3 ms·

Tips for building startups in Baltimore or anywhere

51 points by ascertain 11y ago

moron4hire 11y ago
Throughout the talk, the two YC staffers returned to the mantra of staying focused on building your company. Rather than thinking that a program like YC will be the ticket to success, Caldwell said the key is to start within. “If you want to start a company, the best way to be successful is to just start a company,” he said. Caldwell said companies at YC spend time focusing on what’s important, and avoiding the trap of doing things that are tangential to building a startup. Must be nice to have all that spare cash lying around to just focus on your company without an accelerator helping you avoid pitfalls. I get the point of what they are trying to say. There are a lot of people who get an idea and then they think they need to be in an accelerator right away without having put any effort into the idea yet. But I think there are a lot of us out here who aren't like that. And for us, none of this is actionable advice. This is all the sort of sound-bites that make sense after you've built a company, but to try to synthesize what to do based off of this is very-difficult-to-impossible. Ship: ok, release early, release often. Until you've had some experience releasing projects and getting feedback on them (assuming they don't get ignored completely), then you won't know what the cutoff point should be. There is definitely a "too early", if things don't work right or only work for a small proportion (i.e. less than 95%) of people. Grow: if people knew how to do that on their own, I don't think they'd be looking for an accelerator. That's the entire point. B2B: I really don't get the point of this paragraph at all. It sounds kind of patronizing, actually. "Look at you little East Coasters, you're so cute. Yeah, you can startup. You can do it, buddy!" I'm at a point in my project where I could continue to bootstrap as I'm doing and watch as my competitors pass me by because they got funding somewhere, somehow, even though they've started behind me, and now don't have to worry about maintaining a day job, so they can focus 100% on their company. Or I can find investors who don't just slough me off with "you need focus, Daniel San" and maybe make a run of it, especially if with that money I could hire an expert in marketing and sales, because dammit Jim, I'm an engineer, not the second coming of Leonardo Da Vinci.
j0rd 11y ago
Best advice ive heard from business leaders in baltimore is here: http://www.insightsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/7.png http://www.insightsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/7.p...
pmorici 11y ago
Baltimore's low low cost of living and vibrant art and food scenes are major advantages.
- lambdaphagy 11y ago
  Of course there's a reason for the low cost of living, namely that few other people want to live here. Few other people want to live here because it's one of the most dangerous cities in the world per capita. Number 19 this year, in fact. You might think that as a startup founder in a line of work other than pharmaceutical sales, you'd be insulated from this kind of violence. That's mostly correct, but not entirely, and the difference isn't negligible. More than half of my family, for example, has been victimized in some way, often repeatedly. Even if nothing happens to you--and I hope nothing ever does--you find yourself thinking about risk and public space in a way that is barely intelligible to outsiders. As a lifelong resident of Baltimore who is leaving at the first opportunity, I would strongly advise against moving in. Anyone so tempted should take a careful look at the fundamentals.
  - pmorici 11y ago
    I've lived in Baltimore for a decade and I like it more every year. It's really quite fantastic. There is crime in every city.
    - lambdaphagy 11y ago
      Sure, often an order of magnitude less. After years of mugging attempts, beatings outside my apartment and random murders in seemingly safe neighborhoods, I think I can live with a slightly less vibrant art scene. I hope things work out for you--just remember to keep an eye out.
yeukhon 11y ago
The advice applies to every business, startup or not, in Baltmore or not.

51 points by ascertain 11y ago

Throughout the talk, the two YC staffers returned to the mantra of staying focused on building your company. Rather than thinking that a program like YC will be the ticket to success, Caldwell said the key is to start within. “If you want to start a company, the best way to be successful is to just start a company,” he said. Caldwell said companies at YC spend time focusing on what’s important, and avoiding the trap of doing things that are tangential to building a startup. Must be nice to have all that spare cash lying around to just focus on your company without an accelerator helping you avoid pitfalls. I get the point of what they are trying to say. There are a lot of people who get an idea and then they think they need to be in an accelerator right away without having put any effort into the idea yet. But I think there are a lot of us out here who aren't like that. And for us, none of this is actionable advice. This is all the sort of sound-bites that make sense after you've built a company, but to try to synthesize what to do based off of this is very-difficult-to-impossible. Ship: ok, release early, release often. Until you've had some experience releasing projects and getting feedback on them (assuming they don't get ignored completely), then you won't know what the cutoff point should be. There is definitely a "too early", if things don't work right or only work for a small proportion (i.e. less than 95%) of people. Grow: if people knew how to do that on their own, I don't think they'd be looking for an accelerator. That's the entire point. B2B: I really don't get the point of this paragraph at all. It sounds kind of patronizing, actually. "Look at you little East Coasters, you're so cute. Yeah, you can startup. You can do it, buddy!" I'm at a point in my project where I could continue to bootstrap as I'm doing and watch as my competitors pass me by because they got funding somewhere, somehow, even though they've started behind me, and now don't have to worry about maintaining a day job, so they can focus 100% on their company. Or I can find investors who don't just slough me off with "you need focus, Daniel San" and maybe make a run of it, especially if with that money I could hire an expert in marketing and sales, because dammit Jim, I'm an engineer, not the second coming of Leonardo Da Vinci.

j0rd 11y ago

Best advice ive heard from business leaders in baltimore is here: http://www.insightsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/7.png http://www.insightsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/7.p...

pmorici 11y ago

Baltimore's low low cost of living and vibrant art and food scenes are major advantages.

lambdaphagy 11y ago
Of course there's a reason for the low cost of living, namely that few other people want to live here. Few other people want to live here because it's one of the most dangerous cities in the world per capita. Number 19 this year, in fact. You might think that as a startup founder in a line of work other than pharmaceutical sales, you'd be insulated from this kind of violence. That's mostly correct, but not entirely, and the difference isn't negligible. More than half of my family, for example, has been victimized in some way, often repeatedly. Even if nothing happens to you--and I hope nothing ever does--you find yourself thinking about risk and public space in a way that is barely intelligible to outsiders. As a lifelong resident of Baltimore who is leaving at the first opportunity, I would strongly advise against moving in. Anyone so tempted should take a careful look at the fundamentals.
- pmorici 11y ago
  I've lived in Baltimore for a decade and I like it more every year. It's really quite fantastic. There is crime in every city.
  - lambdaphagy 11y ago
    Sure, often an order of magnitude less. After years of mugging attempts, beatings outside my apartment and random murders in seemingly safe neighborhoods, I think I can live with a slightly less vibrant art scene. I hope things work out for you--just remember to keep an eye out.

yeukhon 11y ago

The advice applies to every business, startup or not, in Baltmore or not.