9 ms·

As an aside, reading posts like this makes me feel a little better. I'm 31, have a great job etc., but have always wanted to start a company. The problem is,

by gxs 11y ago

As an aside, reading posts like this makes me feel a little better. I'm 31, have a great job etc., but have always wanted to start a company. The problem is, I've never encountered a problem big enough that would want me to do this and rather than start a company for the hell of it, I've just stayed put. What is the right move in this scenario? Start a shitty company, or keep the nice job and potentially regret never starting a company? Viewed from this perspective, it's not as clear.

api 11y ago
Find a problem. What would you pay to have solved? Now out of that list, what do you have the skills and experience to address?
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  Don't forget to ask "Am I going to get to $50 million in revenues before a big company sues me?" If not, recognize that room for your existence is limited.
  - w1ntermute 11y ago
    If Travis Kalanick had followed that rule, we wouldn't have Uber today.
    - cookiecaper 11y ago
      Uber came out of the gate with war chests from investors. Real startups that have to make actual money usually don't have investors that'll throw tens of millions into legal fees. If your investors have indicated that they will bankroll the massive legal and regulatory issues that your company will provoke, and you believe them, then you can ignore that rule. If you're a normal person trying to start a business on your own, you shouldn't.
      - selestify 11y ago
        > Uber came out of the gate with war chests from investors How the hell did Uber manage to convince investors to fund them so before they showed success?
        cookiecaper 11y ago
        There's nothing really technically special about Uber so I doubt that investors were lured by the strength of the proposal or anything like that. The founder of StumbleUpon was a co-founder, so it was most likely through his connections + track record, but I don't actually know the details (someone else here might). I would guess that it's just an accident of luck that Uber became Uber -- right time, right place, and right connections. That's what it takes to get a business off the ground, especially a business that raised $1.5 million in funding before it was released (per Wikipedia's timeline).
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        tim333 11y ago
        Kalanick's previous company Red Swoosh sold for $19m. They were probably backing him as much as anything.
      - nostrademons 11y ago
        They didn't, though. They closed their Series A in Feb 2011. They got their first cease & desist in October 2010 [2], 4 days after closing angel financing. [3] IMHO, the key success factor for Uber is their ability to spin every setback into an advantage. So, the fact that they were sued for operating like a taxi cab company means that the taxi cab industry views them as a threat. They could then take this to investors and say "We're about to disrupt a $16B market. The market opportunity is there, and the lawsuit against us is proof of that. The product is there. People are choosing our product over the competition. We need your help to roll back protectionist legislation that is hurting consumers. Are you in?" And then many investors won't be, but they just keep trying new ones until they find folks who buy in. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/funding-rounds https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/funding-rounds [2] http://techcrunch.com/gallery/a-brief-history-of-uber/slide/11/ http://techcrunch.com/gallery/a-brief-history-of-uber/slide/... [3] http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/ubercab-closes-uber-angel-round/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/ubercab-closes-uber-angel-r...
  - api 11y ago
    So far I haven't personally seen this problem in the field. I know it exists to some extent but is it really that common? How many promising startups are killed by lawsuits?
- manachar 11y ago
  I think the "what would you pay to have solved?" question is why business-types are often better than technical-types. I meet very few technical-type hackers who aren't absolute cheapskates with any products and services that they can just clobber together with a shell script or two. Therefore it may be often more helpful to ask "What would my friends pay to have solved?"
  - api 11y ago
    Laziness is useful here. Lazy developers are among the most inventive, since invention generally involves wanting to automate something that you formerly had to do manually.
highCs 11y ago
How to get startup ideas: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
jhchen 11y ago
You are still very early in your career and very far away from realization of your regret. Find someone you want to work with or a problem you want to solve, ideally both. You can accelerate the process by working on interesting side projects with different people. When you do start a company, people will think it's shitty. But do not intentionally start one you think is shitty too.
beat 11y ago
I'm in that "I need to build this so it stops haunting my dreams" category. And I'm a lot older than you. After 20 years in the industry, I kept having the same problem over and over, at job after job. One night, I thought "Man, I wish there was a product for this, but no one makes it." The I thought, "Hey, I could make this! And lots of people have this problem, and it's a really expensive problem, so I could make money at it!" Three years, a lot of personal cost, false starts, finding co-founders, and other headaches later, and I'm finally getting to where this year, it should start making money. I can't even begin to describe what a difficult experience it's been. Someone once told me the only emotions founders experience are elation and terror. What they didn't tell me is that they are often at the same time, and often for the same reason, and sometimes are indistinguishable from one another. I'm a founder because I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't. Doesn't mean it's easy, or it's going well all the time. So that being said... if you want to be a founder, and you're a good software engineer (I'm assuming you're tech, that's why you're here), don't even bother coming up with an idea! Instead, go looking for experienced business people who have a real business idea and the knowledge to pull it off - except for the technical skill. Become their tech co-founder. Because there are so many of them, and so few of us, you can afford to be choosy. If it's someone who has successfully started businesses before, all the better! There are lots of really smart, driven, reliable business people out there with great ideas, but without the technical skill to implement. Find one, and make something great.
- mikepurvis 11y ago
  Matchmaking here seems like a challenge—you're dependent on already having a big network, with the right kinds of people in it. There are a lot of ways for it to go wrong, eg business competitions, hackathons, etc.
- bglazer 11y ago
  Hey, I just wanted to say that I checked out your company, and I think you have a very compelling product. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to buy it (junior engineer at a massive corp). Instead I just wanted to wish you luck!
  - 11y ago
gist 11y ago
"or keep the nice job and potentially regret never starting a company?" What's unfortunate is that that regret comes almost 100% from the fact that you spend your time at places like HN or Tech Blogs or business press that are brainwashing breeding grounds for having that type of regret. You feel that you would have regret because you think it's on the dartboard to achieve the type of (gambling I might say) success that you read and hear about. (As opposed to playing in the Super Bowl). Because while the founders are smart they don't seem smart in such a way that you think you couldn't achieve the same success if given the chance, right? But what you have to realize is that there are so many things that go into this oversized success that it's a complete crapshoot even with an idea that is good. Bottom line is if you are going to spend your time reading about something like this you will inevitably wrestle with that regret. Which is really unfortunate.
nedwin 11y ago
Similar age and situation but have started a couple of companies before. I spent some time thinking about ideas last week to keep the mind fresh. At first none of the ideas seemed worth anything, many "also rans". Then I started to think about all the things that are broken at my current company or which are frustrating and why. Within a few hours I had a dozen solid ideas that could be more broadly applied. If I wanted to start a company again at this stage (not ready for another couple of years at least) I would rank these ideas by ones I could start on the side at first, or which justified leaving my job. The ideas that could be started in my situation and met my passion + other factors I felt important would be the one I would actually work on. In the meantime I'm saving my pennies, learning as much as possible and having a blast.
michaelborromeo 11y ago
Part of finding great problems to solve is cultivating a sense of taste for a process/product/service/thing, so you can say, "[x] is a hack and could be done a lot better." To develop that sense of taste you have to go deep (usually) into the thing. Using the Henry Ford example, he went deep into engineering and gasoline powered engines. Maybe people did want faster horses, maybe the limitations of horse-based transportation was a huge problem of the day... Either way Ford was able to say: 1) Horses are a hack and transportation could be done better 2) Cars are the answer but current manufacturing practices are a hack and could be done better 3) Employer-employee relationships are a hack -- turnover is way too high and must be done better. Profit sharing and high wages for factory workers are the way.
- eru 11y ago
  By the way, Henry Ford was an avid cyclist ((and lots of other car pioneers were, too). So comparisons to bikes might be more appropriate than horses.
benten10 11y ago
I wanted to post this as a child to @gist's comment, but since there are a lot of comments similar to yours, I'll put it as your child. >"I've never encountered a problem big enough that would want me to do this and rather than start a company for the hell of it, I've just stayed put" Fuck[1] those who make you feel bad that way. It is RIDICULOUS that working reasonable hours a week, doing a challenging (or not), but stable job, great benefits, and being rewarded for loyalty is now LOOKED DOWN UPON! Your entire life is not a challenge to see who can push the hardest, 'solve' the most problems, start many companies, etcetera. You should do what makes you happy. Honestly. And if that means starting a company, go for it. If you're not so inclined, don't fret over it. I have realized that the problems will come to you if you look for them. Like, random ideas. For example, you will see in my comment history that I often suggest ridiculous business ideas as solutions to my problems/something I want. If you want something/aren't satisfied with some kind of stuff, maybe you should work on a solution, and try to sell it to people with problems you faced? You may not make a lot of money, or any profit, but might make yeah happy, and give you the satisfaction of having started something. In a related note, in one of my previous comments I mention JuJu Dhau, this awesome/incredible yogurt from Bhaktapur, Nepal. If you/anyone wants to start a yogurt business to make that (I'm assuming U.S), I'd be a sleeping/reasonably active partner for a little bit of money. Just throwing ideas out there... : ) 1. Does HN have a swearing policy? In either case, I mean in the figurative sense anyway.
- Mz 11y ago
  Does HN have a swearing policy? I don't think so. I think as long as you aren't cussing "at" someone, you are probably fine. Personal attacks are not okay. That is not what you are doing here.
  - downandout 11y ago
    A mod actually changed the title of a submission I made to include a swear word when I posted an asterisk-laden version of it [1]. So I think you are correct that there is not a swearing policy. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8897764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8897764
code4life 11y ago
When you decide to start a business, often times, you'll be doing lots of things you don't really want to be doing for that business. Like filing paperwork with the state or making sure your taxes are done on time. This stuff adds up and there is a lot of it. To start a business, you really have to enjoy the product you are building enough to cover the work you don't want to do and enough to no longer do some things you enjoy doing in your life, as you may no longer have time for it. Starting a real business is a challenge. I would suggest, if you do have an idea, try to build it. If you can build the idea, you might want to consider starting a business around it.
- semerda 11y ago
  Building a product is easy. Especially if you are an engineer. Getting people to pay for a product now that's where a business sprouts from. Just because you built a product doesn't mean you have a company/business. You need users and those willing to pay for it. Most realize this when it comes to raising Series A.
- danenania 11y ago
  Starting by building is a great way to waste a huge amount of time on solving a problem no one has. Start by talking to potential customers and growing an email list, not building. Aside from being less risky, it's way more fun to work on something that you know people want and are waiting for. It also conditions you for the fact that you'll need to spend at least 50% of your time on squishy marketing stuff to get anywhere. You can't just code your way to getting customers.
ankimal 11y ago
If you already regret not starting a company, then start one. Generally you would want to give this "experiment" a realistic timeline (ideally, multi years). Set goals on when you think this is or is not working, so that you can bail. This is very similar to making bets on the stock market, except that you are investing in yourself. Now, look at your worst case scenario (failed startup). Things you will MOST definitely learn: - How to start a company? - What does being your own boss mean? - Independent thinking - Make some new friends/contacts and meet other people. Things you will lose: - Time - Money - Balanced lifestyle, perhaps If you think, you, as a person, are the same or better, then you've won half the battle. You need to be sure that years down, knowing the worst case scenario you dont have a new set of regrets. Also, ideas are a dime-a-dozen, its all in the execution.
noir_lord 11y ago
Recently had an idea for a product that seems amazingly obvious (but I would have never had with different life circumstances), one of those "this has to exist" moments followed by "why the hell doesn't this exist what am I missing". Still not sure if it's an amazing idea missed because most people who start startups are in a particular demographic or I'm completely insane. I think I'm going to have to build this one to actually find out...
muzani 11y ago
The default best move is to join a young company. I never had the luxury of joining good companies so I started one. Given the choice, I'd join a good company any day. The odds of success (as in actually making more money than working full time) is about 20%. What I'd suggest is start working on side projects. Scripts that make something easier. A tool. Side projects like todo lists and note taking apps turn into billion dollar companies.
invalidOrTaken 11y ago
I'm 29, have no job, and have started five companies, all of which have failed. So, if it helps at all, when you feel the pangs of regret at not starting a company, you can think, "Hey! I'm doing OK. I mean, I'm doing better than that one smart guy on HN (everyone on HN is smart)." Grass is greener, etc.
- retbull 11y ago
  Why did you start your 5th company with all that experience with failure? Did you have something that you thought was special?
  - kasey_junk 11y ago
    5 failed companies is not an especially high number, in SV or the broader entrepreneur community.
  - hueving 11y ago
    He now knows 4 things not to do!
  - invalidOrTaken 11y ago
    If you got fired from four jobs in a row, would you give up working?
    - kazinator 11y ago
      If you got fired from four jobs in a row, it's probably because you already gave up working five jobs back.
8note 11y ago
you could start a consulting company
tim333 11y ago
>What is the right move in this scenario? It depends on the details but maybe stay till you see an opportunity that seems a no brainer? I probably helps if you have a job where you interact with customers - then you may meet some saying we really need an x and would be willing to pay but can't find anything. Then jump ship and build x. Slightly different but I know a couple of guys who were head of something at smallish companies and then when they were taken over / fell apart they spun off their own businesses. It's low risk because they know the market, have personal contacts with the customers and so on. Not very tech startup though - travel and marketing. But maybe try to get in to that sort of situation where you are effectively running a small business within a larger company.
semerda 11y ago
Do something in between. If you have a great job that pays well expand your network and start investing excess cash into startups really early on. This way you dip your toes into those waters and get to see all the dirt and help them clean it up. Along the way you might find an interesting opportunity/problem worth solving yourself that could turn into a future business. Look at this as "preparation". Far far better than following the herd coz it's the thing to do "to start a startup" and ending up with nothing after few failed attempts.
ArkyBeagle 11y ago
Build your brand; become a The Guy. It's less obsessive. In other words, truly master something, then write about it well, to where you have a reputation. That's far more than darn near anyone does and you don't have those long nights while your baby is in a potentially fatal fever.
d_welsman 11y ago
This really depends what is driving you to start your own business and what you are passionate about. Are you happy with a $2million revenue a year business, or do you want to be the next unicorn? You might find a large problem to solve, but is it some thing your are passionate about? Or perhaps you love selling antique nail clippers for example, which is probably a very small market, but you love doing it and supplementing your day job income. Find a problem, decide if you are passionate about solving it, can you make money from it or not, then build a solution.
tempestn 11y ago
I certainly don't think staying in a great job is a bad decision at all, but I did want to just mention something that your comment brought to mind. A lot of people appear to think that in order to start a (good) startup, you need to solve a problem that hasn't been solved before. I would argue that it's often much easier, and potentially just as lucrative, to solve a problem better than it has been solved before. Thinking of a really meaningful product that no one else makes is hard. But imagining how to do something that's already done, but do it better? That's much more do-able, and could still have a significant impact. So, I'm not pushing you to start a company at all. But if you do, don't limit yourself to "unsolved" problems!
- chii 11y ago
  to me, the compelling feature of solving a problme better than an existing company is that they already have a market tested and proven exists. finding a market is actually a non-trivial problem that often seems to be over looked!
apatters 11y ago
Why do you have to solve a big problem to start a company? People start companies that do run of the mill things all the time and there's nothing wrong with that. To a certain type of person, starting and growing a company is inherently more rewarding than working for someone else, regardless of whether the company is doing something sexy or novel. If you might be the type of person who enjoys autonomy, responsibility, owning/growing/managing something, wearing a lot of hats, and so on, you don't have to wait for a world-changing idea to go into business.

by gxs 11y ago

api 11y ago

Find a problem. What would you pay to have solved? Now out of that list, what do you have the skills and experience to address?

cookiecaper 11y ago
Don't forget to ask "Am I going to get to $50 million in revenues before a big company sues me?" If not, recognize that room for your existence is limited.
- w1ntermute 11y ago
  If Travis Kalanick had followed that rule, we wouldn't have Uber today.
  - cookiecaper 11y ago
    Uber came out of the gate with war chests from investors. Real startups that have to make actual money usually don't have investors that'll throw tens of millions into legal fees. If your investors have indicated that they will bankroll the massive legal and regulatory issues that your company will provoke, and you believe them, then you can ignore that rule. If you're a normal person trying to start a business on your own, you shouldn't.
    - selestify 11y ago
      > Uber came out of the gate with war chests from investors How the hell did Uber manage to convince investors to fund them so before they showed success?
      - cookiecaper 11y ago
        There's nothing really technically special about Uber so I doubt that investors were lured by the strength of the proposal or anything like that. The founder of StumbleUpon was a co-founder, so it was most likely through his connections + track record, but I don't actually know the details (someone else here might). I would guess that it's just an accident of luck that Uber became Uber -- right time, right place, and right connections. That's what it takes to get a business off the ground, especially a business that raised $1.5 million in funding before it was released (per Wikipedia's timeline).
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - tim333 11y ago
        Kalanick's previous company Red Swoosh sold for $19m. They were probably backing him as much as anything.
    - nostrademons 11y ago
      They didn't, though. They closed their Series A in Feb 2011. They got their first cease & desist in October 2010 [2], 4 days after closing angel financing. [3] IMHO, the key success factor for Uber is their ability to spin every setback into an advantage. So, the fact that they were sued for operating like a taxi cab company means that the taxi cab industry views them as a threat. They could then take this to investors and say "We're about to disrupt a $16B market. The market opportunity is there, and the lawsuit against us is proof of that. The product is there. People are choosing our product over the competition. We need your help to roll back protectionist legislation that is hurting consumers. Are you in?" And then many investors won't be, but they just keep trying new ones until they find folks who buy in. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/funding-rounds https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/funding-rounds [2] http://techcrunch.com/gallery/a-brief-history-of-uber/slide/11/ http://techcrunch.com/gallery/a-brief-history-of-uber/slide/... [3] http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/ubercab-closes-uber-angel-round/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/ubercab-closes-uber-angel-r...
- api 11y ago
  So far I haven't personally seen this problem in the field. I know it exists to some extent but is it really that common? How many promising startups are killed by lawsuits?
manachar 11y ago
I think the "what would you pay to have solved?" question is why business-types are often better than technical-types. I meet very few technical-type hackers who aren't absolute cheapskates with any products and services that they can just clobber together with a shell script or two. Therefore it may be often more helpful to ask "What would my friends pay to have solved?"
- api 11y ago
  Laziness is useful here. Lazy developers are among the most inventive, since invention generally involves wanting to automate something that you formerly had to do manually.

highCs 11y ago

How to get startup ideas: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

jhchen 11y ago

You are still very early in your career and very far away from realization of your regret. Find someone you want to work with or a problem you want to solve, ideally both. You can accelerate the process by working on interesting side projects with different people. When you do start a company, people will think it's shitty. But do not intentionally start one you think is shitty too.

beat 11y ago

I'm in that "I need to build this so it stops haunting my dreams" category. And I'm a lot older than you. After 20 years in the industry, I kept having the same problem over and over, at job after job. One night, I thought "Man, I wish there was a product for this, but no one makes it." The I thought, "Hey, I could make this! And lots of people have this problem, and it's a really expensive problem, so I could make money at it!" Three years, a lot of personal cost, false starts, finding co-founders, and other headaches later, and I'm finally getting to where this year, it should start making money. I can't even begin to describe what a difficult experience it's been. Someone once told me the only emotions founders experience are elation and terror. What they didn't tell me is that they are often at the same time, and often for the same reason, and sometimes are indistinguishable from one another. I'm a founder because I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't. Doesn't mean it's easy, or it's going well all the time. So that being said... if you want to be a founder, and you're a good software engineer (I'm assuming you're tech, that's why you're here), don't even bother coming up with an idea! Instead, go looking for experienced business people who have a real business idea and the knowledge to pull it off - except for the technical skill. Become their tech co-founder. Because there are so many of them, and so few of us, you can afford to be choosy. If it's someone who has successfully started businesses before, all the better! There are lots of really smart, driven, reliable business people out there with great ideas, but without the technical skill to implement. Find one, and make something great.

mikepurvis 11y ago
Matchmaking here seems like a challenge—you're dependent on already having a big network, with the right kinds of people in it. There are a lot of ways for it to go wrong, eg business competitions, hackathons, etc.
bglazer 11y ago
Hey, I just wanted to say that I checked out your company, and I think you have a very compelling product. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to buy it (junior engineer at a massive corp). Instead I just wanted to wish you luck!
- 11y ago

gist 11y ago

"or keep the nice job and potentially regret never starting a company?" What's unfortunate is that that regret comes almost 100% from the fact that you spend your time at places like HN or Tech Blogs or business press that are brainwashing breeding grounds for having that type of regret. You feel that you would have regret because you think it's on the dartboard to achieve the type of (gambling I might say) success that you read and hear about. (As opposed to playing in the Super Bowl). Because while the founders are smart they don't seem smart in such a way that you think you couldn't achieve the same success if given the chance, right? But what you have to realize is that there are so many things that go into this oversized success that it's a complete crapshoot even with an idea that is good. Bottom line is if you are going to spend your time reading about something like this you will inevitably wrestle with that regret. Which is really unfortunate.

nedwin 11y ago

Similar age and situation but have started a couple of companies before. I spent some time thinking about ideas last week to keep the mind fresh. At first none of the ideas seemed worth anything, many "also rans". Then I started to think about all the things that are broken at my current company or which are frustrating and why. Within a few hours I had a dozen solid ideas that could be more broadly applied. If I wanted to start a company again at this stage (not ready for another couple of years at least) I would rank these ideas by ones I could start on the side at first, or which justified leaving my job. The ideas that could be started in my situation and met my passion + other factors I felt important would be the one I would actually work on. In the meantime I'm saving my pennies, learning as much as possible and having a blast.

michaelborromeo 11y ago

Part of finding great problems to solve is cultivating a sense of taste for a process/product/service/thing, so you can say, "[x] is a hack and could be done a lot better." To develop that sense of taste you have to go deep (usually) into the thing. Using the Henry Ford example, he went deep into engineering and gasoline powered engines. Maybe people did want faster horses, maybe the limitations of horse-based transportation was a huge problem of the day... Either way Ford was able to say: 1) Horses are a hack and transportation could be done better 2) Cars are the answer but current manufacturing practices are a hack and could be done better 3) Employer-employee relationships are a hack -- turnover is way too high and must be done better. Profit sharing and high wages for factory workers are the way.

eru 11y ago
By the way, Henry Ford was an avid cyclist ((and lots of other car pioneers were, too). So comparisons to bikes might be more appropriate than horses.

benten10 11y ago

I wanted to post this as a child to @gist's comment, but since there are a lot of comments similar to yours, I'll put it as your child. >"I've never encountered a problem big enough that would want me to do this and rather than start a company for the hell of it, I've just stayed put" Fuck[1] those who make you feel bad that way. It is RIDICULOUS that working reasonable hours a week, doing a challenging (or not), but stable job, great benefits, and being rewarded for loyalty is now LOOKED DOWN UPON! Your entire life is not a challenge to see who can push the hardest, 'solve' the most problems, start many companies, etcetera. You should do what makes you happy. Honestly. And if that means starting a company, go for it. If you're not so inclined, don't fret over it. I have realized that the problems will come to you if you look for them. Like, random ideas. For example, you will see in my comment history that I often suggest ridiculous business ideas as solutions to my problems/something I want. If you want something/aren't satisfied with some kind of stuff, maybe you should work on a solution, and try to sell it to people with problems you faced? You may not make a lot of money, or any profit, but might make yeah happy, and give you the satisfaction of having started something. In a related note, in one of my previous comments I mention JuJu Dhau, this awesome/incredible yogurt from Bhaktapur, Nepal. If you/anyone wants to start a yogurt business to make that (I'm assuming U.S), I'd be a sleeping/reasonably active partner for a little bit of money. Just throwing ideas out there... : ) 1. Does HN have a swearing policy? In either case, I mean in the figurative sense anyway.

Mz 11y ago
Does HN have a swearing policy? I don't think so. I think as long as you aren't cussing "at" someone, you are probably fine. Personal attacks are not okay. That is not what you are doing here.
- downandout 11y ago
  A mod actually changed the title of a submission I made to include a swear word when I posted an asterisk-laden version of it [1]. So I think you are correct that there is not a swearing policy. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8897764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8897764

code4life 11y ago

When you decide to start a business, often times, you'll be doing lots of things you don't really want to be doing for that business. Like filing paperwork with the state or making sure your taxes are done on time. This stuff adds up and there is a lot of it. To start a business, you really have to enjoy the product you are building enough to cover the work you don't want to do and enough to no longer do some things you enjoy doing in your life, as you may no longer have time for it. Starting a real business is a challenge. I would suggest, if you do have an idea, try to build it. If you can build the idea, you might want to consider starting a business around it.

semerda 11y ago
Building a product is easy. Especially if you are an engineer. Getting people to pay for a product now that's where a business sprouts from. Just because you built a product doesn't mean you have a company/business. You need users and those willing to pay for it. Most realize this when it comes to raising Series A.
danenania 11y ago
Starting by building is a great way to waste a huge amount of time on solving a problem no one has. Start by talking to potential customers and growing an email list, not building. Aside from being less risky, it's way more fun to work on something that you know people want and are waiting for. It also conditions you for the fact that you'll need to spend at least 50% of your time on squishy marketing stuff to get anywhere. You can't just code your way to getting customers.

ankimal 11y ago

If you already regret not starting a company, then start one. Generally you would want to give this "experiment" a realistic timeline (ideally, multi years). Set goals on when you think this is or is not working, so that you can bail. This is very similar to making bets on the stock market, except that you are investing in yourself. Now, look at your worst case scenario (failed startup). Things you will MOST definitely learn: - How to start a company? - What does being your own boss mean? - Independent thinking - Make some new friends/contacts and meet other people. Things you will lose: - Time - Money - Balanced lifestyle, perhaps If you think, you, as a person, are the same or better, then you've won half the battle. You need to be sure that years down, knowing the worst case scenario you dont have a new set of regrets. Also, ideas are a dime-a-dozen, its all in the execution.

noir_lord 11y ago

Recently had an idea for a product that seems amazingly obvious (but I would have never had with different life circumstances), one of those "this has to exist" moments followed by "why the hell doesn't this exist what am I missing". Still not sure if it's an amazing idea missed because most people who start startups are in a particular demographic or I'm completely insane. I think I'm going to have to build this one to actually find out...

muzani 11y ago

The default best move is to join a young company. I never had the luxury of joining good companies so I started one. Given the choice, I'd join a good company any day. The odds of success (as in actually making more money than working full time) is about 20%. What I'd suggest is start working on side projects. Scripts that make something easier. A tool. Side projects like todo lists and note taking apps turn into billion dollar companies.

invalidOrTaken 11y ago

I'm 29, have no job, and have started five companies, all of which have failed. So, if it helps at all, when you feel the pangs of regret at not starting a company, you can think, "Hey! I'm doing OK. I mean, I'm doing better than that one smart guy on HN (everyone on HN is smart)." Grass is greener, etc.

retbull 11y ago
Why did you start your 5th company with all that experience with failure? Did you have something that you thought was special?
- kasey_junk 11y ago
  5 failed companies is not an especially high number, in SV or the broader entrepreneur community.
- hueving 11y ago
  He now knows 4 things not to do!
- invalidOrTaken 11y ago
  If you got fired from four jobs in a row, would you give up working?
  - kazinator 11y ago
    If you got fired from four jobs in a row, it's probably because you already gave up working five jobs back.

8note 11y ago

you could start a consulting company

tim333 11y ago

>What is the right move in this scenario? It depends on the details but maybe stay till you see an opportunity that seems a no brainer? I probably helps if you have a job where you interact with customers - then you may meet some saying we really need an x and would be willing to pay but can't find anything. Then jump ship and build x. Slightly different but I know a couple of guys who were head of something at smallish companies and then when they were taken over / fell apart they spun off their own businesses. It's low risk because they know the market, have personal contacts with the customers and so on. Not very tech startup though - travel and marketing. But maybe try to get in to that sort of situation where you are effectively running a small business within a larger company.

semerda 11y ago

Do something in between. If you have a great job that pays well expand your network and start investing excess cash into startups really early on. This way you dip your toes into those waters and get to see all the dirt and help them clean it up. Along the way you might find an interesting opportunity/problem worth solving yourself that could turn into a future business. Look at this as "preparation". Far far better than following the herd coz it's the thing to do "to start a startup" and ending up with nothing after few failed attempts.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago

Build your brand; become a The Guy. It's less obsessive. In other words, truly master something, then write about it well, to where you have a reputation. That's far more than darn near anyone does and you don't have those long nights while your baby is in a potentially fatal fever.

d_welsman 11y ago

This really depends what is driving you to start your own business and what you are passionate about. Are you happy with a $2million revenue a year business, or do you want to be the next unicorn? You might find a large problem to solve, but is it some thing your are passionate about? Or perhaps you love selling antique nail clippers for example, which is probably a very small market, but you love doing it and supplementing your day job income. Find a problem, decide if you are passionate about solving it, can you make money from it or not, then build a solution.

tempestn 11y ago

I certainly don't think staying in a great job is a bad decision at all, but I did want to just mention something that your comment brought to mind. A lot of people appear to think that in order to start a (good) startup, you need to solve a problem that hasn't been solved before. I would argue that it's often much easier, and potentially just as lucrative, to solve a problem better than it has been solved before. Thinking of a really meaningful product that no one else makes is hard. But imagining how to do something that's already done, but do it better? That's much more do-able, and could still have a significant impact. So, I'm not pushing you to start a company at all. But if you do, don't limit yourself to "unsolved" problems!

chii 11y ago
to me, the compelling feature of solving a problme better than an existing company is that they already have a market tested and proven exists. finding a market is actually a non-trivial problem that often seems to be over looked!

apatters 11y ago

Why do you have to solve a big problem to start a company? People start companies that do run of the mill things all the time and there's nothing wrong with that. To a certain type of person, starting and growing a company is inherently more rewarding than working for someone else, regardless of whether the company is doing something sexy or novel. If you might be the type of person who enjoys autonomy, responsibility, owning/growing/managing something, wearing a lot of hats, and so on, you don't have to wait for a world-changing idea to go into business.