7 ms·

Why you shouldn't start a startup

127 points by lolizbak 15y ago

lolizbak 15y ago
Slides from a presentation I gave last week at HEC - would love some feedback if I reuse. Thanks!
- ivanbernat 15y ago
  Just wondering, did you have any dev experience prior to taking on Rails? Great presentation, wish there was a video version too.
  - lolizbak 15y ago
    I started from scratch a month ago, and I'm a biz guy by training. I'm not saying it's easy but accessible to put up an mvp. You should try http://fastfwdme.com http://fastfwdme.com, my second app !
- gregschlom 15y ago
  Laurent, I'd like to get in touch, but couldn't find your email. Can you ping me? My email is in my HN profile. Or just reply here where I can get in touch. Thanks
- jasonkester 15y ago
  How about writing something up to give a bit of context to those slides. I clicked through 20 or so of them and couldn't find anything resembling a narrative.
  - lolizbak 15y ago
    i thought they were self explanatory, but you're right - thx !
wccrawford 15y ago
I think the 'peanuts' slide is an especially good point. Many people here seem to think that a startup is a fast-track to success, but it's not fast at all. It's a lot of work and sacrifice for years. Don't get me wrong... That time has some valuable lessons that will help you constantly for the rest of your life. But it's not easy. If you go into it with your eyes open, you shouldn't regret it.
- lolizbak 15y ago
  Totally on board. I quit a well paid job in New York two years ago, and didn't earn a dime since. But I would make that decision again in a heartbeat :)
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- localhost3000 15y ago
  toughest part is dealing with sig. other who'd really like to have a nice meal every once in awhile and wonders aloud when she learns of your friends/peers who make six figures in "real jobs"... "Maybe you should go to law school?" <-- have you heard that one? cringe
  - lolizbak 15y ago
    been lucky, didn't hear it much! my girlfriend has been very supportive. the only thing she asked, is that we still continue to travel/backpack, at least once a year - which I of course "granted" her (while she's granting me with the rent .... :)
  - patrickod 15y ago
    maybe that's another reason that the mean age for founders is quite low. I mean if you're older and have dependents it's not the best time to throw your salary out the window and go it alone.
    - 15y ago
siiily 15y ago
There are 63 slides, the 60th slide ends with: sell anything, learn to code the 61th slide contains a photo of the author the 62th slide contains the word: Questions?
- andreadallera 15y ago
  Ruby on Rails is easy, if you're a business guy learn to code and save yourself some money & equity Okay, now I know I don't want to use this guy's products...
  - lolizbak 15y ago
    Comon', you know what i mean :) I'm not saying i have an "engineer-level", but i'm good enough to throw an MVP together. Try out http://fastfwdme.com http://fastfwdme.com, it works fine for a small project I developed. Of course there are years of training to be a good hacker, but my point is that you can achieve a sufficient level to test ideas out yourself.
    - andreadallera 15y ago
      Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...
      - lolizbak 15y ago
        Andrea, I agree. But depending on where you are, "finding a good dev" can take months, more if you're looking for a partner. And it's easier to attract talent with a working prototype than with ideas around a beer...
        andreadallera 15y ago
        I was probably mistaken, let me rephrase: it's awesome that you, as a business guy, actually took the time and had the patience to learn Rails, no matter what the results - and it will surely impress the developers you will try to hire in the future. Between that and Rails is easy, learn it yourself and save money there's quite of a difference :-) If you want to be an awesome business guy, learn how to code so you can talk with your devs more effectively. But for the sake of your project don't try to replace them :-)
patrickod 15y ago
This rings true with the TEDx video posted last week about what skateboarding can teach us about learning methods. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY&feature=playe... We learn from mistakes, so failure is to be as embraced as success. The startup community should be just the same. Take the lessons you learn and try again and again.
- sgrove 15y ago
  The goal should be to have frequent, small failures that you have enough time to learn from, rather than a few catastrophic failures which end your startup and saddle you with baggage afterwards. Failure is a part of success, but only when taken in the right quantities.
rgarcia 15y ago
Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people coming out of college are very risk averse, so they'd rather get a guaranteed salary over a startup with uncertain prospects.
- lolizbak 15y ago
  Hi, that was my case actually. My first two statups (if you can call this so) were done while having a well paid job in New York. For my last startup, I quit my job and went welfare :)
- saddino 15y ago
  It's never too late to become an entrepreneur. I took "secure" jobs for four years and then sold my services as a contractor for almost another six before I launched my first startup. IMHO, for the risk-averse, forming an LLC to contract your services is one of the best ways to learn how to run a business. And the $ you've (hopefully) saved will help you bootstrap when you decide to take the plunge.
- evilduck 15y ago
  If you took on student loans (incredibly common), you have 6 months before the collectors come calling and survival then requires an additional $100-$1000 income per month. Failure to pay or having insubstantial means to pay can result in substantially larger amounts of interest to repay, substantially longer repayment periods or garnished wages. Since there's no way to escape repayment a debt-encumbered individual has more at risk than a debt-free peer. I think the pervasiveness of student loans and the exploding cost of higher education is dividing equally risk-tolerant people into two paths. I'm on the "secure" path at the moment to pay off student loans between my wife and I, and we just had a child. My obligations are more than paid for and things are stable, which is good because my family life is happy and fun and I value that highly, but it means that my risky endeavors have to be on-the-side and bootstrapped because doing stuff that's likely to fail now puts 3 people at risk instead of 1. I don't particularly enjoy the jobs I've had, and that gives me motivation to do things for myself.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
kristofferR 15y ago
Slightly off-topic, but how did you make the SecretPoke video? http://vimeo.com/19517022 http://vimeo.com/19517022 Did you make it yourself or was it done by someone else?
- lolizbak 15y ago
  There are a few services online where you can download after effect source files, and then edit. we used videohive, but don't tell anyone :)
zem 15y ago
it sounds like the talk would have been good, but i learnt nothing whatsoever from the slides (possibly because i've been through the startup experience, albeit as an employee, but it just seemed like the usual collection of platitudes)
- lolizbak 15y ago
  thus the title: beating a dead horse :) the talk was for last year + mba students at HEC, and most of them never started / worked at a startup.
  - zem 15y ago
    ah, okay, missed that bit :)
dporan 15y ago
"You're a visionary product guy? You'll spend your time chasing money, customers, users, employees, facing No's." How true!
storm_kid 15y ago
I think it is a good article, nowdays EVERYBODY is triying to go rich just like that, mostly because of"The social network" movie, we need to understand that this succes cases are rare BUT we need to learn from them, this guys made something different that the rest and place them on the top. Follow me on twitter: @storm_kid
- hzay 15y ago
  What's wrong with trying to go rich like that, even if it is because of the movie?
sebastianconcpt 15y ago
Not to mention how freaking harder is to startup it from South America. Observation: the topic of "think mobile and platforms" yes, but they're a plus (not the core of the thing.) Besides, relying too much in platforms are a bad idea (adds to the equation some risks parameters that are out of your control.) The best is to start with the epicenter and iterate often keeping happy the people that will leverage you to ramen profitable. Lastly, the epicenter should be human centered.
yannski 15y ago
Nice slides! Thanks for spreading the word about Rails at HEC ;-)

127 points by lolizbak 15y ago

lolizbak 15y ago

Slides from a presentation I gave last week at HEC - would love some feedback if I reuse. Thanks!

ivanbernat 15y ago
Just wondering, did you have any dev experience prior to taking on Rails? Great presentation, wish there was a video version too.
- lolizbak 15y ago
  I started from scratch a month ago, and I'm a biz guy by training. I'm not saying it's easy but accessible to put up an mvp. You should try http://fastfwdme.com http://fastfwdme.com, my second app !
gregschlom 15y ago
Laurent, I'd like to get in touch, but couldn't find your email. Can you ping me? My email is in my HN profile. Or just reply here where I can get in touch. Thanks
jasonkester 15y ago
How about writing something up to give a bit of context to those slides. I clicked through 20 or so of them and couldn't find anything resembling a narrative.
- lolizbak 15y ago
  i thought they were self explanatory, but you're right - thx !

wccrawford 15y ago

I think the 'peanuts' slide is an especially good point. Many people here seem to think that a startup is a fast-track to success, but it's not fast at all. It's a lot of work and sacrifice for years. Don't get me wrong... That time has some valuable lessons that will help you constantly for the rest of your life. But it's not easy. If you go into it with your eyes open, you shouldn't regret it.

lolizbak 15y ago
Totally on board. I quit a well paid job in New York two years ago, and didn't earn a dime since. But I would make that decision again in a heartbeat :)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
localhost3000 15y ago
toughest part is dealing with sig. other who'd really like to have a nice meal every once in awhile and wonders aloud when she learns of your friends/peers who make six figures in "real jobs"... "Maybe you should go to law school?" <-- have you heard that one? cringe
- lolizbak 15y ago
  been lucky, didn't hear it much! my girlfriend has been very supportive. the only thing she asked, is that we still continue to travel/backpack, at least once a year - which I of course "granted" her (while she's granting me with the rent .... :)
- patrickod 15y ago
  maybe that's another reason that the mean age for founders is quite low. I mean if you're older and have dependents it's not the best time to throw your salary out the window and go it alone.
  - 15y ago

siiily 15y ago

There are 63 slides, the 60th slide ends with: sell anything, learn to code the 61th slide contains a photo of the author the 62th slide contains the word: Questions?

andreadallera 15y ago
Ruby on Rails is easy, if you're a business guy learn to code and save yourself some money & equity Okay, now I know I don't want to use this guy's products...
- lolizbak 15y ago
  Comon', you know what i mean :) I'm not saying i have an "engineer-level", but i'm good enough to throw an MVP together. Try out http://fastfwdme.com http://fastfwdme.com, it works fine for a small project I developed. Of course there are years of training to be a good hacker, but my point is that you can achieve a sufficient level to test ideas out yourself.
  - andreadallera 15y ago
    Nice attitude... but just the sentence "throw an MVP together" makes me cringe :) do yourself a favour and find yourself a good dev before you realize your code doesn't actually scale...
    - lolizbak 15y ago
      Andrea, I agree. But depending on where you are, "finding a good dev" can take months, more if you're looking for a partner. And it's easier to attract talent with a working prototype than with ideas around a beer...
      - andreadallera 15y ago
        I was probably mistaken, let me rephrase: it's awesome that you, as a business guy, actually took the time and had the patience to learn Rails, no matter what the results - and it will surely impress the developers you will try to hire in the future. Between that and Rails is easy, learn it yourself and save money there's quite of a difference :-) If you want to be an awesome business guy, learn how to code so you can talk with your devs more effectively. But for the sake of your project don't try to replace them :-)

patrickod 15y ago

This rings true with the TEDx video posted last week about what skateboarding can teach us about learning methods. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY&feature=playe... We learn from mistakes, so failure is to be as embraced as success. The startup community should be just the same. Take the lessons you learn and try again and again.

sgrove 15y ago
The goal should be to have frequent, small failures that you have enough time to learn from, rather than a few catastrophic failures which end your startup and saddle you with baggage afterwards. Failure is a part of success, but only when taken in the right quantities.

rgarcia 15y ago

Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people coming out of college are very risk averse, so they'd rather get a guaranteed salary over a startup with uncertain prospects.

lolizbak 15y ago
Hi, that was my case actually. My first two statups (if you can call this so) were done while having a well paid job in New York. For my last startup, I quit my job and went welfare :)
saddino 15y ago
It's never too late to become an entrepreneur. I took "secure" jobs for four years and then sold my services as a contractor for almost another six before I launched my first startup. IMHO, for the risk-averse, forming an LLC to contract your services is one of the best ways to learn how to run a business. And the $ you've (hopefully) saved will help you bootstrap when you decide to take the plunge.
evilduck 15y ago
If you took on student loans (incredibly common), you have 6 months before the collectors come calling and survival then requires an additional $100-$1000 income per month. Failure to pay or having insubstantial means to pay can result in substantially larger amounts of interest to repay, substantially longer repayment periods or garnished wages. Since there's no way to escape repayment a debt-encumbered individual has more at risk than a debt-free peer. I think the pervasiveness of student loans and the exploding cost of higher education is dividing equally risk-tolerant people into two paths. I'm on the "secure" path at the moment to pay off student loans between my wife and I, and we just had a child. My obligations are more than paid for and things are stable, which is good because my family life is happy and fun and I value that highly, but it means that my risky endeavors have to be on-the-side and bootstrapped because doing stuff that's likely to fail now puts 3 people at risk instead of 1. I don't particularly enjoy the jobs I've had, and that gives me motivation to do things for myself.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

kristofferR 15y ago

Slightly off-topic, but how did you make the SecretPoke video? http://vimeo.com/19517022 http://vimeo.com/19517022 Did you make it yourself or was it done by someone else?

lolizbak 15y ago
There are a few services online where you can download after effect source files, and then edit. we used videohive, but don't tell anyone :)

zem 15y ago

it sounds like the talk would have been good, but i learnt nothing whatsoever from the slides (possibly because i've been through the startup experience, albeit as an employee, but it just seemed like the usual collection of platitudes)

lolizbak 15y ago
thus the title: beating a dead horse :) the talk was for last year + mba students at HEC, and most of them never started / worked at a startup.
- zem 15y ago
  ah, okay, missed that bit :)

dporan 15y ago

"You're a visionary product guy? You'll spend your time chasing money, customers, users, employees, facing No's." How true!

storm_kid 15y ago

I think it is a good article, nowdays EVERYBODY is triying to go rich just like that, mostly because of"The social network" movie, we need to understand that this succes cases are rare BUT we need to learn from them, this guys made something different that the rest and place them on the top. Follow me on twitter: @storm_kid

hzay 15y ago
What's wrong with trying to go rich like that, even if it is because of the movie?

sebastianconcpt 15y ago

Not to mention how freaking harder is to startup it from South America. Observation: the topic of "think mobile and platforms" yes, but they're a plus (not the core of the thing.) Besides, relying too much in platforms are a bad idea (adds to the equation some risks parameters that are out of your control.) The best is to start with the epicenter and iterate often keeping happy the people that will leverage you to ramen profitable. Lastly, the epicenter should be human centered.

yannski 15y ago

Nice slides! Thanks for spreading the word about Rails at HEC ;-)