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You gave up after 3 weeks dude? You will never succeed at founding a startup with that attitude. I've been bootstrapping my startup for 2+ years and after sever

You gave up after 3 weeks dude? You will never succeed at founding a startup with that attitude. I've been bootstrapping my startup for 2+ years and after several pivots we are just now finding our stride with ~$10k MRR. I also completely disagree on the assumption that pricing had anything to do with your failure. Your startup didn't fail because of the economics, it failed because your product didn't provide enough value to customers.

elliotbnvl 6y ago
> You gave up after 3 weeks dude? You will never succeed at founding a startup with that attitude. Well, I've also done it the other way where I spent three years at a startup and couldn't find traction. I'm just trying to hit the other extreme as well, and so hopefully land somewhere in the sweet spot in the middle. > you failed because your product didn't provide enough value to customers. Hmm, this is another great way of putting it -- value translates into pricing pretty directly, so if you can't charge enough there's probably not enough value. I think that's another way of saying the same thing.
- blobbers 6y ago
  You might want to try filtering a bit better. Joining an early stage Sequoia or A16Z company might help you see what success looks like. Not guaranteed but a decent filtering function if you're looking for a post Series-A company to join.
- bredren 6y ago
  There is no success or failure in the first three weeks of a “startup.”
- carlosdp 6y ago
  > Well, I've also done it the other way where I spent three years at a startup and couldn't find traction. There is a massive space in-between those timeframes =P In this case, it doesn't seem you even actually built out a real MVP (not just the front-end) and tried to sell to customers. You hadn't actually validated whether people actually wanted the product for real, and just killed it because of one person's experience delivered in a talk? If you're taking PG's essays to heart, your only concern at the beginning should be building the thing and finding customers that really want it. The pricing stuff is the easiest thing by far to change (checkout patio11's stuff on this, if you haven't). Maybe this one really would have been a bust. But if your goal is to reach $2k MRR in 2 months, there's little chance you're gunna get there by building 3 week projects and gaming it out in your head instead of just selling to people. Choose 1 thing that you have a customer lined up for that really really wants it, and spend those two months building that out and making them happy.

elliotbnvl 6y ago

> You gave up after 3 weeks dude? You will never succeed at founding a startup with that attitude. Well, I've also done it the other way where I spent three years at a startup and couldn't find traction. I'm just trying to hit the other extreme as well, and so hopefully land somewhere in the sweet spot in the middle. > you failed because your product didn't provide enough value to customers. Hmm, this is another great way of putting it -- value translates into pricing pretty directly, so if you can't charge enough there's probably not enough value. I think that's another way of saying the same thing.

blobbers 6y ago
You might want to try filtering a bit better. Joining an early stage Sequoia or A16Z company might help you see what success looks like. Not guaranteed but a decent filtering function if you're looking for a post Series-A company to join.
bredren 6y ago
There is no success or failure in the first three weeks of a “startup.”
carlosdp 6y ago
> Well, I've also done it the other way where I spent three years at a startup and couldn't find traction. There is a massive space in-between those timeframes =P In this case, it doesn't seem you even actually built out a real MVP (not just the front-end) and tried to sell to customers. You hadn't actually validated whether people actually wanted the product for real, and just killed it because of one person's experience delivered in a talk? If you're taking PG's essays to heart, your only concern at the beginning should be building the thing and finding customers that really want it. The pricing stuff is the easiest thing by far to change (checkout patio11's stuff on this, if you haven't). Maybe this one really would have been a bust. But if your goal is to reach $2k MRR in 2 months, there's little chance you're gunna get there by building 3 week projects and gaming it out in your head instead of just selling to people. Choose 1 thing that you have a customer lined up for that really really wants it, and spend those two months building that out and making them happy.