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found a checklist. Will assume Google is my friend unless otherwise noted: https://www.atomic-squirrel.net/startup-checklist/ https://www.atomic-squirrel.net/st

by amdbcg 6y ago

found a checklist. Will assume Google is my friend unless otherwise noted: https://www.atomic-squirrel.net/startup-checklist/ https://www.atomic-squirrel.net/startup-checklist/

souprock 6y ago
That checklist strongly assumes you want to make yet another web site or phone app. I'm closely familiar with a few startups, 2 of which were in your area, and not one of them fit that checklist. One started with mortgaging a house for money. The idea was to make and sell a weird magnet that would create unusually parallel field lines that could be electronically rotated. This could be used to characterize hard drive heads before cutting the wafer apart. The founders were an electrical engineer and a mechanical engineer. They were soon joined by a few other people to perform manual labor to assemble magnets. The plan was to sell these, for tens of thousands of dollars each, to companies that made the equipment for checking wafers. The deal didn't happen. Instead of giving up, they doubled down: make the entire piece of equipment, priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sell it to hard drive companies. This meant more employees, creating a device the size of home refrigerator that could operate in a cleanroom. That worked. They got bought by an instrumentation company that was seeking to enter that line of business. One started with spare cash on hand. The idea was to make accurate undetectable underwater rangefinders and datalinks. This too required electrical and mechanical engineering. SBIR contracts (see https://www.sbir.gov/ https://www.sbir.gov/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Innovation_Research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Innovation_Rese... for that) provided some funding. SBIR is great; it helps you get your accounting in order. Roughly a decade later, this company is still running as a startup. One started out of a university that was doing security research. SBIR contracts were important. The company split while still a startup, due to incompatible lines of business. One half continued on as a boring small company, now almost 20 years old. The other half grew with a doubling time of 20 months, ultimately to be purchased by a large defense contractor. It had a web page consisting of just an image and a phone number. One that I'm less familiar with, much older than the others, built mower attachments for tractors. It got to hundreds of people and then was purchased.

by amdbcg 6y ago

found a checklist. Will assume Google is my friend unless otherwise noted: https://www.atomic-squirrel.net/startup-checklist/ https://www.atomic-squirrel.net/startup-checklist/

souprock 6y ago

That checklist strongly assumes you want to make yet another web site or phone app. I'm closely familiar with a few startups, 2 of which were in your area, and not one of them fit that checklist. One started with mortgaging a house for money. The idea was to make and sell a weird magnet that would create unusually parallel field lines that could be electronically rotated. This could be used to characterize hard drive heads before cutting the wafer apart. The founders were an electrical engineer and a mechanical engineer. They were soon joined by a few other people to perform manual labor to assemble magnets. The plan was to sell these, for tens of thousands of dollars each, to companies that made the equipment for checking wafers. The deal didn't happen. Instead of giving up, they doubled down: make the entire piece of equipment, priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sell it to hard drive companies. This meant more employees, creating a device the size of home refrigerator that could operate in a cleanroom. That worked. They got bought by an instrumentation company that was seeking to enter that line of business. One started with spare cash on hand. The idea was to make accurate undetectable underwater rangefinders and datalinks. This too required electrical and mechanical engineering. SBIR contracts (see https://www.sbir.gov/ https://www.sbir.gov/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Innovation_Research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Innovation_Rese... for that) provided some funding. SBIR is great; it helps you get your accounting in order. Roughly a decade later, this company is still running as a startup. One started out of a university that was doing security research. SBIR contracts were important. The company split while still a startup, due to incompatible lines of business. One half continued on as a boring small company, now almost 20 years old. The other half grew with a doubling time of 20 months, ultimately to be purchased by a large defense contractor. It had a web page consisting of just an image and a phone number. One that I'm less familiar with, much older than the others, built mower attachments for tractors. It got to hundreds of people and then was purchased.