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> When I go to parties and people ask me what I’m doing I know I'm being a little cynical here, but you should be working on your startup, not attending partie

> When I go to parties and people ask me what I’m doing I know I'm being a little cynical here, but you should be working on your startup, not attending parties. If you're going to sacrifice to do something, go all in. I went through a similar process: I left a well paying engineering job to be a technical co-founder at a startup, with a 6x decrease in salary. I had exactly $30k in savings, not including retirement, but was lucky to make an income of $24k right off the bat. I cut my expenses to the bone--short-sold my house and moved into low-income housing, took my clothes to a seamstress to repair, bought from second hand stores, racked up credit card debt, did a couple side gigs to get a free gym membership, basically everything to conserve my cash. It was great to get my expenses down, but it was not fun having to make tough decisions. Ultimately, I ended up parting ways with the startup, and rejoined the workforce as a dev, but not after whittling my savings down to nothing, and racking up $10k in debt. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat, because it was one of the best experiences of my life (also being a part of TechStars helped).

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- balls187 13y ago
  perhaps, then again, he's formerly worked at a VC firm. Getting relationship with investors shouldn't a problem. Product Market Fit > Relationship Investors. Of course, I don't know how many people he has on his team working on the company. If he is the face (ceo), then going to parties may help. Still, if you build a great product, with customers who love it, you'll get funding.
beachstartup 13y ago
> I know I'm being a little cynical here, but you should be working on your startup, not attending parties. to all readers: this grumpy cat judgemental attitude is not mandatory and i don't think it should be encouraged. please get a grip on reality, this world you live in filled with other people. you're allowed to go to parties and enjoy the company of other people if you are running a startup. a startup is a lot of things, but it's not a prison sentence. if it feels that way, you're doing it wrong. maybe you just suck at business. i run a successful, profitable 7-figure revenue startup with no external funding and all of my cofounders and critical employees have always gone out to parties, both work-related and not. that doesn't mean i'm rich. that means i have a business that is expanding, which is what entrepreneurs all trying to achieve. "partying" is not blowing 10k on a weekend in vegas or getting expensive bottle service at nightclubs, although you can certainly do that if you want to, because who am i to judge you? partying is hanging out with your coworkers at the bar, going to a birthday bbq, or celebrating someone's engagement. i also never had to do stuff like sell my belongings and rack up credit card debt or cut my income to 1/6th of what it was. all this says to me is that you refused to get better at sales. which isn't exactly a shocker if you are on the internet extolling the virtues of shunning social interaction.
- balls187 13y ago
  Logic fail: arguing by anecdote, ad hominem, and straw man. The advice not to be judgmental, then in the same comment being judgmental makes you a hypocrite. You're allowed to do whatever you want, it's your life, and your time to spend however you wish. But if you're running a company and trying to get it off the ground, I believe that every minute should be spent getting it off the ground until it is. It means making the tough decision to miss a friend's wedding because you have an important customer demo on Monday that you have to build. It means backing on a romantic getaway with your girlfriend because an investor wants to meet you that Saturday. Do you need down time, sure, but startups are hard work, and are going to fail, and unless you're willing to do whatever it takes to make it succeed, then what business do you have running a company. http://blog.startupcompass.co/73-percent-of-startup-founders-make-50-dollars-000-per-year-or-less http://blog.startupcompass.co/73-percent-of-startup-founders... Not all founders have the benefit of keeping a good salary, a sizable savings account, or other means of maintaining their current life style. At $24k, it didn't make sense to keep a $3k a month mortgage, so I sold my house, and was committed to extending my personal runway for as long as possible. Living off of limited resources has nothing to do with "sucking" at sales. In our first year, we got damn close to being revenue neutral with large fortune 50 companies as customers, part of TechStars, raised a sizable seed round, and had some other very good success indicators (given that all three of us were first time founders, and this we were only 1-year old). Since you want to "get a grip on reality"--most startups require some amount of sacrifice. That you didn't have to, is great, but certainly not the status quo. Perhaps you've found the true path to startup success, and as such you should write a book, create a startup accelerator and make more than 7-figures in revenue.
  - beachstartup 13y ago
    http://cdn.grumpycats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/I-Had-Fun-Once-It-Was-Awful.jpeg http://cdn.grumpycats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/I-Had-F...
- balls187 13y ago
  Also, apparently every commenter on HN runs a 7-figure startup.
PhasmaFelis 13y ago
> I know I'm being a little cynical here, but you should be working on your startup, not attending parties. If you're going to sacrifice to do something, go all in. This is ridiculous. Devoting every waking moment to your job is a quick road to burnout and permanent failure. You need personal time to relax and blow off steam, whether that's going to parties or quietly reading in your living room.
- SyneRyder 13y ago
  Absolutely must agree with this. While you definitely need to put in a helluva lot of effort and passion and be absolutely driven... if you skip socializing, you won't just destroy your startup, you'll destroy yourself in the process. Seriously. Partying & socializing can be huge distractions for sure, but social skills atrophy, so you have got to balance the two. A startup founder that doesn't reconnect with the real world once in a while runs too much risk of building something no-one wants.
- balls187 13y ago
  > Devoting every waking moment to your job I agree. But a startup is more than a job. The mentality I had as an employee is much different than what I had as a founder. Some start-ups are like rocket ships, and they just take off and wildly successful. More often than not, most startups don't have that amazing trajectory right off the bat. My personal belief is that taking that extra hour to perfect a feature, or refine a pitch, or do customer outreach, or test your product, is what separates the rest of the startups--ones that make it to the next level, with those that don't. There is some element of luck and skill involved, but it's that championship drive that is required. Do you need time to ensure you don't crash and burn-yeah, I'm totally with that. Perhaps the poster's way to let off steam is to go to parties, which seems doubtful--though I suspect he probably doesn't really go to a lot of parties, and that it was more of a figure of speech.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

balls187 13y ago
perhaps, then again, he's formerly worked at a VC firm. Getting relationship with investors shouldn't a problem. Product Market Fit > Relationship Investors. Of course, I don't know how many people he has on his team working on the company. If he is the face (ceo), then going to parties may help. Still, if you build a great product, with customers who love it, you'll get funding.

beachstartup 13y ago

> I know I'm being a little cynical here, but you should be working on your startup, not attending parties. to all readers: this grumpy cat judgemental attitude is not mandatory and i don't think it should be encouraged. please get a grip on reality, this world you live in filled with other people. you're allowed to go to parties and enjoy the company of other people if you are running a startup. a startup is a lot of things, but it's not a prison sentence. if it feels that way, you're doing it wrong. maybe you just suck at business. i run a successful, profitable 7-figure revenue startup with no external funding and all of my cofounders and critical employees have always gone out to parties, both work-related and not. that doesn't mean i'm rich. that means i have a business that is expanding, which is what entrepreneurs all trying to achieve. "partying" is not blowing 10k on a weekend in vegas or getting expensive bottle service at nightclubs, although you can certainly do that if you want to, because who am i to judge you? partying is hanging out with your coworkers at the bar, going to a birthday bbq, or celebrating someone's engagement. i also never had to do stuff like sell my belongings and rack up credit card debt or cut my income to 1/6th of what it was. all this says to me is that you refused to get better at sales. which isn't exactly a shocker if you are on the internet extolling the virtues of shunning social interaction.

balls187 13y ago
Logic fail: arguing by anecdote, ad hominem, and straw man. The advice not to be judgmental, then in the same comment being judgmental makes you a hypocrite. You're allowed to do whatever you want, it's your life, and your time to spend however you wish. But if you're running a company and trying to get it off the ground, I believe that every minute should be spent getting it off the ground until it is. It means making the tough decision to miss a friend's wedding because you have an important customer demo on Monday that you have to build. It means backing on a romantic getaway with your girlfriend because an investor wants to meet you that Saturday. Do you need down time, sure, but startups are hard work, and are going to fail, and unless you're willing to do whatever it takes to make it succeed, then what business do you have running a company. http://blog.startupcompass.co/73-percent-of-startup-founders-make-50-dollars-000-per-year-or-less http://blog.startupcompass.co/73-percent-of-startup-founders... Not all founders have the benefit of keeping a good salary, a sizable savings account, or other means of maintaining their current life style. At $24k, it didn't make sense to keep a $3k a month mortgage, so I sold my house, and was committed to extending my personal runway for as long as possible. Living off of limited resources has nothing to do with "sucking" at sales. In our first year, we got damn close to being revenue neutral with large fortune 50 companies as customers, part of TechStars, raised a sizable seed round, and had some other very good success indicators (given that all three of us were first time founders, and this we were only 1-year old). Since you want to "get a grip on reality"--most startups require some amount of sacrifice. That you didn't have to, is great, but certainly not the status quo. Perhaps you've found the true path to startup success, and as such you should write a book, create a startup accelerator and make more than 7-figures in revenue.
- beachstartup 13y ago
  http://cdn.grumpycats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/I-Had-Fun-Once-It-Was-Awful.jpeg http://cdn.grumpycats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/I-Had-F...
balls187 13y ago
Also, apparently every commenter on HN runs a 7-figure startup.

PhasmaFelis 13y ago

> I know I'm being a little cynical here, but you should be working on your startup, not attending parties. If you're going to sacrifice to do something, go all in. This is ridiculous. Devoting every waking moment to your job is a quick road to burnout and permanent failure. You need personal time to relax and blow off steam, whether that's going to parties or quietly reading in your living room.

SyneRyder 13y ago
Absolutely must agree with this. While you definitely need to put in a helluva lot of effort and passion and be absolutely driven... if you skip socializing, you won't just destroy your startup, you'll destroy yourself in the process. Seriously. Partying & socializing can be huge distractions for sure, but social skills atrophy, so you have got to balance the two. A startup founder that doesn't reconnect with the real world once in a while runs too much risk of building something no-one wants.
balls187 13y ago
> Devoting every waking moment to your job I agree. But a startup is more than a job. The mentality I had as an employee is much different than what I had as a founder. Some start-ups are like rocket ships, and they just take off and wildly successful. More often than not, most startups don't have that amazing trajectory right off the bat. My personal belief is that taking that extra hour to perfect a feature, or refine a pitch, or do customer outreach, or test your product, is what separates the rest of the startups--ones that make it to the next level, with those that don't. There is some element of luck and skill involved, but it's that championship drive that is required. Do you need time to ensure you don't crash and burn-yeah, I'm totally with that. Perhaps the poster's way to let off steam is to go to parties, which seems doubtful--though I suspect he probably doesn't really go to a lot of parties, and that it was more of a figure of speech.