3 ms·

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

by 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.

by modoc 18y ago

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.