Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I am done. I give up

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 1001 posts

Re: I am done. I give up

#151

Post by fragmede »

WA wrote: post #138
jacquesm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sucks. I know quite a few stories like that. I'm more active as an investor these days than as an entrepreneur, the projects I still run are more for fun than for income (or even potential income) and I can't tell you how happy I am that that pressure has abated somewhat. It's annoying that even the successes tend to screw over the employees and more often than not the founders as well. Typical dilution by the t…

Do opportunities like these still exist?

Private equity is buying up as many as they can* but that proves they still exist!

* https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/why-private-equity-...

Re: I am done. I give up

#152

Post by _448 »

jacquesm wrote: post #54
seydor wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What rate is the cutoff at which people give up entrepreneurship altogether? I wonder how big has the opportunity cost of monopolies been in the past decade

That depends on the person, really. When you are younger or have rich parents you can afford yourself larger risks and that in turn has a positive effect on your chances of success. When you get older and have more responsibilities unless you have a prior success you tend to become more risk averse and so less willing to start new companies and/or make the kind of decisions that would lead to either success or comple…

> But most successful entrepreneurs I know started their first successful company in their 20's or 30's, rarely 40's.

Jeff Bezos?

This is a myth. It is purported because most of the 30+ entrepreneurs are not vocal about their successes.

Re: I am done. I give up

#153

Post by saluki »

_448 wrote: post #119
jurmous wrote: post #10

A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. The basic fact is that most startups and most entrepreneurial dreams fail or get consumed by another for their talent/clients. And as an entrepreneur you fight against all odds. Most will fail…

> A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. This is not true! I have seen successful business built from scratch by people who had no connections, no money and no privileged background (and no VC money). And I will say this for sure, i…

There is lots of hard work.

There is luck involved too.

It may not be obvious from the outside and may not require connections, coming from money.

Every successful startup and bootstrap story there are elements of being lucky.

The right idea at the right time has an element of luck.

Being featured in a major publication or website.

Meeting the right clients.

Hiring people with unknown connections or skills or just hiring the right people.

Even down too day to day operations, there are events that luckily happen. Catching a bug, calling a client at the right time, raising prices, choosing a new feature to roll out that brings product market fit.

There is definitely skills, planning, research and hard work.

But if you've worked for a startup you know there is an element of luck.

I've worked on/for dozens of indie/bootstrapped startups.

Currently employee #8, developer #2 at a funded startup.

Follow the dream, the journey is part of the fun, do it responsibly financially and take care of your mental health, take time for family and friends, have hobbies. It's not for everyone but most people can do it.

Don't become consumed by the entre-porn. This is a real problem. It's addicting and can easily affect your mental health.

I always recommend this talk for those interested in creating their own startup, still relevant today. Thanks @DHH. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

Re: I am done. I give up

#154

Post by quickthrower2 »

fakedang wrote: post #45

My current advice, which seems to be working well so far, is to do small tasks for huge government corporations and organizations for FREE, no questions asked. Don't know how well this could work in the American context, but this has worked for 3 places I've lived in (UK, UAE, India). You don't earn cash but you will earn an INSANE amount of goodwill and connections. The next time, they need a tech solution, they'll…

I am interested in why it is the Firebase problem, or what that means?

Re: I am done. I give up

#155

Post by gswdh »

jurmous wrote: post #10

A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. The basic fact is that most startups and most entrepreneurial dreams fail or get consumed by another for their talent/clients. And as an entrepreneur you fight against all odds. Most will fail…

[dead]

Re: I am done. I give up

#156

Post by kmarc »

I used to be a digital nomad (well, still a bit am)

I never have been an entrepreneur.

When I went to digital nomad events (cruise ship etc), most of them were pretentious Facebook advertisers, aka "digital marketing experts". With a quite low "salary", registered in one of those tax heavens (Cyprus) so that they kept most of their income, and didn't care about their future.

Don't mix entrepreneurship with digital nomadism. They have nothing to do with each other. Once you are a successful entrepreneur, you might go to remote places to work, but the two doesn't have to (and usually doesn't) go together.

Re: I am done. I give up

#157

Post by jskrablin »

Stop trying so hard and just do your own thing at your own pace. It might work it might not work and then you're back to a regular job with regular income, like most of the world. That's not a failure, that's how life usually goes. There are far worse things in life than failing as an entrepreneur. Or maybe instead of chasing business on Twitter, go about your local community, looking if there's anything you can offer to it.

Ignore all the hyped up advice givers, book sellers and influencers. They aren't there to help you. They are there to promote themselves and sell their bs to their followers. You should've recognized this by now. Building anything is hard work. There aren't any shortcuts to get you a quick success... and if it seems there is one, you'll pay the full price for it sometimes later anyway.

It is sometimes hard to stay sane in this world of "tech bros", likes, retweets, shares, sigups, etc... there's a lot of noise, but little signal.

Re: I am done. I give up

#158

Post by b93rn »

jurmous wrote: post #10

A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. The basic fact is that most startups and most entrepreneurial dreams fail or get consumed by another for their talent/clients. And as an entrepreneur you fight against all odds. Most will fail…

Luck is winning the lottery.

Re: I am done. I give up

#159

Post by francois_h »

I feel you. I’ve been trying to carve out my entrepreneurial dreams out for years too. I’ve got my main job, and trying different things on the side. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy. If you’re happy grinding away 18 hours a day to make that sale. Good on you. Me, I’m in my 40’s. I’m tired of trying to impress and grind. My current plan is to keep on doing my main job, but still look for opportunities. There’s this saying by mark Cuban I think. You only need to be right once. My recommendation is take some time off from entrepreneurship. Get a job or do consulting or contracting or something and make connections and just have fun doing it. The bug will bite again, but every failure makes you stronger and gives you insight on what not to focus on. Tweeting and social network stuff is nice to have but money pays the bills. Focus on the sale. Find out what problem there is and create an mvp and let people pay for it. Don’t spend 1000’s of hours building a solution when no one has even committed to it. Money pays the bills, not likes.

Re: I am done. I give up

#160

Post by ejb999 »

jlangenauer wrote: post #5

Why do "indiehackers" want attention from and create products for other "indiehackers"? As a group they seem the people with the least amount of money to spend on products, and are some of the most cheapskate people on the planet. Here's some advice: if you want to make money selling a software product, sell to people who are able and willing to spend money on it.

[dead]
Post reply on HN