

Bootstrapping / startup-life-hacks we’ve learned (so far) - turoczy
http://maplebutter.com/10-bootstrapping-startup-life-hacks-we%e2%80%99ve-learned-so-far/

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jwwest
"Work from a founder’s home"

Works great unless you're married or have a significant other at home. Trust
me on this, after a week of seeing your face constantly even the most beloved
becomes the most revolting.

See also: <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home>

~~~
ethank
Been working from home for six months and this echoes a bit too painfully
close to the truth. My wife kicks me out daily right now.

~~~
andrewljohnson
My wife and I have worked from home together for years. We have a roommate who
also has his own start-up and works from home. Different strokes...

~~~
foxit
Same here. Husband and I have worked from home together since 2006, and hope
to never have to work apart again.

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nikcub
You got to extremes with budgeting for food but you spend up on hiring a
design firm for your frontend?

Your priorities are out of order. Some of the most successful sites on the web
had completely shit designs.

The Google guys didn't even know html.

~~~
klausa
It's not 1998 anymore. While I agree that design is not key to the success, I
believe that when people see site with bad (like 1998-bad bad) design, they
automatically distrust it.

I also don't think that what they are doing is 'extreme budgeting'. It seems
like pretty reasonable thing that everybody does where I live.

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Xuzz
_If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective,
we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How
To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is
meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."_

— <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

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bmac27
Just for the authors' edification, Scriptlance is very "meh." I found the
providers to usually be at least a tier below Elance, oDesk etc in terms of
quality. $5 dollar-esque bids are the norm, which usually translates into that
level of quality when it comes to code, imagery etc. But as with any freelance
site, it's about the providers first & foremost. Pay close attention to the
portfolios & ask detailed, focused questions before beginning any job.

Also watch out for North American middlemen that go out and farm your projects
out to programmers in India, Bangladesh etc whose quality (or lack of quality)
you may have no awareness of. Not that I haven't been burned in the past or
anything...

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tompetty
"We also truly believe in spending on hiring the right talent, contractors or
agencies (and paying them competitive rates along with rewarding them with
bonuses)."

And yet you recommend crowdsourced design sites like 99designs.com?

~~~
bignoggins
I don't find that mutually exclusive. Having a high priced contest on
99Designs is the best way I know of to get in touch with great designers. You
can work with them further offline as well.

~~~
ralphsaunders
A great designer would not be seen near such a place. Heck, any self
respecting designer would do their best to avoid it. You're buying the time of
kiddies equipped with photoshop, nothing more.

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matdwyer
A Rogers bill! You're missing out... Teksavvy is a rogers reseller that is
cheaper with no caps... since you're in the GTA you may be able to save a
couple bucks through them!

Good tips - I find that the heat of all the PCs/equipment isn't that bad, but
why not opt for somewhere all-inclusive (a ton of condo's have this, since it
seems you're in a condo building)

The ping pong desk is a cool idea, I'd want to make mandatory chill out times
though where say every thursday at 5pm you have a ping pong tourney or
something.

~~~
AdamMeghji
Adam here. Actually, we're with Rogers because they've got a discount
available for condo residents, so it's better value than Teksavvy, all things
considered. I'm a huge Teksavvy fan and have them at home as well! But we
opted for the Rogers deal instead.

The all-inclusive condo option is an interesting idea as well :)

Regular ping pong matches was something we originally wanted to do, but now it
would require moving our monitors, laptops, all-in-one printer, etc. and
that's just too much work! hehe.

If I had to add an 11th point, it would be "SSDs should be mandatory". I've
found a huge productivity increase since switching to one, and will never go
back to anything else for the primary disk on my development machine. That
said, we're bootstrapping, so not everyone has one _yet_ ;)

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keecham
A solid alternative to working from an apartment is to find coworking spaces
in your city. In Atlanta, myself and my cofounder work out of a place that has
plenty of space, tables, printers, etc. and only costs $80/month/person. Also
a great networking tool, as you meet other bootstrapping entrepreneurs!

Additionally, if your city has an entrepeneurship society or network of any
kind, go for the food if nothing else - aside from meeting other
entrepreneurship-minded people, nothing better than a free meal.

~~~
rsanders
I'm based in Atlanta and would love to hear more about that.

~~~
joelhaasnoot
Check out this page:

<http://wiki.coworking.info/w/page/16583399/CoworkingAtlanta>

Or for more general info look here: <http://coworkingregistry.org> or the wiki
linked above on the frontpage has a list of directories:
<http://wiki.coworking.info/w/page/16583831/FrontPage>

There's also a very helpful Coworking Google Group if you want to explore
deeper and find the community.

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jwingy
The bag of rice propping the door open brought a smile to my face. I can just
imagine someone needing to cook some rice then realizing the quantity needed
may tip the balance in favor of the door. A second of hesitation before the
aha moment and finding a new door prop...till the next day when someone goes
"Where the hell is the rice?"

ya.....I need to get back to work!

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jdietrich
That is a _nice_ apartment. Maybe rent is just really cheap in Canada, but to
my limey eyes that place looks distinctly lavish.

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signalsignal
I'm looking at the pictures of your office and thinking you're being penny
wise and pound foolish.

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sutro
My favorite bootstrapping-startup-life-hack is to eat your own dogfood. I'm
not talking about using your own software, I'm talking about eating actual
dogfood. It saves a lot of money.

~~~
feral
I don't know how to say this - but, are you for real?

Its very important to eat well. Yeah, eat cheap food thats fast to cook, but
also make sure its healthy. Vegetables and noodles, pasta, are cheap and
quick.

The safety standards and quality of product that goes into dogfood is very
different than food for human consumption.

From: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_food> "As well, cow brains and spinal
cords, not allowed for human consumption under federal regulation
21CFR589.2000 due to the possibility of transmission of BSE, are allowed to be
included in pet food intended for nonruminant animals."

This is just one example, but _you do not want vCJD_
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disea...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disease)

Its crazy to eat dogfood, don't do it.

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throwawaylol
I'm not sure if you're being serious, but I believe he was referring to:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food>

~~~
feral
I was replying to this: "I'm not talking about using your own software, I'm
talking about eating actual dogfood."

