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My Startup has 30 Days to Live

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Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#111

Post by mamcx »

What I see of this, is similar to my experience in be part of the "startup"-machine business. I won a award in my country (for my business idea), and participate in several contest where I land in the finalist.

What tremendous waste of time.

Triying to chase the "investor money" was the most damaging thing I do. I waste months on that. Building investor plans, do meetings, and work on CANVAS and other methodologies where some company, that get the real $$$ to "create startups", guided each of us to the path of silicon valley..yes, rigthhh....

At the end, I understand that we was part of a masterplan, where the money was on the big players sucking from the gov funds on build startups, with pre-pakaked advice and zero of the real value that we need.

I think that YCombinator is the only that truly make sense, and the rest copy-cats are more a waste of time than not (even with good intentions).

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#112

Post by joezydeco »

pnathan wrote: post #99
obviouslygreen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just no way to live. If you find yourself doing this, you're either needlessly paranoid and worrying yourself into an early grave, or you're justifiably paranoid, and you should reconsider the choices you're making regarding employment. Obviously we don't all have the option to bail at any time and find other work, but if this is the kind of culture you're seeing as normal, I feel very sorry for you. Anyone i…

No, it's situational awareness. "Is this company doing well? Or is it not?" That's a very reasonable and business-minded way to approach your employment. You have a very direct interest in the company's success: your paycheck, reputation, friends, etc. Being aware if the company is exploding is simple sanity.

That's the term I was looking for! Thanks.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#113

Post by fxthea »

dkrich wrote: post #81
greghinch wrote: post #29

I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…

That's your definition of a startup. Most people (myself included) think of a startup simply as a new, fledgling business. Every business starts with nothing. Your aspirations, whether they are to become billion-dollar or just side income are irrelevant. They can lead to some bone-headed decisions along the way though.

I don't think he's arguing about semantics of startup vs. small business. I believe he's trying to explain that new businesses fall into a path where they think they are a "startup" thus must take VC funding. He's trying to explain that there's also the "small business" route where you just bootstrap and fund your business from customer revenue.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#114

Post by greghinch »

ihaveajob wrote: post #104
enraged_camel wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A barber shop is a new, fledgling business, but it is not a startup. PG wrote an essay on this - you should read it.

(Not the OP) I've read PG's article, and it makes sense, but it narrowly fits YC's model and leaves out lean, bootstrapped companies. For that reason, I prefer Steve Blank's definition: "An organization in search of a repeatable, scalable business model". There's a good discussion here: http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-definition-of-a-startup

That sounds more like the definition of a franchise business. Which may or may not be a startup as well, depending on how you go after growth

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#115

Post by alexsilver »

greghinch wrote: post #29

I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…

I'm always confused why people assume that you need VC's money to grow FAST, especially if your company a B2B (similar to what people assumed about OP's business). Growing fast means getting a lot of new PAYING customers fast and if you priced your product right, that should cover the extra expenses of infrastructure, support and allow you to expand your staff to build more features to bring more customers in. VC's money is good when you don't have a proper monetization strategy (which may or may not be a problem to begin with) and need money to get by for the first while, which doesn't seem to be OP's case.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#116

Post by beat »

greghinch wrote: post #29

I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…

In all the debate this comment spawned, I think people need to realize that we need some language to clearly distinguish between big business, small business, and what I'll call "startups" here. I think "entrepreneur" is a good word to cover small business, including that local pub or barbershop. Such businesses have linear growth and a low ceiling. Software startups can have exponential growth and a ceiling orders of magnitude higher. An entrepreneurial small business could be very successful at a million dollars of revenue. An equivalent level of success in startups is a billion dollars.

So "startup" as a subset of "entrepreneur" seems like good language to me. The difference is the opportunity for exponential growth.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#117

Post by greghinch »

dkrich wrote: post #107
enraged_camel wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A barber shop is a new, fledgling business, but it is not a startup. PG wrote an essay on this - you should read it.

And why isn't a barber shop a startup? Great Clips and Super Cuts were once new, fledgling businesses. Not charging money, taking VC investment, joining an incubator, and creating a stupid name that ends in "fy" or "ly" a startup does not make. BTW, I've read the essay. I like most of what he writes, but I have a fundamental disagreement on this one and just because it comes from the hands of PG does not make it gosp…

There's nothing to say a bootstrapped company can't become a a startup. When they start going for growth

Edit: See below, I was referring to accelerated growth

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#118

Post by marchra »

dkrich wrote: post #107
enraged_camel wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A barber shop is a new, fledgling business, but it is not a startup. PG wrote an essay on this - you should read it.

And why isn't a barber shop a startup? Great Clips and Super Cuts were once new, fledgling businesses. Not charging money, taking VC investment, joining an incubator, and creating a stupid name that ends in "fy" or "ly" a startup does not make. BTW, I've read the essay. I like most of what he writes, but I have a fundamental disagreement on this one and just because it comes from the hands of PG does not make it gosp…

By PG's definition Pinterest (two years lost in the desert) would not be a startup

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#119

Post by casual_slacker »

pnathan wrote: post #99
obviouslygreen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just no way to live. If you find yourself doing this, you're either needlessly paranoid and worrying yourself into an early grave, or you're justifiably paranoid, and you should reconsider the choices you're making regarding employment. Obviously we don't all have the option to bail at any time and find other work, but if this is the kind of culture you're seeing as normal, I feel very sorry for you. Anyone i…

No, it's situational awareness. "Is this company doing well? Or is it not?" That's a very reasonable and business-minded way to approach your employment. You have a very direct interest in the company's success: your paycheck, reputation, friends, etc. Being aware if the company is exploding is simple sanity.

Sustained "situational awareness" and paranoia aren't all that different.

Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live

#120

Post by tptacek »

greghinch wrote: post #29

I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…

Ah, the "hacker/cracker" debate equivalent for software entrepreneurship, complete with the person who says other people have "no business" calling themselves something if they don't meet their specific definition of that something.

Bolted, of course, to the top of any thread that mentions "bootstrapping" or "VC".

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