one of the regulars here posted an awesome guide about freelancing. i would look it up but i'm going to grab a beer instead =)
Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
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Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#12I am surprised at the negative responses you've received in the last ten minutes of posting this, it is very much against the spirit of what usually occurs. 1) The book that I've seen mentioned the most often in the area of negotiation is not actually directly on that topic. It is just a general book on "getting it your way" - Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people". 2) I am in NYC, there are local…
Thanks Yuri! I appreciate your support, or at least constructive evaluation :)
I'm familiar with the book - I'll give it a go. As for my areas, mostly I'm finding people looking for full-time deals related to hadoop/hbase/lucene. Thanks for the reminder though, I'll look "harder".
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#13I'm the guy who quit with OP. In fact, his lead engineer (on paper). There's an interesting dynamic when two people quit at the same time. Game theory time! We do have a fair amount of leverage when it comes to negotiating severance pay, due to our knowledge of distributed architecture. But yes, we're committed 150% to the startup. And submitted our YC application a few days ago :)
Looks like you guys are doing something in the database space. Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#14For starters, I'd recommend 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Caregie and 'How to talk to anyone' by Leil Lowndes.
Freelancing to pay bills also turns out to be a big distraction. I'd recommend exploring other creative ways that don't take your focus off of your startup to pay (or avoid) your bills.
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#15Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#16If you actually want to make your startup work, avoid freelancing. It's way too easy to get sucked into spending all of your time consulting, and it's pretty difficult to be fully mentally engaged in multiple projects. Also, the hardest part of freelancing is when you're just starting out. If you don't already have clients or a reputation, you'll spend all of your time trying to find clients and bidding on projects.
During this time, you won't be making any money, and the money you do make will probably be shitty because your clients will be the kind you find on craigslist that want you to build them "a facebook for X" in exchange for a sandwich. More importantly, all of this time will be time you didn't spend developing your startup.
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#17"Who can recommend good books/articles on negotiation?"
The best book on negotiation, bar none, is "Bargaining for Advantage : Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People" By Richard Shell. http://www.amazon.com/Bargaining-Advantage-Negotiation-Strat... (looks like it is out of print, but used copies seem cheap enough)
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#18If you are a techie, the best freelance/temp work will come from your persistently networking with people and companies that match your interest and expertise. Those may also lead to partnerships or investments or just plain old good advice for your startup.
Of course there can be a lot of difficult balancing required between freelancing and starting up, but many people make it work. The salesmanship, discipline, and customer relations skills you learn freelancing can certainly come in handy in a startup.
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#19So what is your startup?
Fully scalable, faceted, bolt-on search :)
Re: Ask HN: So I quit my job to focus on my startup...
#20For starters, I'd recommend 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Caregie and 'How to talk to anyone' by Leil Lowndes. Freelancing to pay bills also turns out to be a big distraction. I'd recommend exploring other creative ways that don't take your focus off of your startup to pay (or avoid) your bills.
I second the Leil Lowndes.