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Ask HN: Quit after burning +$120,000?
Last January I founded a startup to commercialize a technology I invented, which solves foundational problems in one of the world's most valuable industries. After six months pursuing my original vision, I discovered an exponentially better solution and made a hard pivot.
I believe this new version of the technology could make the industry's incumbents obsolete virtually overnight. In the hands of a competent executive, the company to bring the technology to market (and to own the underlying patents) could grow into one of the most valuable corporations in the world.
But maybe I'm not that guy. I've burned through +$120,000 of seed capital (from myself and people close to me), and still don't have a polished demo. I've lost all credibility with the brilliant engineer I recruited, since for half a year I've been promising a whitepaper I can't make myself finish because I have such bad anxiety.
The worse I perform as CEO, the more I feel like an impostor, and the harder it is to break the cycle. I could walk away and earn enough money in my old career to pay back my investors (for moral reasons), but I'd hate myself for giving up. How do I go about righting the ship?
- alexnewman 8y agoGet a dayjob, keep pushing the idea forward, don't bother paying anyone back
- LostFounder 8y agoThanks for the feedback. I've done some work on the side recently to help with cash flow. The problem is that if I have work I can do to earn money that doesn't make me feel anxious, it's even harder to motivate myself to focus on the thing that makes me feel like a failure/impostor, even if I objectively believe that the risk-adjusted value of doing the latter work is orders of magnitude higher.
- alexnewman 8y agoIts good that you feel like a failure or imposter. You probably aren't but it's fine to feel that way. Love your people,stay focused and take care of yourself.
- cl42 8y agoYour friends, family, etc. who funded you initially did so because they care about you and are excited for you to try this. Unless you specifically committed to paying them back, you really need not do this. They might even be better off if you were to take any funds you have left over to commercialize what you are trying to do. Many technical experts are not great CEOs -- they can be perfectionists, or get anxious when dealing with people, or there are unlimited other reasons. You might want to seek out a business partner (or mentor, or advisor) who might help you on the business side.
- LostFounder 8y agoI think that input from someone else with more experience in the startup and VC world would be invaluable, but I'm not sure how to build the relationship or connections that would be needed. The ones I have right now are with people whose VC firms I'd like to raise money from in the future, so I can't really tap those for help getting out of a rut. I spent $4,000 to get executive coaching, and initially felt much better from not being isolated working on these challenges alone. But it ended up being more hand-wavey than practical. If you have any suggestions for connecting with the right people, I'd be quite grateful. Thanks for taking the time to offer feedback.
- cl42 8y agoI encourage you to share your concerns with the potential VCs or investors. My favorite investors (and the ones I ended up working with for a long time) are ones who were comfortable helping me, saw where my strengths/weaknesses were, and still wanted to work with me. If an investor (seed, angel, VC, etc.) doesn't want to help you get out of a rut, then you probably don't want to take their money later. You'll end up in a world of hurt. If that doesn't make you more comfortable, if you're willing to share more info on your idea + your location, I might be able to provide some limited advice. Note that I likely don't have any subject matter expertise related to your specific business idea, though.
- LostFounder 8y agoThose would be some pretty special investors to find! Quite different from my experiences to date, which underscores that things aren't going right. I'd love to share more. Would you mind shooting an email to lostfounder@mail.com?
- pdm55 8y agoI walked away from the university research world. I think about the projects I left behind nearly every day. My key project took 5 years and I felt that everything had happened too slowly to be worthwhile. How wrong I was: I finally had the work published in 2017 after it had sat in a drawer for 17 years. But now I am too long away from the research community to attract grants. The best thing I could have done at the crisis point would have been to have gotten help from others in the field. My advice is, "Don't quit. Ask for help."
- LostFounder 8y agoWow. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I'm only around six months behind the point when I feel I should have been able to publish a draft, so hearing about a 17-year delay puts things in perspective.
- brador 8y agoTruth is that draft could be finished in a day or two. Your real problem is the anxiety. Learn meditation, 10 minutes of deep breathing when you wake. Just you, sit on the floor and breath deep. 10 minutes.