

Ask HN: An early startup, is it worth to start from IT consultant? - fauzias

I, copartner and few candidates partner have this very common problem on startup, we do several roller coaster together, sorta lean startup methodology, but falling at the edge or even before its even start. Perhaps one of the reason was living cost, so most of them going back to firm/freelance again, so things getting messed up. and then i taught myself, if only we have bootstrap/small investment and we can just roll over the product without much concern with those problem. but circumstance isn't that easy, our location/network might not be well enough for that (we're too hectic and geeksocial)<p>So i think it over, one of the way to escape from this evil circle was to build the first stable IT small firm/consultant so that we can bootstrap ourself on the way and start rolling our amazing products<p>So the main question is (was actually advice), is it worthed to run that way? i would really appreciate for the advice given. any<p>Short bio: 3+ Ninja hackers who love biking and passion about new technologies, Nodejs, Ror, real-time web apps, cloud platform, similiar.
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JacobAldridge
There are two risks if you start the consultancy firm first. Both of these can
be discussed with all 3 of you to make sure they do not become a problem
later.

The first risk: when you are making money from consultancy, building the
startup becomes easy to ignore. You might think "I could code today and earn
nothing, or I could charge customers today and make real money". In 1 year you
might all be running a small consultancy business making OK money, but not
having done much on your startup idea.

The second risk: What if 1 of you works more on the startup than the others?
Maybe you agree to share the consultancy money three ways - but that can feel
unfair if two people are bringing in money while the third only does the
startup. Or maybe one of you decides to do the consultancy only - what happens
if the startup becomes really big just after they leave?

So there is no reason not to do the consultancy to bring in money while you
build the startup. Just be aware of the risks and discuss them together (and
write down any decisions, in case you need that later). Good luck!

~~~
fauzias
Appreciate your advice on the risk, I will well put a note on it, from at the
first time whoever join and start code on it, i'll ensure all parties
understand of what focus exactly are our target, which is not becoming the
firm itself, but more like for bootstrapping on our soon becoming products.

I like your advice on the second risk, despite of what i think, other people
and circumstance can get effect. i'll more hardly note about it.

