Startup advice, briefly

Post by icebraining » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 3:25 PM UTC

known wrote: post #126

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw

Post by _abattoir » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 4:01 PM UTC

hugs wrote: post #63

sama wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'd thought about adding something about this but decided it's worth a full post. i don't think you need very much of a cushion--i.e., 6 months of living expenses saved up is more than most founders have. but saving up a bit of money before starting a startup is definitely a great thing to do, and if you're an engineer willing to live cheaply, shouldn't take very long. that said, startups are not the way to optimize…

Please write a post about financial security as a pre-req to doing a startup. I advise having at least a year's worth of living expenses saved. Because you don't want to be worried at all in the beginning about how you're going to pay your bills. You're going to start worrying when that money is half gone, and it sometimes takes more than 3 months to get traction. I think many founders pursue funding too soon (and th…

Post by CamperBob2 » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 6:00 PM UTC

lbearl wrote: post #89

CamperBob2 wrote: post #87

Don’t waste your time on stuff that doesn’t matter (i.e. things other than building your product, talking to your users, growing, etc.). In general, avoid the kind of stuff that might be in a movie about running a startup —meeting with lawyers and accountants, going to lots of conferences, grabbing coffee with people, sitting in lots of meetings, etc. Become a Delaware C Corp (use Clerky or any well-known Silicon Val…

I think there was an underlying theme that this post was about a progression in time. At the beginning, its all about ideas, no companies (you shouldn't need lawyers and accountants for a small project). Later on its a Sub-chapter C corp, with all of the associated lawyers and accountants.

Post by polynomial » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 7:29 PM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #117

cjf4 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started to get the same sense, and remembering a couple of the following things have helped me keep my bearings: -Startup advice, especially from this corner of the world, applies to a very specific way of creating a software company through venture capital, and subsequently, aggressive growth. It is also built to take advantage of a highly optimistic financial environment that, to me, seems to be temporary (look a…

I definitely believe there are more cynical motives in SV than many wish to believe. There's a reason VCs and incubators overwhelmingly target naive college kids. Most of their programs are structured such that any participation by less-naive persons is impractical. The VC line on this is simply that "college kids are just super innovative, pure, unadultered". Ignoring the fact that this is basically an optimistic li…

Post by ryanSrich » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 3:56 AM UTC

rkrzr wrote: post #125

r00fus wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding to your list: - Bootstrapping from a consulting/contracting gig into product company.

I think this approach is underrated and can highly recommend it. If you are an engineer and you keep your living expenses low, you can most likely survive doing consulting/contracting for 1 day per week, leaving you the rest of the week to work on your startup. This minimizes your financial risk and leaves your savings intact, leaving you only with the opportunity costs (but if you are worried about those, you probab…