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Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

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Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#71

Post by stevenj »

nostrademons wrote: post #43
joshuaxls wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're Groupon or any number of other startups. It helps to start out with a business model.

Andrew Mason first had the idea for Groupon in September 2006, which was more than 2 years before Groupon officially "started" in November 2008, and probably at least 3 years before they achieved mainstream success. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2010/On-Gr...

I think Andrew started out by creating The Point in 2006 which was focused on collective action, rather than collective buying.

It was focused more on supporting/eliciting action regarding "causes" than selling local services at a significant discount to msrp.

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#72

Post by huffer »

StavrosK wrote: post #64
daeken wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I spent 3.5 years doing the startup thing. I made effectively no money. Knowing what I know now, I'd do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I learned more and grew up more in that time than in the rest of my life.

How did you afford food/rent if you made no money?

I second that! I'm amazed by the fact that half the time people seem to disregard completely this fundamental obstacle in doing a startup: you need to have at least the basics covered, like food and a roof above your head. You shouldn't live like a king but even the modest living costs.

Is it only people in US who think that? I don't think so, US is not particularly known for social security and such -- maybe this comes from people who either are already wealthy or they live with their parents :)

I have worked for 2 years plus to earn and set aside the money that will allow me 6-7 months of freedom to start something up (well, and then I screwed my hard-earned freedom, but that's another story); with this tempo you'd (I'd) need to slave away 8 years to earn 2 years of freedom, the amount I'd deem necessary to start up something serious and see money coming back to you.

So please, always mention how you have your basic needs covered and for how long before preaching bootstrapping to others :)

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#73

Post by csomar »

I still a student but I'm building my small Internet Empire, so that I don't need to apply for a job when I finish studies (or better, don't think about it). I completed around 35% of my studies and yet, this month, made (around $400) what an Engineer would make in my area.

I'm enthusiastic about the future, especially the next month, when I'll release my Wordpress Premium plugin (and estimate $1K in sales in one month).

Even if you have a nice job, make sure you always have an alternative, in case of... you don't get sucked, by anyone.

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#74

Post by daeken »

StavrosK wrote: post #64
daeken wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I spent 3.5 years doing the startup thing. I made effectively no money. Knowing what I know now, I'd do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I learned more and grew up more in that time than in the rest of my life.

How did you afford food/rent if you made no money?

The first year of it was spent living with family, paying the bills via some light contract work. At that point, I wasn't really sure of where I wanted to go startup-wise, so I leaned on them for a bit.

From there, I moved to Atlanta and into the house of a business partner of mine. Initially, he was working fulltime at a day job while I worked on our product. This lasted for about a year and a half before he left that job.

The last year and a half were spent surviving off savings, stocks, about two months of contracting, etc. In the end, the runway ran out, and the house was foreclosed on (kinda happens when you don't pay the mortgage for a few months). We launched our product the day we moved out of there.

It was the most stressful time of my life, the most work I've ever done, and I feel like I aged a decade in that 3.5 years. But it was easily the most amazing time of my life.

I'm now living in Manhattan and working for an awesome company, but I still miss the startup life. I figure I'll end up doing it all over again in a few years, once I come across the right idea and strategy.

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#75

Post by csomar »

StavrosK wrote: post #64
daeken wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I spent 3.5 years doing the startup thing. I made effectively no money. Knowing what I know now, I'd do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I learned more and grew up more in that time than in the rest of my life.

How did you afford food/rent if you made no money?

Family. You can live with your parents, actually nothing wrong about it in many countries. If you eat with them and they have Internet, your living costs are around 0.

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#77

Post by Kurtz79 »

huffer wrote: post #72
StavrosK wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you afford food/rent if you made no money?

I second that! I'm amazed by the fact that half the time people seem to disregard completely this fundamental obstacle in doing a startup: you need to have at least the basics covered, like food and a roof above your head. You shouldn't live like a king but even the modest living costs. Is it only people in US who think that? I don't think so, US is not particularly known for social security and such -- maybe this co…

If you work a couple of years in a "boring, corporate gig" and watch your spending carefully (i.e. rent a "decent enough" flat, buy a used and "working well enough" car, eating reasonably cheap), you should be able to save enough to support yourself for the same amount of time, in my experience (and I'm on a Spanish salary, considerably less than the equivalent in the US or nordic countries here in EU.)

Of course the whole time you must be prepared to sacrifice bits of your quality of life, before and during the bootstrapping period (hopefully not after).

I really depends on your goals in life.

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#78

Post by nostrademons »

stevenj wrote: post #71
nostrademons wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andrew Mason first had the idea for Groupon in September 2006, which was more than 2 years before Groupon officially "started" in November 2008, and probably at least 3 years before they achieved mainstream success. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2010/On-Gr...

I think Andrew started out by creating The Point in 2006 which was focused on collective action, rather than collective buying. It was focused more on supporting/eliciting action regarding "causes" than selling local services at a significant discount to msrp.

That's the sort of iteration that basically every business needs to go through, though. The great-grandparent post points out Groupon as an example of a business that succeeded in much less than 2-3 years because it started with a business model, and I pointed out that Groupon neither had a business model when it started nor took only six months. This whole subthread started with a question about whether 6 months is adequate for someone just now quitting their day job - it's most likely that someone in that situation is at that "I'm thinking of a web platform for collective action" stage, not at the "I have a web platform for collective buying" stage.

Re: Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

#79

Post by nostrademons »

chc wrote: post #55
nostrademons wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andrew Mason first had the idea for Groupon in September 2006, which was more than 2 years before Groupon officially "started" in November 2008, and probably at least 3 years before they achieved mainstream success. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2010/On-Gr...

My mom first had the idea for rollerblades in 1968 — that doesn't mean she's a cofounder of Nordica. Thinking of an idea for a business is so many light years away from actually acting on that idea.

It sounds like Mason was actively working on The Point/Groupon for those two years, not just passively thinking about it. He quit his day job in 2006, he was enrolled as a student during the time period, he launched The Point about a year afterwards, he was in full contact with Lefkofsky during the time, and he launched Groupon a little less than a year after the decision to refocus The Point on something that could actually make money.

That's very different from dreaming up an idea and then forgetting about it for 30 years while you work on your day job.

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