

Costs and Startups - Advice for your CFO - mmaunder
http://markmaunder.com/2009/costs-and-startups-advice-for-your-cfo/

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maxcameron
This is a great post. Protecting the modest amount of money we're making now
as an early stage start up is extremely important. The one thing this post
didn't talk about was why it's so important to be so frugal. Having financial
discipline specifically allows a start up to stay independent in times of
difficulty. If we do hit rough times and the revenue dips or stops all
together, we need to be able to get back on our feet without having to take on
any "I hate this but I need it" work. We make a point of avoiding red-flag
clients, unfavourable RFPs, banner-ads for agencies that don't get technology.
I guess my point is, that financial failure isn't what's going to destroy a
start up. It's the fact that in times of need start ups tend to lower their
standards and accept work that inevitably makes us hate our jobs and quit.
Everything from keeping salaries low, to squeezing money out of hardware, to
limiting the amount we spend each month on books, travel, and office supplies
helps us build up a war chest for hard times. And the reason the war chest is
handy isn't because we need it to survive - getting work isn't that hard -
it's because we can wait for the work that we love to do.

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sharpn
I agree, but would add that a frugal company will also beat a less frugal
competitor (or potential competitor) - because they can advertise more, pay
better etc. And when you are more frugal than your competition, you can win
any competition on price, all other things being equal.

I'd also suggest that VC's will always fund a frugal company over their
rival(s) - although that's somewhat hypothetical as I've never accepted
outside funding.

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patio11
In addition to raiding your cluster for the computational equivalent of the
pennies in the couch, you can also charge money for whatever it is that you're
serving 30 million times a day. This is almost magical in its ability to make
it possibly to trivially afford whatever hardware/bandwidth/etc capacity you
need.

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swombat
This is a dangerous approach. Sure, watch your meagre cash resources with
eagle eyes, but you should really beware of false economies. Cash is a tight
resource for any start-up, but there's one resource that's even tighter: time.

If you have a choice between spending $10 or spending 10 hours, don't be
silly. Spend the $10, and keep the 10 hours focused on something that provides
more than $10 of value to you (like making a sale).

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mmaunder
Don't forget though that spending money costs time. You need to spec, buy,
deploy and manage those new servers or employees. And when you decide you need
more money to trade for time, you need to pitch, close and maintain the new
investor relationship. Of course at that point you're actually trading equity
for time.

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fpgeek
In the end, it's a balance. You need keep track of (and understand) the
fluctuating exchange rate between time and money as your business evolves.

