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5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

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Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#11

Post by billclerico »

chime wrote: post #2

Does anyone else who quit their job and went fulltime into their startup want to add anything about their experience? Did it make you a lot more productive? Were you worried about paying the bills? How were you able to stay on track? Where did you find the motivation? How did you stay sane and not go crazy?

when we started wepay we quit and had cash for a few months. we ran out. i worked odd jobs off craigslist to pay rent (like tutoring math, wordpress consulting, etc). i was still 10x more productive than when I was working fulltime in another job and trying to work parttime at night. i think it all comes down to comfort. you're too comfortable in a fulltime job.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#13

Post by 100k »

Paul surveyed the YC founders a while back to find out what surprised them about founding a startup, and when he collated the answers he realized all the things that were surprising where things he'd already warned people about.

It's an old saw that wisdom cannot be taught, it must be experienced.

I have found this to be true.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#14

Post by trevelyan »

thinkbohemian wrote: post #3

Interesting, i'm a technical sole founder who is very capable of doing EVERYTHING, though i would be much more efficient if i could compartmentalize. I'm constantly on the lookout for my "otherhalf" but can't quite find any non-technicals that seem up-to-snuff any tips on what to look for in a non-technical co-founder? Nobody in the world has Bill’s exact skill set, and looking back on it, that skill set is exactly w…

Single founder here who thinks the emphasis on co-founders on HN is overrated. Investors may see it as a credentialing and stabilizing mechanism, but once risk is taken out of the picture and a product has revenue it only makes sense to bring someone else on board if they'll more than cover their costs and a co-founder is the most expensive hire there is at that point.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#15

Post by zhyder »

We too have learned the hard way about 5.: customer acquisition is tough.

5.1. We'd read it before but hadn't quite internalized the cardinal rule: Cost of Customer Acquisition 5.2. It's easy to think "hey my product costs me only $1, and the competition charges $100: I'll do great by just charging $10". But when you're charging $10 you won't be able to pay $30 per ad click, and so will (continue to) lose customers to your competition.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#17

Post by gridspy »

zhyder wrote: post #15

We too have learned the hard way about 5.: customer acquisition is tough. 5.1. We'd read it before but hadn't quite internalized the cardinal rule: Cost of Customer Acquisition 5.2. It's easy to think "hey my product costs me only $1, and the competition charges $100: I'll do great by just charging $10". But when you're charging $10 you won't be able to pay $30 per ad click, and so will (continue to) lose customers t…

Or even 30c per click when 1/100 click-throughs convert to a sale.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#18

Post by gstar »

100k wrote: post #13

Paul surveyed the YC founders a while back to find out what surprised them about founding a startup, and when he collated the answers he realized all the things that were surprising where things he'd already warned people about. It's an old saw that wisdom cannot be taught, it must be experienced. I have found this to be true.

Really excellent to know. I didn't believe quite how much disruption gets caused by raising money. Keeping on selling and working at the product while that's happening is desperately hard.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#19

Post by gridspy »

billclerico wrote: post #11
chime wrote: post #2

Does anyone else who quit their job and went fulltime into their startup want to add anything about their experience? Did it make you a lot more productive? Were you worried about paying the bills? How were you able to stay on track? Where did you find the motivation? How did you stay sane and not go crazy?

when we started wepay we quit and had cash for a few months. we ran out. i worked odd jobs off craigslist to pay rent (like tutoring math, wordpress consulting, etc). i was still 10x more productive than when I was working fulltime in another job and trying to work parttime at night. i think it all comes down to comfort. you're too comfortable in a fulltime job.

I'm still in my fulltime job (see http://blog.gridspy.co.nz/2010/02/part-time-entrepreneur.htm...) but I can see the benefit of having the "sink or swim" pressure.

Everyone close to me, including my co-founder, keeps telling me to stay fulltime until I have a replacement income from GridSpy. It sounds like there is contradiction on this from the HN crowd.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#20

Post by epi0Bauqu »

"Traction is the only thing that matters."

I could not agree more with this. If you get traction everything else falls into place so really you should be spending all your time figuring out how to do this and then making it happen.

The problem is as you say, it is of course non-trivial. However, while all cases are different, I do think there are strategies and best practices that one can employ. Your next post should be about the ones you've picked up. For my part, I'm doing a book on the subject with the goal to demystify the whole process of getting traction from every angle, http://tractionbook.com

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