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Persisting as a solo founder

vishnu.tech

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Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#191

Post by vishnumohandas »

l00sed wrote: post #102

Reading this article, I feel really proud of the solo founder for having the commitment, fortitude and skills to come as far as he has. I can also relate to the need for focus and attention, but it saddens me to see founders and passionate developers who think they need to cut off social ties and events for their product to succeed. This isn't something that I like to hear, but perhaps it can be effective for some. M…

You could check out IndieHackers.com for other solopreneurs.

With respect to partnerships, I find it difficult to consider someone who I have not built things with or shared emotional baggage with as a business partner.

So if I had to approach this problem, I would pick an arbitrary problem and as an experiment start building with the friends I find on such platforms/communities to see how the working relationship evolves.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#192

Post by icedchai »

indymike wrote: post #151
an_opabinia wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is that really the most common problem? The most common problem, if you're a really talented engineer, is that you could work for a big company and be paid more in a single year than your business will bring in for its entire lifetime. Conversely what you really find is, the people running 20+ person companies with tens of millions in investor money to bring in only $1m in revenue a year - they lacked the talent, a…

So, you've got a choice: $200K/year at bigco, or $120K/year + a one time payout of $2m when you sell your company in five year. Yes, slow and steady can win the race, but last I looked, $200K x5 is $1m. The solo founder will make $2.6m. Of course, there's no guarantee of any of this. The talented engineer could be caught up in layoffs at bigco, and the founder could go out of business or never sell. Usually, exits ar…

I've seen companies raise single digit millions and not even get close to $1M in revenue, over 5 years later. The result is founders have been diluted massively after a couple of down rounds. Meanwhile, preferred dividends are accruing year after year. The odds of a big payoff gets smaller and smaller the longer this goes on.

Odds are you'd make more money taking a job at BigCo, live like you only needed half what you're making, and invest that extra money into the public market. This isn't as fun though.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#193

Post by hinkley »

koolba wrote: post #173
dsbleia wrote: post #119

>I’ve reduced my information consumption to free up brain cycles. This is so important and not discussed very often. It's so easy to get caught up with the insane amount of information distractions. It is pivotal to narrow down your focus and attention on the really important things (deep work). Eliminate and minimize the pointless information hysteria. I've worked with people who claim they 'work 12-16 hour days'. Y…

The most productive and successful individuals I know oscillate between multi day 16+ hour sessions of hyper productivity and multi day sessions of total procrastination. It’s never chugging along at a consistent marathon pace. It’s always a series of sprints.

The dumbest thing you can do is try to be hyper-productive when you have no idea what you should be doing.

Of course, there are always five other things you know that need to get done besides the problem in front of you, but it can be a challenge to find the correct level of engagement, versus just sitting and 'marinating' in the problem in front of you.

I think the paradox is that if I spend all day doing nothing but reading documentation and farting around on Hacker News, nobody really notices. Not in the same way they notice if I spend a day on 'the wrong thing' (because I know for certain what needs to be done on this other thing). It's seen as wasting resources, because certainly I could have put that energy into the 'right thing'.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#194

Post by hinkley »

dsbleia wrote: post #119

>I’ve reduced my information consumption to free up brain cycles. This is so important and not discussed very often. It's so easy to get caught up with the insane amount of information distractions. It is pivotal to narrow down your focus and attention on the really important things (deep work). Eliminate and minimize the pointless information hysteria. I've worked with people who claim they 'work 12-16 hour days'. Y…

The tough thing is figuring out what's the right stuff to filter out.

We all have had conversations with coworkers about some manager who just doesn't 'get it' and is out of touch. One way or another they are filtering out a bit of reality that it turns out is very important to us, or someone in the chain of command is filtering it out before they ever hear about it.

I wonder if the right solution is to 'audit' the information. Spend most of the time in your information bubble, with brief excursions in alternating 'directions' just to make sure that you aren't overfitting. Regular sanity checks where you turn on the firehose for a moment to see what comes out.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#195

Post by Sad_solopreneur »

Friends

It's really hard to write this, but I'm sharing because I can see that I'm not alone.

I've been working solo for a very long time. Working solo has taken a heavy toll on me in many ways, both good and bad. I didn't want to work alone but the people in my network only had excuses for why they wouldn't work together. During the time that I've worked alone, competitors have entered the market, thrived, and even successfully exited. It has been crushing for me knowing that my vision and market were spot on accurate, and here I am watching others succeed at what I knew was real a long time ago. Yet, they have taken a far more risk averse approach, leaving the holy grail for someone like me. I didn't want to work alone but I persist because working alone on this dream is worth more than not working on it at all. Hope remains. Things are finally changing this year, but it's because I've given up working alone without trying to raise funding. My risk profile has changed during my solo career. I'm not going to fail to fundraise because I'm solo, anymore. I'm bringing strong, modern tech assets, expertise, and validated business strategy to the table. I'm going to crush any reservations that investors will have about me for being a solo founder. The fact that I'm solo is nothing more than one person's excuse for not getting involved. Being solo was a legitimate concern years ago, but it's not anymore. I don't need a founder. I'm a hardened soldier who doesn't need a shoulder to cry on but rather CBT, exercise, and sleep. I have enough love in my life to carry on, and am very fortunate for that. Moving forward is a frightening experience, but I will remain no matter the outcome. I accept my fate and will fight like hell to arc towards the positive.

For the Dune fans: Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#196

Post by hinkley »

ilamont wrote: post #22

Solo founder here. Make a product that people want and are willing to pay for. The product may be in what appears to be a crowded field. Identify niche opportunities or cases where an established leader is doing a poor job. It's fine to do some consulting on the side to pay the bills. Of course it will take time away from the product you are building; just be able to recognize when it's too much and scale back consul…

The trap I fall into is thinking about whether a solution 'ought to exist', disregarding the reasons why it doesn't already.

There are lots of tools people on appreciate when they are gone, and getting people to pay for them takes a much better salesman than I'm used to having available.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#198

Post by noisy_boy »

mlacks wrote: post #152

https://github.audio/ is a game changer. one thing I find hard about lo-fi channels is the sheer amount of visual/ mental noise to break through in order to get the video/ station up and running on various platforms. One thing that I have taken to in my quest for zone-out material is to put this type of music on a separate Hi-Res music player; I have a Sony A20 Walkman, Sony PHA-1A DAC / Amplifier, and Sony MDRV6 Stu…

I've built a collection of lo-fi stuff (mainly off youtube) and the main problem is unnecessary (IMHO) and/or depressing vocal cues (e.g. "I don't love you anymore" on repeat, wtf!). Just cool clean lo-fi without the seldom needed garnish is a very relaxing thing. Also, TIL github.audio - quite nice.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#199

Post by mjrbrennan »

Wump wrote: post #197

> Over time I’ve realized that action precedes motivation Interesting insight. Usually we think of it the other way around.

Found this true of everything, and yet I continue to procrastinate. For example I write fiction. The absolute hardest part is just starting to write. Once I start I have no problem whatsoever to keep going.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#200

Post by totetsu »

koolba wrote: post #173
dsbleia wrote: post #119

>I’ve reduced my information consumption to free up brain cycles. This is so important and not discussed very often. It's so easy to get caught up with the insane amount of information distractions. It is pivotal to narrow down your focus and attention on the really important things (deep work). Eliminate and minimize the pointless information hysteria. I've worked with people who claim they 'work 12-16 hour days'. Y…

The most productive and successful individuals I know oscillate between multi day 16+ hour sessions of hyper productivity and multi day sessions of total procrastination. It’s never chugging along at a consistent marathon pace. It’s always a series of sprints.

Okay, I've got a month of procrastination pent up, now if I could only release the hyper productivity! When I did my last masters, I somehow managed to get into a hyper-productive state, hacking on an app to collect participant voice data for a fews sessions close to 20 hours straight. (much to the annoyance of the guy who slept in the graduate lab) I don't think it was healthy, but it sure felt good at the time.
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