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I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

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Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#41

Post by coryl »

chamboo wrote: post #25
whichdan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, if you can afford to spend a year learning to code, put the startup on hold, and just write some code! Instead of focusing on "I need to build blog software," try to think about it as more of an iterative process. Part 1: 1) Create a database 2) Manually input test data 3) Make a page to list all of your posts 4) Paginate your posts 5) Give your posts permalinks and their own pages Part 2: 1) Create a simpl…

First, thanks for the specifics here, it is very helpful to someone like me who is grasping at a starting point. Second, I so want to believe that this is true. Even if I could just make 1k/mo, my stress level would go from 9.5/10 to 0. I've been told so much by my parents that I'm a fool to pursue such a thing, that I'll fail etc... I think it's really ingrained in me that it would take nothing short of a miracle fo…

If it helps, I learned to program last year. I wrote a blog post recently with a few tips:

http://coryliu.com/post/42990233356/how-i-learned-to-program...

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#42

Post by chamboo »

filvdg wrote: post #23

If i was in your situation i would move to silicon valley, visit coding events and finds bright coders and offer them your time , not your cash to help them to get traction , you will develop plenty of other skills you will need to succeed and you might find an activity you really enjoy that is not coding

I hear this often. Is this really a good idea? I have thought of it, but I wonder, am I just going to move all the way out there, and then I still won't find anything? What then. I guess I could just sit here and do nothing too, I guess that would be similarly effective. I would like to think that what you suggest is true. I hope that it is. I don't know why I have so many doubts without even actually attempting it. Maybe a visit out there would be a good idea to break this way of thinking.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#43

Post by rdouble »

chamboo wrote: post #42
filvdg wrote: post #23

If i was in your situation i would move to silicon valley, visit coding events and finds bright coders and offer them your time , not your cash to help them to get traction , you will develop plenty of other skills you will need to succeed and you might find an activity you really enjoy that is not coding

I hear this often. Is this really a good idea? I have thought of it, but I wonder, am I just going to move all the way out there, and then I still won't find anything? What then. I guess I could just sit here and do nothing too, I guess that would be similarly effective. I would like to think that what you suggest is true. I hope that it is. I don't know why I have so many doubts without even actually attempting it.…

If you have a million dollars and have not done anything for 276 days, why wouldn't you just try it out?

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#44

Post by chamboo »

coryl wrote: post #41
chamboo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, thanks for the specifics here, it is very helpful to someone like me who is grasping at a starting point. Second, I so want to believe that this is true. Even if I could just make 1k/mo, my stress level would go from 9.5/10 to 0. I've been told so much by my parents that I'm a fool to pursue such a thing, that I'll fail etc... I think it's really ingrained in me that it would take nothing short of a miracle fo…

If it helps, I learned to program last year. I wrote a blog post recently with a few tips: http://coryliu.com/post/42990233356/how-i-learned-to-program...

Man I want to hug you for this. I am so glad you were able to make it work. I'm just going to do it too, it can't hurt me at this point, and I felt very much the same as you. My doubts are what has kept me from actually doing it. Is there any reason you started C first before Python/Ruby? Probably a stupid question, but I don't even have a basic grasp of the differences or if it even matters. Thanks for posting this.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#45

Post by chamboo »

mbesto wrote: post #32

Hi! I've tried to do what you, and after about 6 months of trying to get myself to fully code, I fell flat. But I still really wanted to build a business and have slowly realized what I enjoy most - finding the easiest route to acquiring customers by building a MVP. I now have a team of 3 (biz dev, web dev, and UI) could build you an MVP for around $15-20k. It will help you validate a lot of your assumptions and help…

Thanks for your support. I will keep your contact info, and keep it in mind as I progress down this path. Hopefully I will be in touch soon.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#46

Post by chamboo »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #27

1mm liquid implies you are actually a lot better at the "reality" thing than you might think. And being a programmer is a necessary but not sufficient part of being a founder. I would suggestto you the HN Proposition approach: http://hnproposition.blogspot.co.uk/ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037694 Basically - you seed a hacker with 5000 USD to build their MVP, then you seed yourself to promote it, SEO it, se…

Thanks for this, I did see this earlier. I will certainly consider this option as I progress.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#47

Post by chamboo »

JimWillTri wrote: post #30
chamboo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very happy to hear that you're doing it. For a very long period, I started to give up hope (and I had never even attempted anything). I would very much like to find some people here. Can you say what you are working on building?

It's very difficult to find good programmers. I would suggest finding someone on HN that has a very good rep and using him to sort through and find quality ones. One of the biggest challenges is that, even when you find quality programmer(s), most will attempt to outsource to crappy devs. I found out that the sv dev firm I hired, outsourced to $4.50 hour ukraine devs on odesk.

Same thing happened to me when I tried to outsource a slot machine app to a company on Odesk in India. Was ridiculously dumb to try and work with those guys.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#48

Post by coryl »

chamboo wrote: post #44
coryl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it helps, I learned to program last year. I wrote a blog post recently with a few tips: http://coryliu.com/post/42990233356/how-i-learned-to-program...

Man I want to hug you for this. I am so glad you were able to make it work. I'm just going to do it too, it can't hurt me at this point, and I felt very much the same as you. My doubts are what has kept me from actually doing it. Is there any reason you started C first before Python/Ruby? Probably a stupid question, but I don't even have a basic grasp of the differences or if it even matters. Thanks for posting this.

I wanted to make iOS apps, which uses primarily uses Objective-C. After a bit of trying to learn, I found that Obj-C resources weren't very good. Some suggested that I should learn C first, which is where Objective-C was based off of, so I figured I'd do that.

In terms of your choice of language, first figure out what you want to make. Web apps? Mobile apps? Desktop software? That will let you know your options for languages.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#49

Post by notintegral »

runjake wrote: post #33

This is going to sound like an insult, but it truly isn't: In my mind, you obviously don't want to a put a lot of research into it -- as if you did, you'd just read everything you could, and get an MVP going -- instead of posting this. Don't worry, I'm often the same way. I suppose it's a sense of urgency. So you might look into DevBootCamp ( http://devbootcamp.com/ ). It doesn't mean you have to be an RoR programmer…

I expect DevBootCamp to fail like all other things with which Michael Staton is involved. Staton is the type of entrepreneur who screws over countless other individuals in order to achieve his own success; he pretends to help edtech companies with the sole goal of advancing his own agenda, and his own product -- Inigral -- is rarely used by the universities or the students who pay for it. All in all, Michael Staton is one of those wantrepreneurs who advances because of his success as a "socialite" (in his own words) rather than any prowess, intellectual ability, or entrepreneurial talent.

Re: I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup

#50

Post by mbesto »

chamboo wrote: post #45
mbesto wrote: post #32

Hi! I've tried to do what you, and after about 6 months of trying to get myself to fully code, I fell flat. But I still really wanted to build a business and have slowly realized what I enjoy most - finding the easiest route to acquiring customers by building a MVP. I now have a team of 3 (biz dev, web dev, and UI) could build you an MVP for around $15-20k. It will help you validate a lot of your assumptions and help…

Thanks for your support. I will keep your contact info, and keep it in mind as I progress down this path. Hopefully I will be in touch soon.

Happy to help. Even if means just talking on the phone to understand better what you want to do! Everyone's passionate about something different.
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