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All you people suggesting "do both" - do you really know what you are talking about? We may have different definitions of what a startup is. If by startup, you

All you people suggesting "do both" - do you really know what you are talking about? We may have different definitions of what a startup is. If by startup, you mean a one man website that is some kind of low-maintenance subscription service, then yeah sure, go travel the world. But if you define startup as I do, as a venture-backed, aggressively growing company employing people, then how the hell are you going to travel the world while managing that? Please tell me if you have a way, because I would be genuinely interested :)

notahacker 16y ago
Doing the former - a low-maintenance, mildly profitable company in your spare time whilst travelling the world - certainly doesn't harm your chances of succeeding in a venture-backed, aggressively growing company employing people later in life.
swombat 16y ago
I entirely agree. You can sustain a travelling lifestyle with web work, whether a niche, "muse" product or freelancing work, but that's not a startup. A startup requires a lot of "personal, on site" touch. I put my thoughts together here too: http://swombat.com/2010/12/27/startup-vs-travelling-lifestyle http://swombat.com/2010/12/27/startup-vs-travelling-lifestyl...
- paraschopra 16y ago
  Hey, great blog post! Little nitpick: can you edit my name as 'Paras Chopra'? I know my name is not exactly as easy as John Smith :)
  - swombat 16y ago
    Oops! Will fix as soon as I'm in front of my computer (on my iPhone now). I hate it when people misspell my name... But to be fair, I did try to find your full name and couldn't find it on your blog or on twitter, so I had to make a guess :-)
    - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
      How can you misspell Smooth Wombat :-) I always wondered: is that a Bloom County reference?
      - swombat 16y ago
        Nope... don't know what Bloom County is. It's just the last iteration that I got to when I decided that my previous nick wasn't up to scratch...
        HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
        FYI: It is/was a newspaper comic strip. The relevant quote was "SMET: the sound of a wet rag hitting a smooth weasel!"
jasonkester 16y ago
It helps to leave one poor sap in the Bay Area to talk to investors, but the rest of you can certainly head off into the sticks. I've done my share of remote consulting for venture-backed, aggressively growing startups. For the last 6 years, at least, I haven't physically set foot in any of their offices. If you want to do it with a whole team, here's how I've done it in the past: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2006/12/chamonix-branch-office.html http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2006/12/chamonix-branc...
Ixiaus 16y ago
This. I've traveled quite a bit before building my startup and I can attest to A) how distracting the experiences across the world are (why travel and bring work from your country of origin and not travel and work in your destination country, bartending or cleaning dishes, something more cultural?) and B) how involved building a startup is. With a small, niche, business; I can see it happening no doubt. Like running a small remote consultancy or e-commerce site selling drop shipped products. But a startup needs its founders present, communication face to face is unbeatable and often times your cofounders aren't set to travel the world with you. So, what's my advice? Live some life while you're building your startup, man; go on short trips, go to Burning Man, visit Prague or fly to the B.V.I for four days. Be sure you have some fun. Once you've either succeeded in making FU money from your startup, or your startup has failed, then go experience the world (you don't need FU money to see the world, hence why you do it even if your startup fails). My plan? Either FU money, passive income, or a failed startup. Once one of those things happen I'm planning on crewing on a sailboat to get to Europe (or SA, or Aus) and living life for a while outside of the USA (think...years).

notahacker 16y ago

Doing the former - a low-maintenance, mildly profitable company in your spare time whilst travelling the world - certainly doesn't harm your chances of succeeding in a venture-backed, aggressively growing company employing people later in life.

swombat 16y ago

I entirely agree. You can sustain a travelling lifestyle with web work, whether a niche, "muse" product or freelancing work, but that's not a startup. A startup requires a lot of "personal, on site" touch. I put my thoughts together here too: http://swombat.com/2010/12/27/startup-vs-travelling-lifestyle http://swombat.com/2010/12/27/startup-vs-travelling-lifestyl...

paraschopra 16y ago
Hey, great blog post! Little nitpick: can you edit my name as 'Paras Chopra'? I know my name is not exactly as easy as John Smith :)
- swombat 16y ago
  Oops! Will fix as soon as I'm in front of my computer (on my iPhone now). I hate it when people misspell my name... But to be fair, I did try to find your full name and couldn't find it on your blog or on twitter, so I had to make a guess :-)
  - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
    How can you misspell Smooth Wombat :-) I always wondered: is that a Bloom County reference?
    - swombat 16y ago
      Nope... don't know what Bloom County is. It's just the last iteration that I got to when I decided that my previous nick wasn't up to scratch...
      - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
        FYI: It is/was a newspaper comic strip. The relevant quote was "SMET: the sound of a wet rag hitting a smooth weasel!"

jasonkester 16y ago

It helps to leave one poor sap in the Bay Area to talk to investors, but the rest of you can certainly head off into the sticks. I've done my share of remote consulting for venture-backed, aggressively growing startups. For the last 6 years, at least, I haven't physically set foot in any of their offices. If you want to do it with a whole team, here's how I've done it in the past: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2006/12/chamonix-branch-office.html http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2006/12/chamonix-branc...

Ixiaus 16y ago

This. I've traveled quite a bit before building my startup and I can attest to A) how distracting the experiences across the world are (why travel and bring work from your country of origin and not travel and work in your destination country, bartending or cleaning dishes, something more cultural?) and B) how involved building a startup is. With a small, niche, business; I can see it happening no doubt. Like running a small remote consultancy or e-commerce site selling drop shipped products. But a startup needs its founders present, communication face to face is unbeatable and often times your cofounders aren't set to travel the world with you. So, what's my advice? Live some life while you're building your startup, man; go on short trips, go to Burning Man, visit Prague or fly to the B.V.I for four days. Be sure you have some fun. Once you've either succeeded in making FU money from your startup, or your startup has failed, then go experience the world (you don't need FU money to see the world, hence why you do it even if your startup fails). My plan? Either FU money, passive income, or a failed startup. Once one of those things happen I'm planning on crewing on a sailboat to get to Europe (or SA, or Aus) and living life for a while outside of the USA (think...years).