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Let the [work] begin. FTFY I hope you're prepared to work at least five times harder than you did at your safe job, and for little to no guaranteed reward. Act

by jeromec 16y ago

Let the [work] begin. FTFY I hope you're prepared to work at least five times harder than you did at your safe job, and for little to no guaranteed reward. Actually, if you're only giving yourself six months, make that ten times harder. I would say good luck, but considering around 90% of startups fail, work hard, be persistent and expect difficulty, seems more helpful to say. The success stories appearing on HN can give a skewed impression on how hard it is to succeed. Congratulations, though, for bucking a potential path of regrets. Edit: A bit more advice is release early, and often. The trick is finding the balance between minimum viability and having enough value for traction. Iterating on an idea is almost always necessary, so be on the lookout for how that can help and possibly even save your endeavor. A six month deadline to succeed means you're really going to be up against it.

rewind 16y ago
The comments and/or advice you're giving (and the tone you're using) are the type of things you say to someone before they decide to make the jump if you want them to think long and hard before making a tough decision. When you say it like this to someone who is announcing that his decision is made, you just sound condescending. It doesn't help that you throw in a bunch of advice when you don't even know who he is, what his company/product is about, or what his plan is.
- jeromec 16y ago
  I don't mean to sound condescending. I can't help the timing of the decision, either. I'm also guessing he's read HN enough to have more than my comments to weigh for various perceptions of a startup. To my knowledge the failure rate of startups is around 90% (not my doing). In light of that, I felt the best thing I could do if I wanted to truly help, which I do, is try and foster a tough, ready for battle mental mindset. His announcement seemed a bit cheery and optimistic, and I wanted to suggest that, realistically, the road to startup success is not usually a cakewalk. HN is largely a startup community, so I figured others might find value in my comments as well, and if such comments harm his enthusiasm, and are more destructive than constructive then, IMO, he's quite likely to end up in the 90%.
- c2 16y ago
  There's nothing wrong with a bit of honesty. You need to be mentality prepared for the difficulties inherent in starting a business all by yourself. It is a different set of challenges then corporate life and the more you understand that ahead of time the better off you'll be. I appreciate advice like that over a superfluous "good luck", "you made the right choice"< etc.
toast76 16y ago
Wow. The Thanksgiving parade was last week Mr. Raincloud. Here's some positive thoughts for you! - Running your own business is quite simply the most rewarding thing you can ever do (professionally at least). - Succeed or fail, you'll come out of it better off than you started. - Don't measure your success by whether TechCrunch writes about you. Measure it by being proud of what you achieve. - Even your biggest failures are at worst just one learning step to your first success. - If nobody has heard of you in 10 years time, but you're happy, enjoying your work, have a happy and healthy family and you're still your own boss...then you've succeeded. Congratulations. Most importantly - Ignore "minimum viability", "traction", "iteration", "deadline" and all the other things a dozen different "5 steps to success" books might tell you.... if you have the confidence to go it alone, then do what works for you, YOUR product and YOUR dream.
- roel_v 16y ago
  "Succeed or fail, you'll come out of it better off than you started." About half of the comments I read so far have said something to this effect so far, there's only so much a man can take before he needs to speak up ;) : this is bullshit. I know many (as in, 10+) people who started a company and got utterly fucked for the next decade, maybe two, because of its failure; and all they have to show for it is a period on their CV that they have to make excuses for at any interview they go to. Sometimes, failing can bring you valuable experiences that you can apply afterward, and only if you go into a specific direction as an employee after your business has failed. This hippy bullshit 'all is great, even if your wife leaves you, you're 100k in debt and you've spend the best decade of your life not even in an office but in a spare bedroom hunched over a desk made of an old door' needs to go and be replaced with realism: spending 5 to 10 years in abject poverty, rebuilding a life at an age where most of your peers are living a happy life with their families sucks. The potential upside is huge, and yes if you just manage to sustain your company you've been successful, but don't make it sound like it's going to be great no matter what the outcome, because it's not.
  - scorpioxy 16y ago
    Part of being an entrepreneur is knowing when to change directions or abandon an idea all together. Spending a decade on an idea that is not working and won't possibly work is not all that smart. This type of life is definitely not for everybody. The fact that you know people who have failed also doesn't mean anything. I know a lot of people who haven't even tried and that, to me, is a lot worse.
jasonkester 16y ago
This is what everybody says, but I just haven't found it to be true. I work 40 hour weeks sometimes, 20 hour weeks other times, and often go entire months not doing much at all on the startup. The ball is always moving forward though, and things are always getting better. It really doesn't take a huge amount of effort to get your first version out the door. And it doesn't take much effort beyond that to get to the point where money is coming in. Once that happens, there's no particular reason I can think of to work 60 hour weeks, unless that is something you want to do. Naturally, it depends on what you're building. If you're a single founder though, it pays to build something straightforward that solves problems for people with money. There's lots of things like that that need building. Build one and you'll (hopefully) find it doesn't monopolize your life.
- jeromec 16y ago
  I certainly agree that's possible, but not everyone finds the road rosy. See here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1961429 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1961429. Better to overestimate the difficulty and be pleasantly surprised than vice versa IMO (especially in the context of a 6 month deadline).

by jeromec 16y ago

rewind 16y ago

The comments and/or advice you're giving (and the tone you're using) are the type of things you say to someone before they decide to make the jump if you want them to think long and hard before making a tough decision. When you say it like this to someone who is announcing that his decision is made, you just sound condescending. It doesn't help that you throw in a bunch of advice when you don't even know who he is, what his company/product is about, or what his plan is.

jeromec 16y ago
I don't mean to sound condescending. I can't help the timing of the decision, either. I'm also guessing he's read HN enough to have more than my comments to weigh for various perceptions of a startup. To my knowledge the failure rate of startups is around 90% (not my doing). In light of that, I felt the best thing I could do if I wanted to truly help, which I do, is try and foster a tough, ready for battle mental mindset. His announcement seemed a bit cheery and optimistic, and I wanted to suggest that, realistically, the road to startup success is not usually a cakewalk. HN is largely a startup community, so I figured others might find value in my comments as well, and if such comments harm his enthusiasm, and are more destructive than constructive then, IMO, he's quite likely to end up in the 90%.
c2 16y ago
There's nothing wrong with a bit of honesty. You need to be mentality prepared for the difficulties inherent in starting a business all by yourself. It is a different set of challenges then corporate life and the more you understand that ahead of time the better off you'll be. I appreciate advice like that over a superfluous "good luck", "you made the right choice"< etc.

toast76 16y ago

Wow. The Thanksgiving parade was last week Mr. Raincloud. Here's some positive thoughts for you! - Running your own business is quite simply the most rewarding thing you can ever do (professionally at least). - Succeed or fail, you'll come out of it better off than you started. - Don't measure your success by whether TechCrunch writes about you. Measure it by being proud of what you achieve. - Even your biggest failures are at worst just one learning step to your first success. - If nobody has heard of you in 10 years time, but you're happy, enjoying your work, have a happy and healthy family and you're still your own boss...then you've succeeded. Congratulations. Most importantly - Ignore "minimum viability", "traction", "iteration", "deadline" and all the other things a dozen different "5 steps to success" books might tell you.... if you have the confidence to go it alone, then do what works for you, YOUR product and YOUR dream.

roel_v 16y ago
"Succeed or fail, you'll come out of it better off than you started." About half of the comments I read so far have said something to this effect so far, there's only so much a man can take before he needs to speak up ;) : this is bullshit. I know many (as in, 10+) people who started a company and got utterly fucked for the next decade, maybe two, because of its failure; and all they have to show for it is a period on their CV that they have to make excuses for at any interview they go to. Sometimes, failing can bring you valuable experiences that you can apply afterward, and only if you go into a specific direction as an employee after your business has failed. This hippy bullshit 'all is great, even if your wife leaves you, you're 100k in debt and you've spend the best decade of your life not even in an office but in a spare bedroom hunched over a desk made of an old door' needs to go and be replaced with realism: spending 5 to 10 years in abject poverty, rebuilding a life at an age where most of your peers are living a happy life with their families sucks. The potential upside is huge, and yes if you just manage to sustain your company you've been successful, but don't make it sound like it's going to be great no matter what the outcome, because it's not.
- scorpioxy 16y ago
  Part of being an entrepreneur is knowing when to change directions or abandon an idea all together. Spending a decade on an idea that is not working and won't possibly work is not all that smart. This type of life is definitely not for everybody. The fact that you know people who have failed also doesn't mean anything. I know a lot of people who haven't even tried and that, to me, is a lot worse.

jasonkester 16y ago

This is what everybody says, but I just haven't found it to be true. I work 40 hour weeks sometimes, 20 hour weeks other times, and often go entire months not doing much at all on the startup. The ball is always moving forward though, and things are always getting better. It really doesn't take a huge amount of effort to get your first version out the door. And it doesn't take much effort beyond that to get to the point where money is coming in. Once that happens, there's no particular reason I can think of to work 60 hour weeks, unless that is something you want to do. Naturally, it depends on what you're building. If you're a single founder though, it pays to build something straightforward that solves problems for people with money. There's lots of things like that that need building. Build one and you'll (hopefully) find it doesn't monopolize your life.

jeromec 16y ago
I certainly agree that's possible, but not everyone finds the road rosy. See here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1961429 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1961429. Better to overestimate the difficulty and be pleasantly surprised than vice versa IMO (especially in the context of a 6 month deadline).