5 ms·

This sounds like a scrappy side project, not a company. Why did you work on getting insurance, getting incorporated, any of that, and why didn't you wait to do

This sounds like a scrappy side project, not a company. Why did you work on getting insurance, getting incorporated, any of that, and why didn't you wait to do that until you had something with validation or growth? Depending on a 'cultural shift' sounds incredibly dubious, and IMO sounds like you all don't really know what you are doing. I would walk away and take these lessons out of it, reflect some more, and take a sharper approach for the next project.

the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
> Why did you work on getting insurance Yeah, why would you want to be insured ...
- orthoganol 11y ago
  Before you're a real company?
- myNXTact 11y ago
  What is there to insure?
  - junto 11y ago
    Negligence.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
somehnreader 11y ago
That part struck me as well, but I guess hindsight is 20/20 and they learned their lesson. When I did my very first project when I was 18 I spent money on a lawyer and incorporation before we made any sales, of course the project tanked after we made a couple of hundred in revenue and then split ways.
visakanv 11y ago
> Why did you work on getting insurance, getting incorporated, any of that, and why didn't you wait to do that until you had something with validation or growth? "If I met an undergrad who knew all about convertible notes and employee agreements and (God forbid) class FF stock, I wouldn't think "here is someone who is way ahead of their peers." It would set off alarms. Because another of the characteristic mistakes of young founders is to go through the motions of starting a startup. They make up some plausible-sounding idea, raise money at a good valuation, rent a cool office, hire a bunch of people. From the outside that seems like what startups do. But the next step after rent a cool office and hire a bunch of people is: gradually realize how completely fucked they are, because while imitating all the outward forms of a startup they have neglected the one thing that's actually essential: making something people want. We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: playing house. Eventually I realized why it was happening. The reason young founders go through the motions of starting a startup is because that's what they've been trained to do for their whole lives up to that point. Think about what you have to do to get into college, for example. Extracurricular activities, check. Even in college classes most of the work is as artificial as running laps." > http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html
- orthoganol 11y ago
  I remember watching this lecture by PG in Sam's course. I thought PG was being too kind to them, because I think a major part of why young founders 'go through the motions' without tackling the real work head-on is because they are deeply motivated by the alleged social cachet of being a young startup founder, plus the fact they typically come from upper middle class backgrounds where it's expected they do something 'prestigious'. In other words, the worst reasons.
  - visakanv 11y ago
    That's an unfriendly interpretation, but a totally valid interpretation nevertheless. I think this happens to most people in most situations. We go into things with all sorts of expectations, and then find out that our expectations were inconsistent with reality. Applies to joining any industry we might have looked at with rose-tinted glasses, or even making life decisions like getting married or having children. The desire for prestige isn't limited to upper-middle-class folks. Poor young kids join gangs and do drugs for similar reasons.

the_mitsuhiko 11y ago

> Why did you work on getting insurance Yeah, why would you want to be insured ...

orthoganol 11y ago
Before you're a real company?
myNXTact 11y ago
What is there to insure?
- junto 11y ago
  Negligence.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

somehnreader 11y ago

That part struck me as well, but I guess hindsight is 20/20 and they learned their lesson. When I did my very first project when I was 18 I spent money on a lawyer and incorporation before we made any sales, of course the project tanked after we made a couple of hundred in revenue and then split ways.

visakanv 11y ago

> Why did you work on getting insurance, getting incorporated, any of that, and why didn't you wait to do that until you had something with validation or growth? "If I met an undergrad who knew all about convertible notes and employee agreements and (God forbid) class FF stock, I wouldn't think "here is someone who is way ahead of their peers." It would set off alarms. Because another of the characteristic mistakes of young founders is to go through the motions of starting a startup. They make up some plausible-sounding idea, raise money at a good valuation, rent a cool office, hire a bunch of people. From the outside that seems like what startups do. But the next step after rent a cool office and hire a bunch of people is: gradually realize how completely fucked they are, because while imitating all the outward forms of a startup they have neglected the one thing that's actually essential: making something people want. We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: playing house. Eventually I realized why it was happening. The reason young founders go through the motions of starting a startup is because that's what they've been trained to do for their whole lives up to that point. Think about what you have to do to get into college, for example. Extracurricular activities, check. Even in college classes most of the work is as artificial as running laps." > http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html

orthoganol 11y ago
I remember watching this lecture by PG in Sam's course. I thought PG was being too kind to them, because I think a major part of why young founders 'go through the motions' without tackling the real work head-on is because they are deeply motivated by the alleged social cachet of being a young startup founder, plus the fact they typically come from upper middle class backgrounds where it's expected they do something 'prestigious'. In other words, the worst reasons.
- visakanv 11y ago
  That's an unfriendly interpretation, but a totally valid interpretation nevertheless. I think this happens to most people in most situations. We go into things with all sorts of expectations, and then find out that our expectations were inconsistent with reality. Applies to joining any industry we might have looked at with rose-tinted glasses, or even making life decisions like getting married or having children. The desire for prestige isn't limited to upper-middle-class folks. Poor young kids join gangs and do drugs for similar reasons.