have domain knowledge in, finishing my dissertation, and I've branched in to staffing because it's amazing how much quick cash you can make by messaging ex-coworkers on Facebook (and if you're a Perl developer in the UK: http://perl.careers/)
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#83One of my startup's advisers intro'd me to the founder of a small consulting company whose mission I really loved. When I first started consulting, it was a nice opportunity to decompress from startup life and enjoy a job where I could basically clock in and clock out. A few months later, I was ready to start picking up some responsibility. I ended up joining the client permanently and it's been great so far.
On the side, I advise startups a bit, which is cool because it lets me keep the lessons I learned in my own startup fresh. I've come up with a couple interesting startup ideas myself, but I don't feel pressed to be a founder again any time soon.
I'd consider doing a startup again down the line, but I'd be very discriminating. I'm entering a more risk averse stage of life, and I think I'd rather position myself to join something as a leader that's already at least somewhat proven but still has a lot of upside. It takes a refined skillset to be viable for such a role, but that's what I'm aiming for.
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#84Keep in mind this depends on when you fail. What happens when you take 10million in VC and then fail? Compare to a 100k angel round and then fail?
For 10M I guess you can afford to buy chickens. They will produce eggs, so problem solved... ;)
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#85I ran out of gas and left my cofounder; divorced; worked a succession of small startup jobs, some better than others; ended up back at Apple. I have ideas that I cannot express at Apple and so may end up taking another whack at the piñata, now that a) I am not in the throes of a crumbling personal relationship and b) I've gone round the carousel once, so I have some idea how the world works. I regret the way I left m…
I don't think it is possible to do with more than two of work stress; personal life stress; physical safety or health stress simultaneously. One at a time is ideal, but most startups have work stress and physical stress (due to time) simultaneously. You don't have to be single and childless to do a startup successfully, but if you have family life or interpersonal relationships, they have to be good ones, or at least…
> One at a time is ideal
When people say stress they usually mean distress and zero of that is ideal. 'One at a time' for a period of time can be enough to topple you and the life you have for a long time or forever.
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#86Did many startups in my life and some failed; just went on to the next one. I promised myself (when I was 13; almost 30 years ago) never to need 'a job' and I never will do. If you have the same wish then just don't give up after failure.
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#873 co founders, now working for our investors in their tech firms.
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#88I left my comfortable job in Dubai, moved the family (with 2 small kids) to Toronto to build an enterprise database product, launched it at the niche's world conference, pivoted once, and spent all the money I had. That took nine months. When it came time to look for work I got a decent job offer in the Toronto startup scene as a django dev, but I called up my old employer in Dubai and found out they had not managed…
Why not do the startup in Dubai?
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#89Since 2009, I have been a founder of 3 different startups (and 10+ different side projects that I couldn't convert to successful products). All 3 failed. My problem was choosing co-founders that either did not have a passion for the idea or just weren't willing to do what it takes to run a business. Someone may be a good developer, designer, or co-worker...but that doesn't mean they will make a good co-founder. I lea…
Have had that before; also where I was a bad co-founder. Usually it is just bad timing as I saw; decided to start shortly after which something else just collapses (personally, past business) in such a manner that the co-founder cannot focus. Someone I started doing an internet-of-things startup with in 2008 got hit by the crisis and divorce at the same time (they were probably related, but I don't know that). It went very well (we worked productively together and progress was great) for 6 months and then he just started to show less and less interest until, at some point, his Linkedin changed that he was now working for some big company. He forgot to mention that in the months before building up to it.
Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?
#90I got lucky and found an excellent job at a local company. No connections, no hope, other than a good fit.
There is hope. I only know because I feared the future, and came up feeling better than I'd imagined, once I had some support.