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I have two products I want to build (one more than the other) but I'm raising the capital (which is pretty small, mostly it's time I need) needed to do the init

I have two products I want to build (one more than the other) but I'm raising the capital (which is pretty small, mostly it's time I need) needed to do the initial development by running a small dev-shop with my business partner, client work pays the bills and leaves enough free time to work on the product, it'll take longer to build and there is a slight risk of someone building something similar (though I've not seen anything remotely like it yet which means a) good idea b) it's a terrible idea). I've no interest in the "startup" model, We work out of a very cheap office in a council (local gov) building and we run cheap!, total business costs (inc rent, internet and phone) run around £450 a month for both businesses (the dev shop and business partners design business), We have a local startup hub that would cost that for a couple of hotdesks, it's crazy.

tome 10y ago
> We work out of a very cheap office in a council How did you arrange that?
- noir_lord 10y ago
  That should have been council owned building, typing on a phone is still painful. Lots of councils here in the UK own office buildings and rent them out, We get two big rooms as a single office for ~340 a month which includes 24/7 access everything but phone/internet basically. You can see the size of my side http://imgur.com/a/H7fxb http://imgur.com/a/H7fxb in the bottom image, that desk is 8ft long, the other side is even bigger (maybe 60% bigger) but I didn't want it because it's too bright.
  - tome 10y ago
    Very nice! I'm not sure whether I'm surprised that the council has offices that are so much cheaper than privately available. Would you mind saying which council this is?
    - noir_lord 10y ago
      Not at all, Hull City Council. They are managed by the NPS group one of those, privatise the public sector deals. Though out building lease was just taken over by a non-profit setup to help younger people get started in business, so far they've been amazing at getting an old building up to spec :). Hull is a bit of a basket case economically but its on the up and would be a good place to run a startup if you want cheap good offices and insane broadband, I have 250Mbps at home!
cookiecaper 10y ago
Startups aren't very appealing to rationalists, but at some point, you have to ask yourself "Someone is going to let me spend 2 million of their dollars on building something cool, do I really want to let that opportunity go?" Especially when you consider the kind of clowns that get funding out in California. Not everyone is in a position to accept such a proposition, but with a reasonable amount of perspective and emotional distance, it can be a really good thing for some people.
- noir_lord 10y ago
  I can see the logic if you need to scale fast to win but for many things I think that isn't necessary, frankly I like the 'lifestyle' business approach more even though a lot of people seem to sneer at it. I'd be happy with something that makes a comfortable living and crucially genuinely helps people, I'd consider that a success and its better than playing the unicorn lottery, plus in the UK the SV attitude of throwing money at everything simply doesn't exist anyway.

tome 10y ago

> We work out of a very cheap office in a council How did you arrange that?

noir_lord 10y ago
That should have been council owned building, typing on a phone is still painful. Lots of councils here in the UK own office buildings and rent them out, We get two big rooms as a single office for ~340 a month which includes 24/7 access everything but phone/internet basically. You can see the size of my side http://imgur.com/a/H7fxb http://imgur.com/a/H7fxb in the bottom image, that desk is 8ft long, the other side is even bigger (maybe 60% bigger) but I didn't want it because it's too bright.
- tome 10y ago
  Very nice! I'm not sure whether I'm surprised that the council has offices that are so much cheaper than privately available. Would you mind saying which council this is?
  - noir_lord 10y ago
    Not at all, Hull City Council. They are managed by the NPS group one of those, privatise the public sector deals. Though out building lease was just taken over by a non-profit setup to help younger people get started in business, so far they've been amazing at getting an old building up to spec :). Hull is a bit of a basket case economically but its on the up and would be a good place to run a startup if you want cheap good offices and insane broadband, I have 250Mbps at home!

cookiecaper 10y ago

Startups aren't very appealing to rationalists, but at some point, you have to ask yourself "Someone is going to let me spend 2 million of their dollars on building something cool, do I really want to let that opportunity go?" Especially when you consider the kind of clowns that get funding out in California. Not everyone is in a position to accept such a proposition, but with a reasonable amount of perspective and emotional distance, it can be a really good thing for some people.

noir_lord 10y ago
I can see the logic if you need to scale fast to win but for many things I think that isn't necessary, frankly I like the 'lifestyle' business approach more even though a lot of people seem to sneer at it. I'd be happy with something that makes a comfortable living and crucially genuinely helps people, I'd consider that a success and its better than playing the unicorn lottery, plus in the UK the SV attitude of throwing money at everything simply doesn't exist anyway.