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Read more carefully what he says, and I agree 100%: Keep working until you've saved enough money to live for a year. If you've got a decent IT salary and real

by wheels 18y ago

Read more carefully what he says, and I agree 100%: Keep working until you've saved enough money to live for a year. If you've got a decent IT salary and really learn to tighten your belt, you can do that in 6 months. - Quit driving and use public transit. - Never buy anything but generic stuff. Shop at Aldi or somewhere that only sells cheap stuff. - Get a roommate. - Eat at home. - Pack your lunch. - One beer at the bar instead of three. - No new toys. No, you don't need an iPhone. - No impulse purchases. If you didn't go out to get it, you don't buy it. - No hotels. Need to travel to pitch? Find a friend's couch. Once you've got that down, it's amazing how far you can go on a little bit of cash and how fast you can save it up if you need to. Learning to keep an eye on your cash also pays dividends on managing the burn-rate in your company.

MicahWedemeyer 18y ago
Is a year really long enough to grow a business to the point where it can support you? I think a lot of startup types don't realize that sometimes the hockey stick is a little less vertical than you planned for, and there may be nothing you can do to speed it up. It's disheartening to have a business that's growing, but not fast enough to stop you from hitting the brick wall one year out where you're out of money.
- Retric 18y ago
  1 year of total focus is plenty of time to find out of you should quit or go home. If you have positive cash flow and a solid company you can always borrow at below your growth rate and come out ahead. Take a part time job and keep living cheep. Or find some inverters.
- wheels 18y ago
  I've not been there yet, but I'm pretty sure the answer is, "It depends." I think you also have to have some real idea for how you're going to make money on the stuff. Even if you don't write a real business plan, sitting down and saying, "Our costs will be about this much. We'll make this much per user. So, we'll need to have this many users in a year of it's a no-go." -- doing that can give you an idea of if your ideas sound really nutty or not. The brick wall is an important construct; it's an important idea to have there to keep you scared of what happens when the cash runs out ... but in reality, if you've got a stupidly low burn rate, you just do one week of consulting and then live for the next two months off of that.

by wheels 18y ago

MicahWedemeyer 18y ago

Is a year really long enough to grow a business to the point where it can support you? I think a lot of startup types don't realize that sometimes the hockey stick is a little less vertical than you planned for, and there may be nothing you can do to speed it up. It's disheartening to have a business that's growing, but not fast enough to stop you from hitting the brick wall one year out where you're out of money.

Retric 18y ago
1 year of total focus is plenty of time to find out of you should quit or go home. If you have positive cash flow and a solid company you can always borrow at below your growth rate and come out ahead. Take a part time job and keep living cheep. Or find some inverters.
wheels 18y ago
I've not been there yet, but I'm pretty sure the answer is, "It depends." I think you also have to have some real idea for how you're going to make money on the stuff. Even if you don't write a real business plan, sitting down and saying, "Our costs will be about this much. We'll make this much per user. So, we'll need to have this many users in a year of it's a no-go." -- doing that can give you an idea of if your ideas sound really nutty or not. The brick wall is an important construct; it's an important idea to have there to keep you scared of what happens when the cash runs out ... but in reality, if you've got a stupidly low burn rate, you just do one week of consulting and then live for the next two months off of that.