5 ms·

Career Advice For Young Developers: Start a startup while you're still young. Before you turn 21. Then you're old!

by cellis 18y ago

nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
But I'm 23 and still in school! /me cries...
ErrantX 18y ago
I dont know. I'm 21 and am just kicking off my first major startup. I dont really think I am ready for it. I think a couple more years in-work experience (only een employed for 6 months out of university) would do me good... :)
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  You will never be ready for it. Yes your chances of success might be less than someone with ten years experience, but failing will teach you more about startups than 10 years of work will.
  - ErrantX 18y ago
    fair point :D
modoc 18y ago
I'm 28, and while I have a number of failed startup companies/ideas in my past, my current one is a success (although it may not meet the criteria of a startup here, it's a small LLC that I've "started up"). The reason it's a success is that I have 10 years of experience working with hundreds of companies (lots of contracting, etc...), so I KNOW how big companies work, I KNOW what they need, and I KNOW how many large players in a particular niche are failing to provide good services/products. Which made it easy to for me to create a better offering, that was price competitive, and met the needs of a niche of large customers. So while I'm old, and while I definitely think you should start a startup when you're young, being old has it's advantages too:)
- curiousgeorge 18y ago
  I don't think you're old, and I'm glad your start-up (yes, it counts) is a success. Perhaps you can elaborate on the lessons you learned and the differences this time versus previous times around in a blog post sometime. I'd be interested in reading it.
  - modoc 18y ago
    I'll definitely add that as a blog-post topic in the future. I can summarize a few lessons I learned here though: 1) just because people like using something for free, doesn't mean even 1% of them will be willing to pay anything for it. High traffic/member numbers don't mean much unless you can monetize them, mostly they just cost you. 2) selling to a few large companies is often a much easier path than selling to thousands of individuals. 3) there are a million services that are provided almost exclusively by very large companies. Quite often they do a horrible job. There's a million opportunities there. 4) don't count your chickens before they hatch. Getting a 1/4 million dollar contract in a month, does NOT mean you'll get one every month. 5) if you start to make money, get an accountant/tax person. If you have contracts with fish that bigger than you, get an attorney. 6) don't rely on free/cheap stuff from so-and-so's friend. They could vanish and take your servers with them.
    - lliiffee 18y ago
      > 3) there are a million services that are provided almost exclusively by very large companies. Quite often they do a horrible job. There's a million opportunities there. How do you find these opportunities? I guess there is no easy answer, or there would be a lot more startups, but if you have any thoughts, that would be great.

Career Advice For Young Developers: Start a startup while you're still young. Before you turn 21. Then you're old!

by cellis 18y ago

Career Advice For Young Developers: Start a startup while you're still young. Before you turn 21. Then you're old!

nuclear_eclipse 18y ago

But I'm 23 and still in school! /me cries...

ErrantX 18y ago

I dont know. I'm 21 and am just kicking off my first major startup. I dont really think I am ready for it. I think a couple more years in-work experience (only een employed for 6 months out of university) would do me good... :)

run4yourlives 18y ago
You will never be ready for it. Yes your chances of success might be less than someone with ten years experience, but failing will teach you more about startups than 10 years of work will.
- ErrantX 18y ago
  fair point :D

modoc 18y ago

I'm 28, and while I have a number of failed startup companies/ideas in my past, my current one is a success (although it may not meet the criteria of a startup here, it's a small LLC that I've "started up"). The reason it's a success is that I have 10 years of experience working with hundreds of companies (lots of contracting, etc...), so I KNOW how big companies work, I KNOW what they need, and I KNOW how many large players in a particular niche are failing to provide good services/products. Which made it easy to for me to create a better offering, that was price competitive, and met the needs of a niche of large customers. So while I'm old, and while I definitely think you should start a startup when you're young, being old has it's advantages too:)

curiousgeorge 18y ago
I don't think you're old, and I'm glad your start-up (yes, it counts) is a success. Perhaps you can elaborate on the lessons you learned and the differences this time versus previous times around in a blog post sometime. I'd be interested in reading it.
- modoc 18y ago
  I'll definitely add that as a blog-post topic in the future. I can summarize a few lessons I learned here though: 1) just because people like using something for free, doesn't mean even 1% of them will be willing to pay anything for it. High traffic/member numbers don't mean much unless you can monetize them, mostly they just cost you. 2) selling to a few large companies is often a much easier path than selling to thousands of individuals. 3) there are a million services that are provided almost exclusively by very large companies. Quite often they do a horrible job. There's a million opportunities there. 4) don't count your chickens before they hatch. Getting a 1/4 million dollar contract in a month, does NOT mean you'll get one every month. 5) if you start to make money, get an accountant/tax person. If you have contracts with fish that bigger than you, get an attorney. 6) don't rely on free/cheap stuff from so-and-so's friend. They could vanish and take your servers with them.
  - lliiffee 18y ago
    > 3) there are a million services that are provided almost exclusively by very large companies. Quite often they do a horrible job. There's a million opportunities there. How do you find these opportunities? I guess there is no easy answer, or there would be a lot more startups, but if you have any thoughts, that would be great.