5 ms·

Thank you for being honest. I feel you've described me and my situation pretty accurately. I appreciate the advice and you're right - I need to learn the non-te

by eloff 5y ago

Thank you for being honest. I feel you've described me and my situation pretty accurately. I appreciate the advice and you're right - I need to learn the non-technical skills where I'm weak before doing this again. Or at least meet a co-founder who's strengths overlap with my weaknesses - probably a marketing/sales person.

mstipetic 5y ago
What other things did you try to build?
WestCoastJustin 5y ago
If you want to develop marketing skills here's some things to research: Start with something called "product marketing" the job titles are typically "product marketing manager" and these folks are typically a group that sits in "marketing" and does things like "messaging & positioning" figures out "pricing & packaging" and comes up with all the info about the product. Basically, works with Eng + PM teams and packages up all their work and makes something you can actually sell. Just spelling this out since you can google it on your own. Look for something called "totally addressable market" (also know as TAM) too and that'll give you the size of the market you're selling into. Some of this is sort of art and science since there is nothing really exact and you will need to test it via trail and error. But, it'll get you pointed in the general direction of what's correct. FWIW, I agree with OP here. Kids are a game changer and having a stable paycheck coming in gives you time to dedicate to your family without stress. This is highly underrated in the first 3-6 months when you're trying to figure out what this new life looks like (living on 2 hour chunks of sleep). Speaking from experience trying to start a company, having a kid, then quickly realising I need a job asap.
- diminish 5y ago
  Eloff, I'm a `Pgpool-II` & `PgBouncer` user for a long time. Riverdb's https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md seems to appear a bit counter-growth. - A proprietary, alpha software is could be anti-growth in the PG world. I think your README.md can be made more welcoming with - a getting started - tutorial/configuration - install steps - a video link why this is cool. https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md
  - eloff 5y ago
    I understand some people feel that anything short of an OSI open-source license is somehow bad, but I don't agree with that thinking. It's another way that this product is probably a bad idea though - because there are lots of people who think like you on the license issue. It definitely needs documentation, getting started, tutorials etc. But I never really published this or even made a website for it. Thanks for the tips!
diminish 5y ago
Hey Eloff, after 4 failed startups from 2012-2018 - I've joined another late-stage high growth startup. Thanks to stock options I ended up having 7 digit wealth in 2 years Now I will go back to startuping.....
- eloff 5y ago
  Congratulations, that worked out well for you!
  - diminish 5y ago
    Eloff I'm not as special and indeed you are. What I mean is, you can pause your being the founder idea for 3 years and jump on someone who found high growth. One way for you could be to join some database, postgres startups. Join their open source projects and get ideas from the team.
    - eloff 5y ago
      Well I don't know about special. It's good advice though, and your strategy for how you did that is quite actionable. It's still a lottery, but you did things to skew the odds heavily in your favor, which was smart.
- yibg 5y ago
  That's a great success story and I'm happy for you. But it's not really an actionable advice. How would one go about identifying a late stage startup that will have a 7 figure exit?
  - diminish 5y ago
    That's how I chose the best startup. Went through all worldwide & Ycombinator startups which are high growth. Registered at Workatastartup. Used https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/ https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/ to see what they are searching for. Chose 10 companies with positions where I have very strong hard skills. Interacted with the particular company's product. Wrote a nice paragraph on ideas how I can contribute. - https://www.ycombinator.com/companies https://www.ycombinator.com/companies - https://www.workatastartup.com https://www.workatastartup.com
hermitcrab 5y ago
Someone who is a strong marketing/sales person has loads of opportunities. Why would they want to spend their time working with you when you don't even seem to have a product or know what problem you are solving? I would suggest getting a full-time job. Maybe try again in a few year with more savings, a stronger idea of what problem you are solving and more business experience. [Context: Running my own 1 man software product company since 2005].
mandeepj 5y ago
> I need to learn the non-technical skills where I'm weak before doing this again. Or at least meet a co-founder who's strengths overlap with my weaknesses - probably a marketing/sales person. Not necessarily. I believe, at first, the only thing you need to do is - talk with people. Start with tech conferences. I believe a lot of them would let you deliver a session. You will create more connections and also you'll get a lot of feedback from people that will help in refining your message and pitch. One talk after another, you will realize how accurately people are able to understand, what you are trying to deliver. Refine, talk, listen - that's your cycle. Also, because you are building an open-source product - you might also find some contributors. Edit - ‘Talk with people’ - you already started here. Good job on that.

by eloff 5y ago

mstipetic 5y ago

What other things did you try to build?

WestCoastJustin 5y ago

If you want to develop marketing skills here's some things to research: Start with something called "product marketing" the job titles are typically "product marketing manager" and these folks are typically a group that sits in "marketing" and does things like "messaging & positioning" figures out "pricing & packaging" and comes up with all the info about the product. Basically, works with Eng + PM teams and packages up all their work and makes something you can actually sell. Just spelling this out since you can google it on your own. Look for something called "totally addressable market" (also know as TAM) too and that'll give you the size of the market you're selling into. Some of this is sort of art and science since there is nothing really exact and you will need to test it via trail and error. But, it'll get you pointed in the general direction of what's correct. FWIW, I agree with OP here. Kids are a game changer and having a stable paycheck coming in gives you time to dedicate to your family without stress. This is highly underrated in the first 3-6 months when you're trying to figure out what this new life looks like (living on 2 hour chunks of sleep). Speaking from experience trying to start a company, having a kid, then quickly realising I need a job asap.

diminish 5y ago
Eloff, I'm a `Pgpool-II` & `PgBouncer` user for a long time. Riverdb's https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md seems to appear a bit counter-growth. - A proprietary, alpha software is could be anti-growth in the PG world. I think your README.md can be made more welcoming with - a getting started - tutorial/configuration - install steps - a video link why this is cool. https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md
- eloff 5y ago
  I understand some people feel that anything short of an OSI open-source license is somehow bad, but I don't agree with that thinking. It's another way that this product is probably a bad idea though - because there are lots of people who think like you on the license issue. It definitely needs documentation, getting started, tutorials etc. But I never really published this or even made a website for it. Thanks for the tips!

diminish 5y ago

Hey Eloff, after 4 failed startups from 2012-2018 - I've joined another late-stage high growth startup. Thanks to stock options I ended up having 7 digit wealth in 2 years Now I will go back to startuping.....

eloff 5y ago
Congratulations, that worked out well for you!
- diminish 5y ago
  Eloff I'm not as special and indeed you are. What I mean is, you can pause your being the founder idea for 3 years and jump on someone who found high growth. One way for you could be to join some database, postgres startups. Join their open source projects and get ideas from the team.
  - eloff 5y ago
    Well I don't know about special. It's good advice though, and your strategy for how you did that is quite actionable. It's still a lottery, but you did things to skew the odds heavily in your favor, which was smart.
yibg 5y ago
That's a great success story and I'm happy for you. But it's not really an actionable advice. How would one go about identifying a late stage startup that will have a 7 figure exit?
- diminish 5y ago
  That's how I chose the best startup. Went through all worldwide & Ycombinator startups which are high growth. Registered at Workatastartup. Used https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/ https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/ to see what they are searching for. Chose 10 companies with positions where I have very strong hard skills. Interacted with the particular company's product. Wrote a nice paragraph on ideas how I can contribute. - https://www.ycombinator.com/companies https://www.ycombinator.com/companies - https://www.workatastartup.com https://www.workatastartup.com

hermitcrab 5y ago

Someone who is a strong marketing/sales person has loads of opportunities. Why would they want to spend their time working with you when you don't even seem to have a product or know what problem you are solving? I would suggest getting a full-time job. Maybe try again in a few year with more savings, a stronger idea of what problem you are solving and more business experience. [Context: Running my own 1 man software product company since 2005].

mandeepj 5y ago

> I need to learn the non-technical skills where I'm weak before doing this again. Or at least meet a co-founder who's strengths overlap with my weaknesses - probably a marketing/sales person. Not necessarily. I believe, at first, the only thing you need to do is - talk with people. Start with tech conferences. I believe a lot of them would let you deliver a session. You will create more connections and also you'll get a lot of feedback from people that will help in refining your message and pitch. One talk after another, you will realize how accurately people are able to understand, what you are trying to deliver. Refine, talk, listen - that's your cycle. Also, because you are building an open-source product - you might also find some contributors. Edit - ‘Talk with people’ - you already started here. Good job on that.