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Ok: 1. How can you know that you still want to do this same startup in 3 years? You might get married. Get a kid. Get a great job. Loose your legs. Google might

Ok: 1. How can you know that you still want to do this same startup in 3 years? You might get married. Get a kid. Get a great job. Loose your legs. Google might have launched your idea and killed your chances. Just saying. 2. A project that takes 2 years to launch is a recipe for failure. Really. A startup should take, say, 6 months to launch first beta, another 6 months to get really going and get users, during the second year you slowly realize it's not going anywhere, try some alternative approached, in the 3th year you shut it down. That's typical. No way you can work on something for 3 years, launch it and not be hugely dissapointed by its reception on the market. So taking 1 and 2 together: 1. Accept that you won't know what you're doing in 3 years. 2. Accept that you can't plan a successful startup 3 years in advance. 3. Start a small project, one you can launch in 6 months, and consider it a learning experience. Then, by the time your 3 years are over, you'll be ready to start a new startup, fulltime, having learnt a lot. Do NOT plan a 3-year commitment in advance for a startup.

elviejo 17y ago
Yeap imagine in 3 years you make 6 of those six-months projects/experiments. That would give you an edge when you decide to start. or maybe your third or fourth project / experiment is quite interesting and you decide to have two or 3 six months iterations on it. In that case you've found yourself your startup.
auston 17y ago
> A startup should take, say, 6 months to launch first beta... I think he may mean a web-based startup.
matt1 17y ago
Peter, this is really good advice, thank you. I'm not sure where I'll be in three years, but it does help to have a direction. I am married and we do want kids around the same time so that would obviously complicate things, which is partly why I'm trying to figure this out now. Again, thanks for the comments.
- pm 17y ago
  Don't wait. Get an idea, get a co-founder and hit the ground running. Three years sounds like plenty of time, but it took me eight years and four failed attempts at the same goal to get where I wanted to go. You can't count on having a perfect run. Experiment now while you still have more time on your hands.

elviejo 17y ago

Yeap imagine in 3 years you make 6 of those six-months projects/experiments. That would give you an edge when you decide to start. or maybe your third or fourth project / experiment is quite interesting and you decide to have two or 3 six months iterations on it. In that case you've found yourself your startup.

auston 17y ago

> A startup should take, say, 6 months to launch first beta... I think he may mean a web-based startup.

matt1 17y ago

Peter, this is really good advice, thank you. I'm not sure where I'll be in three years, but it does help to have a direction. I am married and we do want kids around the same time so that would obviously complicate things, which is partly why I'm trying to figure this out now. Again, thanks for the comments.

pm 17y ago
Don't wait. Get an idea, get a co-founder and hit the ground running. Three years sounds like plenty of time, but it took me eight years and four failed attempts at the same goal to get where I wanted to go. You can't count on having a perfect run. Experiment now while you still have more time on your hands.