4 ms·

I’d suggest the opposite. One who is used to living off $1k a month for 1-2 years have an upper hand on founders used to a more cushy lifestyle. Or even having

by czbond 6y ago

I’d suggest the opposite. One who is used to living off $1k a month for 1-2 years have an upper hand on founders used to a more cushy lifestyle. Or even having no income and almost broke for years like many successful founders I know of.

bendergarcia 6y ago
Just because someone is broke does not mean they don’t have Safety net. It’s easy to make no money when you can always move back home or get support from family. But if you have no safety net (financial family support), then not making money is a really difficult thing to try.
JimDabell 6y ago
There’s a significant trade-off here – it can result in overvaluing money in comparison to time / effort. If you’ve been scraping by for a while, you train yourself to always pick the cheapest option, which often isn’t the best option. I’ve seen several founders waste time and effort trying to work around shortcomings in cheap / free tools or implementing something themselves when spending an insignificant amount of money would make the problem go away immediately.
- czbond 6y ago
  I don't disagree with that as a side effect; in the end, the only thing that matters for a company is runway of the founders.
opportune 6y ago
It’s not really possible to live in $1k a month as a single adult in the Bay Area unless you are somehow living rent free. Even if you rent a room in a terrible area out in the boonies, the cost of getting to/from the parts of the Bay Area with the tech industry will push you over. I agree nobody needs a cushy lifestyle when starting a company but as a single adult in the Bay Area you need at least $2k/month after taxes to live. And somehow you need to get someone to rent to you with an income that low. Not everybody is lucky in having a nearby relative they can live with for free.

4 ms·

I’d suggest the opposite. One who is used to living off $1k a month for 1-2 years have an upper hand on founders used to a more cushy lifestyle. Or even having

by czbond 6y ago

bendergarcia 6y ago
Just because someone is broke does not mean they don’t have Safety net. It’s easy to make no money when you can always move back home or get support from family. But if you have no safety net (financial family support), then not making money is a really difficult thing to try.
JimDabell 6y ago
There’s a significant trade-off here – it can result in overvaluing money in comparison to time / effort. If you’ve been scraping by for a while, you train yourself to always pick the cheapest option, which often isn’t the best option. I’ve seen several founders waste time and effort trying to work around shortcomings in cheap / free tools or implementing something themselves when spending an insignificant amount of money would make the problem go away immediately.
- czbond 6y ago
  I don't disagree with that as a side effect; in the end, the only thing that matters for a company is runway of the founders.
opportune 6y ago
It’s not really possible to live in $1k a month as a single adult in the Bay Area unless you are somehow living rent free. Even if you rent a room in a terrible area out in the boonies, the cost of getting to/from the parts of the Bay Area with the tech industry will push you over. I agree nobody needs a cushy lifestyle when starting a company but as a single adult in the Bay Area you need at least $2k/month after taxes to live. And somehow you need to get someone to rent to you with an income that low. Not everybody is lucky in having a nearby relative they can live with for free.