5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now • Hacker News Board

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#61

Post by thibaut_barrere » Fri, Mar 12, 2010, 12:54 PM UTC

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #60

I agree with most of the article, except on the following points: > 1. If you are not full time, then you are at a huge disadvantage There are pros and cons. If you are your own investor, then working full time on one project is also putting all your eggs in the same basket. Also having multiple projects allows to make a better prioritization (ie: remove crap) in my experience. > 2. ... Your cofounder should be someb…

Last comment:

> Unless you’re part of the Silicon Valley in-crowd AND you

> have traction, you’re not going to raise venture capital

This one is really an over-generalization... There are many places in the world with founded companies that didn't put a foot in the SV (Paris for what I know).

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#62

Post by bluishgreen » Fri, Mar 12, 2010, 5:27 PM UTC

paraschopra wrote: post #45

bluishgreen wrote: post #43

"Trust me, you’re not, and no matter how much you think you know about what it’s going to be like, when that first jab comes, you’ll begin to truly understand for the first time." I think some one has to pitch in and add some perspective here. This, frankly is not helping. I appreciate the warnings and all - but the echo chamber is getting a bit too loud lately. The worst thing that will happen is I will fail. Misera…

I used "Trust me" in a blog post http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/debunki... and my friend quickly reminded me that it is a cliche and usually doesn't add much value to the argument. Ideally, your argument should be so strong that it doesn't require an explicit reminder for readers to trust you.

We only have a bunch of things going on for us. Happiness, Love, Adventure, Sadness and Loneliness. But would you rather not be happy because it is cliche. Emotion is cliche and so is cliche. The above post was not to appeal to your logical sense but rather to intuition. So I don't really have a case as to why you should trust me. In fact that part was to inspire some stupidity. The line between stupidity and adventure is a very thin one. Find yours. I will just stand out here on the stupid side and shout out some encouragement. Thats all.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#63

Post by trevelyan » Fri, Mar 12, 2010, 5:27 PM UTC

lsc wrote: post #55

trevelyan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single founder here who thinks the emphasis on co-founders on HN is overrated. Investors may see it as a credentialing and stabilizing mechanism, but once risk is taken out of the picture and a product has revenue it only makes sense to bring someone else on board if they'll more than cover their costs and a co-founder is the most expensive hire there is at that point.

I think it depends on your skillset, too. Some of us have a hard time sharing control. Personally, this is one of the reasons I've always wanted to run my own company. I mean, It's possible, with the right person, that it'd turn out okay, (I'm looking at you, Chris.) but in general, not having the ability to say "Uh, no, it's my company, we're doing it my way." is something I'm loathe to give up. Now, I don't think t…

You should promote your business more on HN, Luke. I just visited it through your sig and am in your market. Currently pay for two virtual servers at MT. One doesn't get much use except as a backup server and I'm paying considerably more for it than what you charge.

Back on point, I don't mean to claim investors are irrational. I just don't think the reflexive "get-a-cofounder" drumbeat that is amplified here is really useful. If it were that easy and such an important determiner of success, I'd expect more investors to back single-founder projects instead of shying away from them. It would be a no-brainer to try and grow projects with revenue and traction.

But it doesn't happen. Which suggests to me that finding a good cofounder is a difficult enough problem that telling someone to do it is not useful advice. Or no more useful than just telling them to get customers. That is what seems to help me more than anything.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#64

Post by mbrubeck » Fri, Mar 12, 2010, 9:07 PM UTC

lsc wrote: post #54

patio11 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could talk about reason 5.2 for a whole afternoon. It is one of the best reasons not to compete on price. Additionally, if you're doing ads on Google, there are some weird interactions here that Econ 101 would not predict. For example, although Google describes AdWords as an auction, it is really "auction-like": the highest bid doesn't necessarily win. One factor which can cause lower bids to beat higher bids is if…

The interesting part of this 'don't compete on price' advice is that in many markets (the market I am in included) marketing is often more than half what you are getting from the customer. In the example above, instead of paying $12-$15 per customer to goog, what about dropping your price by $10 and seeing what happens? If your product is comparable, it only takes one reddit article comparing you to the competition t…

Since he politely didn't shill for himself above, I'll point out that lsc is the founder of http://prgmr.com/ which has crazy low prices for virtual hosting.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#65

Post by lsc » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 11:31 AM UTC

trevelyan wrote: post #63

lsc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it depends on your skillset, too. Some of us have a hard time sharing control. Personally, this is one of the reasons I've always wanted to run my own company. I mean, It's possible, with the right person, that it'd turn out okay, (I'm looking at you, Chris.) but in general, not having the ability to say "Uh, no, it's my company, we're doing it my way." is something I'm loathe to give up. Now, I don't think t…

You should promote your business more on HN, Luke. I just visited it through your sig and am in your market. Currently pay for two virtual servers at MT. One doesn't get much use except as a backup server and I'm paying considerably more for it than what you charge. Back on point, I don't mean to claim investors are irrational. I just don't think the reflexive "get-a-cofounder" drumbeat that is amplified here is real…

eh, right now I've got more customers than I can handle, (see capital problem above) I'm re-entrenching and focusing on my original (and most profitable) market, the hobbiest crowd, (and developers who know *NIX well enough to handle a low-ram instance) so hopefully that will iron out the capital bottlenecks for me, and get me some more hardware so I can start selling larger domains, too.

But yeah, I agree, finding a good co-founder is very difficult, even before you start hitting the co-founder problems that aren't problems when you have employees.

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#66

Post by lsc » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 11:33 AM UTC

altenante wrote: post #21

billclerico wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is important to find a cofounder who you truly respect. besides a few specific skills, the skill set is almost irrelevant since you learn so much on the fly

Co-founders skill sets should be complementary not similar. Essentially, one partner should have a deep understanding of the customer and the other should be able to add value ie. a salesman and an engineer.

that sure sounds like good advice, until you start thinking... how does someone without a sales skillset evaluate a salesman? how does someone without a technical background evaluate an Engineer?

Re: 5 things I knew (or should have) before my startup, but didn't learn until now

#67

Post by jeffvincent » Sat, Mar 13, 2010, 4:53 PM UTC

billclerico wrote: post #11

chime wrote: post #2

Does anyone else who quit their job and went fulltime into their startup want to add anything about their experience? Did it make you a lot more productive? Were you worried about paying the bills? How were you able to stay on track? Where did you find the motivation? How did you stay sane and not go crazy?

when we started wepay we quit and had cash for a few months. we ran out. i worked odd jobs off craigslist to pay rent (like tutoring math, wordpress consulting, etc). i was still 10x more productive than when I was working fulltime in another job and trying to work parttime at night. i think it all comes down to comfort. you're too comfortable in a fulltime job.

I can definitely see where Bill is coming from. I think part of the problem of working a full-time job while simultaneously trying to launch a startup is spreading inspiration too thin.

When you are working any type of demanding full-time job, you are asked to problem solve, innovate, and provide meaningful contributions. Simply put, the more thought and inspiration you put into your full-time job, the less you have for your baby, your startup. That's not to say you have NONE, it just means you have less. Less energy, less brainpower, less time, just less.

Odd jobs, on the other hand, work more like a release for your brain. For Bill, tutoring math was easy, fun, and fulfilling. It re-filled his inspiration, rather than drained it.

Way to go Bill, and thanks for this post. jv