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Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

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Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#31

Post by petervandijck »

azanar wrote: post #22
peterlai wrote: post #5

WebNotes’ first founder worked part-time on WebNotes for about a year after graduating before raising enough investor money to go full time. After going full-time, he gave everyone else an ultimatum to jump ship as well, and now, we’re a five person team. So, in short, I’m lucky. The startup has been able to fund me from the start.

How concerned was the first founder that while he was getting money together, another startup would develop a competing product and spend the year working full-time while he was working part-time on his own? If such a competitor appeared in the year's time, what would the first founder have done? I ask because there seems to be some division amongst the comments and essays I've read about how severe of a risk this is…

The risk of going part-time isn't that a competitor will beat you, it's that you won't make a good enough product. Don't worry about competitors, worry about the product.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#32

Post by _g8fe »

I live in India, Pune. So the expense are really low as compared to US or Europe. Plus, I really cut down on expenses and still manage to have decent lifestyle. I have a cook coming in to cook food and a maid to clean the house.

I worked for a year and saved enough ($3000). This amount of money will go long way (8 to 10 months) if I spend frugally. I am already 4 months into developing the startup.

Another thing is, develop a knack for getting things cheaply. If you search around, you can get same things far cheaper, than say from a Mall or Big shop.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#33

Post by a-priori »

tokenadult wrote: post #6

I see a common theme here in the first few submitted replies. What does an ambitious young person do if the parents are a) dead and gone, b) sick and dying, c) impoverished, or d) stingy? (I ask as a parent of would-be start-up founders, trying my best not to fit into those categories, but never knowing for sure when I might fit into category a).

I would suggest a part-time job as well. That's my situation right now. I'm a soon-to-be-grad, and I'm doing part-time school, part-time work at a software company. One or two days a week there (depending on my work load at school) pays my living expenses, tuition and loan repayments.

If I weren't in school, and didn't have student debt, I could live quite well on the same amount of income, yet bootstrap a startup at the same time.

Mind you, this requires a well-paying and flexible part-time job, but it's definitely possible.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#34

Post by azanar »

petervandijck wrote: post #31
azanar wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How concerned was the first founder that while he was getting money together, another startup would develop a competing product and spend the year working full-time while he was working part-time on his own? If such a competitor appeared in the year's time, what would the first founder have done? I ask because there seems to be some division amongst the comments and essays I've read about how severe of a risk this is…

The risk of going part-time isn't that a competitor will beat you, it's that you won't make a good enough product. Don't worry about competitors, worry about the product.

This strikes me as being worried about the same thing, especially in a market ripe enough for you to have real competition. Presumably, in trying to best your competition, you and/or they -- hopefully both if both are paying some attention to the other -- will ultimately approach a product the customer wants. Otherwise, you're both dead anyway. Past that, it's up to whoever has the better product.

The only other thresholds to overcome is that you or your competition solve enough of the customer's problem for them to be interested at all, and that the price is something the customer would be willing to pay. Odds are, if you are tooth-and-nail with one or more competitors, you'll pass both those thresholds just trying to keep ahead of them.

There might be very niche markets were you won't have the threat of competition to keep you honest about product quality, but I can't imagine of any. I'd worry about any market where no one cares enough to make a competing product.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#35

Post by jmcannon »

tokenadult wrote: post #6

I see a common theme here in the first few submitted replies. What does an ambitious young person do if the parents are a) dead and gone, b) sick and dying, c) impoverished, or d) stingy? (I ask as a parent of would-be start-up founders, trying my best not to fit into those categories, but never knowing for sure when I might fit into category a).

I started working on my startup immediately after graduation 1500 miles from my parents' basement. I found a cheap room in a boarding house from which I work and tutoring rich private school kids just four hours a week keeps me going. For a little padding, I took a tiny loan from various parts of the family - it really annoys me when people assume anyone can find a $20,000+ loan from "friends and family," (I can't) but my family is almost exclusively low-income and was able to put together a little something that helped cover incorporation, business cards, etc.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#36

Post by tokenadult »

azanar wrote: post #17
tokenadult wrote: post #6

I see a common theme here in the first few submitted replies. What does an ambitious young person do if the parents are a) dead and gone, b) sick and dying, c) impoverished, or d) stingy? (I ask as a parent of would-be start-up founders, trying my best not to fit into those categories, but never knowing for sure when I might fit into category a).

Agreed with mdolon's thoughts, but another thought occurred to me while reading through this: * As a parent, it is likely you have more and varied business connections than your son/daughter. Do you know anyone you could introduce them to who might be able to help them along both monetarily, as a seed or angel investor, and/or as an advisor if (a-d) were to happen to you? This doesn't even have to be a direct contact…

As a parent, it is likely you have more and varied business connections than your son/daughter. Do you know anyone you could introduce them to who might be able to help them along both monetarily, as a seed or angel investor, and/or as an advisor if (a-d) were to happen to you?

That's the primary reason I am here on HN. (Well, actually the primary reason I signed up for a user account is that I lurked into some very interesting discussions here over several months, repeatedly following the link here from Paul Graham's essays, but what I claim I'm learning is entrepreneurial skills I can use for myself and impart to the next generation of my family.)

Agreed that sometimes parental connections are WAY more valuable than parental money. I know some spectacular examples from my own generation, as I know (as a professional school classmate) the child of a Vice President of the United States. Most of my personal connections are not closely related to the career interests of my oldest son, but it only takes one person who knows one other person and so on if all the relationships are friendly and pro-active.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#38

Post by beathan »

wheels wrote: post #18

I've had two phases of my life where I went without income. The first was getting established as an open source developer, the second was starting a startup (both, interestingly, feel like they have a lot in common). After college I worked full time for one year. I kept living with college roomies and saved up about $10,000. I used that to work full time on open source for 10 months, and move to Europe (where I staye…

I'd love to hear more about your move to Europe. Did you move for a job and have an employer help out with the red tape, or did you work out another path? Having spent about a year in Europe backpacking during my college days (on $10k, no less), finding a means to make it a full-time experience would be great.

EDIT: I assumed you are/were a citizen of the US and shouldn't have.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#39

Post by code_devil »

aditya wrote: post #20
code_devil wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's ideal to have some sort of part time job. In my case, I have a full time job and can't leave it for two reasons: 1) I am on H1b-Visa [More Important than #2, so didn't even think about applying for YC this summer, though I would love to] 2) I need $$$ :-) I typically try to wake up early(6am), hit the gym, put in my 8/9 hrs at work so I am free by 5-6 pm. Now I have potentially 6 more hours till 12:00 am…

you know that you can always switch to a part-time H1b to make more time, right? Also, apply to YC if you are interested and ready to commit, the visa thing is hard but not insurmountable (especially if you raise money). IIRC, The buxfers did it! It's very easy to go down the road of, oh no there are so many obstacles, but if you're relentlessly resourceful, you can make it work :)

I am a believer in "if you're relentlessly resourceful, you can make it work :)". I honestly never considered/thought moving to a part time H1 especially in this economy. It was always evenings/weekends in my mind. But now that you mention about Part time, it seems a pretty descent option :)

BTW what/who are the "IIRC , The buxfers" ?

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#40

Post by wheels »

beathan wrote: post #38
wheels wrote: post #18

I've had two phases of my life where I went without income. The first was getting established as an open source developer, the second was starting a startup (both, interestingly, feel like they have a lot in common). After college I worked full time for one year. I kept living with college roomies and saved up about $10,000. I used that to work full time on open source for 10 months, and move to Europe (where I staye…

I'd love to hear more about your move to Europe. Did you move for a job and have an employer help out with the red tape, or did you work out another path? Having spent about a year in Europe backpacking during my college days (on $10k, no less), finding a means to make it a full-time experience would be great. EDIT: I assumed you are/were a citizen of the US and shouldn't have.

Yes, I am a US citizen. In a nutshell, I took all of my overtime and vacation in that year of working full-time and went to Guatemala to study Spanish and met a German girl ... that was September of 2001, so a pretty nutty time in the US, and it seemed like a good excuse to try something different.

I had a job with a startup lined up, which fell through, and then ended up getting hired by the SAP LinuxLab who sponsored my visa (roughly equivalent to a H1-B), so I went back to the US for a couple weeks, packed up my stuff, shipped it over and well, stayed. 6 years (and one job) later I got permanent residence, which meant I was no longer bound to having a company sponsor my visa, and a couple months later quit my job to found Directed Edge.

The convenient upshot of that is that now, at 28, I'm permitted to live and work anywhere in the US or EU.

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