6 ms·

Bootstrapping a Start-Up in Silicon Valley

34 points by donohoe 16y ago

marze 16y ago
With the present army of unemployed workers out there, why aren't more people getting together and investing sweat equity to create something of value? The opportunity cost is practically zero for a lot of folks. "Q. What do your V.C.-funded friends think of what you’re doing? Ms. Charnock: They alternate between envy, awe, disbelief, and thinking that I am totally crazy."
rywang 16y ago
"For the first year and a half, none of our 13 employees received a paycheck." How did she find / convince 13 people willing to work off of sweat equity?
- mattmillr 16y ago
  13 into 100% (even if a few get a little bit bigger cut) is a whole lot more equity than you'd get out of the typical post-VC employee equity pool.
- skmurphy 16y ago
  probably a combination of: compelling vision / compelling problem prior shared success with her on other projects many were probably part time strong people skills
gcheong 16y ago
"Still, we do have a hard time finding experienced managers here in Silicon Valley. Most of our managers are homegrown, and we’ve had to teach them to be managers." Is this such a bad thing? Is it not generally better to have your managers come up through the ranks and create the corporate culture from the inside rather than bring in outsiders to impose one?
- alxp 16y ago
  It sounds like they are happy with the results they get but they're aware that it takes a lot of work; you can't just promote someone and expect them to know what they're doing right away. That they gave up on hiring people they don't know who have the word 'manager' plastered on their resume tells me they're a lot wiser than most other firms.
bosch 16y ago
Props to her for being a female entrepreneur AND bootstrapping in SV. However, one advantage she had over most people was she had already been a CEO of a VC backed company and learned a lot from that. I'm pretty sure what she learned in that experience proved invaluable in her second company.

34 points by donohoe 16y ago

marze 16y ago

With the present army of unemployed workers out there, why aren't more people getting together and investing sweat equity to create something of value? The opportunity cost is practically zero for a lot of folks. "Q. What do your V.C.-funded friends think of what you’re doing? Ms. Charnock: They alternate between envy, awe, disbelief, and thinking that I am totally crazy."

rywang 16y ago

"For the first year and a half, none of our 13 employees received a paycheck." How did she find / convince 13 people willing to work off of sweat equity?

mattmillr 16y ago
13 into 100% (even if a few get a little bit bigger cut) is a whole lot more equity than you'd get out of the typical post-VC employee equity pool.
skmurphy 16y ago
probably a combination of: compelling vision / compelling problem prior shared success with her on other projects many were probably part time strong people skills

gcheong 16y ago

"Still, we do have a hard time finding experienced managers here in Silicon Valley. Most of our managers are homegrown, and we’ve had to teach them to be managers." Is this such a bad thing? Is it not generally better to have your managers come up through the ranks and create the corporate culture from the inside rather than bring in outsiders to impose one?

alxp 16y ago
It sounds like they are happy with the results they get but they're aware that it takes a lot of work; you can't just promote someone and expect them to know what they're doing right away. That they gave up on hiring people they don't know who have the word 'manager' plastered on their resume tells me they're a lot wiser than most other firms.

bosch 16y ago

Props to her for being a female entrepreneur AND bootstrapping in SV. However, one advantage she had over most people was she had already been a CEO of a VC backed company and learned a lot from that. I'm pretty sure what she learned in that experience proved invaluable in her second company.