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Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

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Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#71

Post by jokethrowaway »

> I currently have a small team where we develop in-house mobile apps, but we are not generating any revenue at the moment

That can easily become a job. Definitely a safe way to get into business management, over being an engineer.

Once you have some profits you can even try to get your team to work on some small products and try to grow it slowly. Don't bet everything you have or raise money and either make a unicorn or fail; just provide value in sensible way so that you can make a profit with little resource (money, time) investments.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#72

Post by jokethrowaway »

brianwawok wrote: post #27
vaylian wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "my business isn't producing revenue because I'm not full-time focused on it." I've fallen into this trap and learned the hard way that full-time focus was not the issue. What was/were the issue/s if you don't mind me asking?

It’s always product market fit. If the product is right it will find users.

PMF is not only about the product being right for the users but also reaching the users who are interested.

Marketing / Sales can be a blocker too.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#73

Post by [deleted] »

ilamont wrote: post #39
afavour wrote: post #5

You haven’t really said much about your personal situation and in this scenario it’s very important. - Do you have a family or other dependents? - How much do you have in savings? - Could you fall back on e.g. moving in with parents in the very short term if things go horribly wrong? Entrepreneurship is a wonderful adventure but at a very base level you need to be able to put a roof over your head and eat. As long as…

> Do you have a family or other dependents? And, if you are in the US: Does your spouse have health insurance and a salary that can help support the family? Do you have kids in high school getting ready to start college (runs about $30k-80k per year living on campus)? Family finances aside: If the product has true potential - meaning customers not only say they like it, but they are ready to pay on the spot - then lo…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#74

Post by gopher_space »

sb8244 wrote: post #48
windexh8er wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems as though a lot of startup founders and product managers succumb to this illness. I've worked for a number of startups that have always had a number of people who were building things for nobody but themselves. These features, and in one case - product, were not anything any customers were willing to pay for. Instead a lot of these founders think it's their sellers and double down on ineffective solutions li…

Founders should be doing sales (not leading it, doing it) until at least 1M ARR. That solves a lot of that issue. Maybe it's a difference between bootstrapped mindset and VC-fueled one.

> Maybe it's a difference between bootstrapped mindset and VC-fueled one.

The bootstrap mindset understands that "idea man" isn't an actual job.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#75

Post by oliwarner »

> There is no such thing as "safe" entrepreneurship

Of course there is!

It's safe if you can afford to take no wage, invest lots of money, even more time into something that might not work.

It's only unsafe if you can't afford to lose the business and everything you put into it. If it would mean you and your dependents not eating, becoming homeless. Even mild financial pressure is more than some relationships can take.

The danger of following others into entrepreneurship is you see the successes of the very lucky and the failures of the people who could afford it, who tried and tried and tried again. You rarely see the people utterly destroyed by their mistakes and poor luck.

Your situation matters. You aren't the people you've seen before.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#76

Post by dfex »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #38

This is not a personal advice as I'm also in that badlands of struggles. However, today, I read a nice comment from an acquittance from my prior world of the web and awards and stuffs (I was a regular judge for an event he runs). Here is me trying to remember and paraphrasing it (not verbatim - I need to look around). Entrepreneurs don’t go around calling themselves out as “entrepreneurs.” It’s not something to focus…

This should be on a billboard or carved into the side of the Santa Cruz mountains in Silicon Valley!

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#77

Post by cellis »

f6v wrote: post #49
mhx1138 wrote: post #20

Kind of sad to think that a company just went bankrupt, while their employees were working on their own companies instead. No blame for OP. But what should managers do in challenging situations to prevent their team from losing focus?

> But what should managers do in challenging situations to prevent their team from losing focus? Force them to spend 12 hours in the office, of course.

Or sleep in the office. Worked for FTX.

Re: Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

#79

Post by _ua_ »

I'm an entrepreneur (luckily with one successful tech startup) and along the way I've had many failures. I've also helped many other startups on their journeys to becoming very successful and the truth is your journey is something you will need to decide.

But, from my experience I've now realised you shouldn't work on your idea with your own money. It's great if you have enough savings to do try something you love but the point of a startup is to make money (unless it's a non-profit). In order to make money you will need to convince someone else that it's a good idea and pay for it.

So, validate your idea before you go full-time and get some early customers. There are many ways to do a "safe" startup. There's always a risk but you can make sure you don't end up worse after a failed venture.

I'm new to HN but I suspect there are many who'd be willing to help you and complement your skills to make your idea successful (I'm one of them).

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