
Startups Are Hard - tlb
http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/05/02/startups-are-hard.html
======
tptacek
There's a meme to be spawned about things that work like the parole narrative
in The Shawshank Redemption, where good things only happen when you decide to
stop giving a shit about them. Deal closing of all sorts definitely fits it.

In the meantime, perhaps console yourself this way: you haven't found the
pitch that's opening investor wallets yet, and maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe the pitch you're using isn't your best bet; maybe a "yes" at meeting 38
would have put you on a bad path.

My friends and I got a high-seven-figures "yes" in '99 that ultimately killed
our company.

Meanwhile, Matasano went through exactly what you did in 2005; every company
that found a "yes" got dead as a result. We're relieved to have dodged the
funding trap.

Best of luck to you. You don't need gatekeeping investors to succeed.

~~~
puredemo
Time and time again, anecdotes like this make me want to avoid investors
entirely.

------
noelsequeira
While the entire post is both cathartic and poignant, one line stood out for
me because of its brutal honesty.

 _Am I jealous of other companies' success? I would be lying if I said no._

Thank you for saying this. I've always wanted to, but feared I'd be called out
for it. In public. In fact, I think it's part of what keeps the fire burning
inside - that constant hunger to try and figure out why some folks are plain
better / more successful at the game, and then trying and internalizing /
applying those lessons.

And it can get frustrating when you can't replicate / emulate what others have
achieved seemingly easily. As a corollary, this is probably why Jack Dorsey
and Dennis Crowley are enigmas unto themselves.

An important aside: Chad, I'm someone who has tracked (and may I add envied)
the Notifo story. And I admire the work you've done, from fanout.js, to
snagging Paul for a co-founder, to HN for Android, to PicAFight, to GramFrame,
to Vorepad........I've found myself in awe of how prolific you've been (and
you don't even know me).

It's possible you've been doing one thing too many (because you love APIs and
can't keep from tinkering with them). What I'm convinced of, is that you have
the talent, the work ethic and an incredible co-founder. All the best, I'm
hoping I have to transition back into pure envy real soon.

~~~
jazzychad
Thank you for this.

I was doing all that "one thing too many" stuff during the "crap, what are we
gonna do now" phase where we weren't super productive and just played around
with prototyping some ideas.

Not shipping anything made me feel terrible, so we spent some time making
random side-projects to stay sharp. All of them were good learning exercises,
too. I made sure that each project had some part of it that I didn't know how
to do, so it would force me to learn new things.

~~~
auston
I never understood why you didn't charge for Notifo? I would have paid
_something_ for it.

~~~
kwis
The #1 reason I ignored notifo is I couldn't understand the business model. As
such, for our internal systems, we notify via SMS, email and jabber. Things
that I know will still be around in a year.

------
chr15
I left my job to work on my startup full-time, and agree with all of this.
It's one of the hardest things I've done. I had to detach myself from material
possessions and live frugally. I don't have much of a social life anymore
because it's expensive. I've had to force myself to work when I didn't feel
like it days at a time. Programming was no longer fun.

If you're not ready to sacrifice everything you have, possibly including your
health, then work on your project on the side. You really do have to be crazy
to be an entrepreneur.

The positives: It's thickened my skin, I manage my finances better, I
appreciate things more, I treat people better.

~~~
arkitaip
Thanks for sharing that. We've had a lot of articles lately that treat
startups like 9-5 jobs so I think it's important that people like you give
some perspective on how it's really like for the waste majority of startups.

This reminds me why passion is so crucial when starting your own business. You
will work crazy under conditions that most employees would see as unreasonable
and there is a great risk that the business will fail. But as long as your
doing it out of passion you can motivate yourself through the hard times and,
if it doesn't work out, walk away with the satisfying feeling that you
followed your dream and gave it all you got.

Would you say that your passion played an important part in managing your
business?

~~~
chr15
Absolutely. I chose the entrepreneurship route because it's something I that I
feel I was born to do. Of course, I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a
positive demeanor on the outside despite sacrificing a lot. It will take a lot
of adjustments if you decide to bootstrap a startup full-time.

------
ChuckMcM
Nicely done. I especially liked _"We let them [the investors] dictate our path
with their negative signaling instead of listening to our guts."_

This trap is something that is so easy to fall into and so painful to pull out
of. My first startup had a 'star' VC fronting it, he loved the concept but
didn't really understand that his vision was often in conflict with the
founder's vision. That really hurt as the company was ripped too and fro
trying to achieve a couple of really orthogonal goals.

Tom Lyon once told me that really it takes three startups before you 'get it'.
One which is a somplete disaster, it helps you see what you did wrong and what
can go wrong. One which isn't a complete disaster but exits sideways, which is
to say you work at it day and night but when it exits you find yourself
exactly where you were when you started. Then the third one where you know
what to expect, you have a solid idea of what _not_ to do and you keep laser
focused on getting in, getting done, and getting it shipped.

It is very hard though, always.

------
a5seo
Anyone thinking about moving to SF to launch a startup needs to read the
Sacrifies and Startup Depression section 10x, assume it will be worse for you,
and then decide.

And doubly so if you're married. If your spouse isn't on board and you've
minimized the challenge, you're screwed.

~~~
Cherian_Abraham
We cannot afford to drop everthing and move to SF. And considering where we
are (Richmond in Virginia) and our roots here, we feel like we owe this town.
There are a lot of things we are surely missing out by not moving to the
Valley, which is the startup ecosystem, the investors, the talent etc. But
startups also have to deal with the noise, the saturation, and the "meh" when
you launch. Where as in Richmond, we can possibly have a far bigger impact,
with a lot more people who will love us, and we are right next to DC.

I am sure we will not know if we made the right choice, for a long time. But I
dont buy in to the belief that unless you are in the Valley, no one will give
a damn (as touted by Vivek Wadhwa a few weeks ago).

Any thoughts?

EDIT: Needed to add a couple more thoughts that came out of the responses my
post received.

a) Its really hard to find talent in SF - Right now, we are one non-tech
founder and two hackers. And finding android or iOS talent in Richmond is like
looking for needles. But I believe that if you find a darn good hacker, then a
new tool or language is just a speedbump. We are still trying to find a very
good UX designer though.

b) I agree with the Valley vibe. But it sounds more of a Goldrush than
anything else. And I also agree with the vibrant support system that the
Valley can provide. Right now, I get that through HN, blogs and my peers over
email and phone.

~~~
sawyer
Completely agree. I am in the same boat as a Canadian not wanting to move to
the states. While it may be true that many investors will rule you out based
on location; my firm belief is that first time entrepreneurs should spend
their time acquiring customers, not investors.

Customers generally don't mind if you're not in the valley (although it is
true that if your product is built for tech oriented people the bay area may
be a high customer saturation zone.)

~~~
tlb
It matters to customers who are themselves in the valley, like me. I know the
teams behind most of the products and web services I use, and it matters that
I know who to call when something doesn't work. If customers in the tech world
are important to you, you should be where you can go meet them for coffee.

------
prpon
Chad, Couldn't have said any better about startups being hard. I wish you and
Paul success. You have so many things that are going right for you. Access to
great mentors, being part of YC, being in the valley and having a supporting
family. You just need that missing piece for which people would really pay. As
a nobody, you have not much to lose. We will be here to cheer you on when you
find that missing link.

------
stevenj
I think that the "making something people want" at the right time is the
hardest part, and maybe distribution as well.

Execution is important.

But I think many people have the skills to create what ends up being
successful.

Take Groupon for example. It made something a lot of people wanted. Could most
people on Hacker News have made it? Sure.

But Groupon created it before anyone else (I might be wrong about this?).

Another example is HN. Pg has said that what he thinks users want most are
quality articles and discussion.

While it's "just a forum", I think Pg is right for not adding a lot of
features, or spending the limited time he has working on the UI, and instead
focusing on how people can discover quality articles and make/read quality
comments.

"Make something people want." It's simple, but it sure isn't easy.

~~~
patio11
_Take Groupon for example. It made something a lot of people wanted. Could
most people on Hacker News have made it? Sure. But Groupon created it before
anyone else (I might be wrong about this?)._

Group buying has been done many, many times before, going back to the bubble.
Many millions of dollars were burned to little avail. What Groupon actually
nailed was all the hard parts of the business model that don't look really
freaking difficult on the napkin -- particularly "signing up local merchants"
and "cost-effective customer acquisition."

That second one is relevant for virtually all businesses and gets
disproportionately short shrift here.

~~~
stevenj
>What Groupon actually nailed was all the hard parts of the business model
that don't look really freaking difficult on the napkin -- particularly
"signing up local merchants" and "cost-effective customer acquisition."

I may be misunderstanding what you're saying, but signing up local merchants
doesn't seem all that hard. There seem to be many Groupon clones that have
produced deals with merchants.

The main problem for the clones is not having Groupon's scale/distribution.

I think what Groupon got right was the simplicity of its offering.

One page that clearly explains what you're getting, at at least 50% off.

When looking at an offering, I see a picture, a short and sometimes
funny/interesting description of the offering, short crisp bullet points about
restrictions, how many people have bought it, how much time is left, and
contact info -- specifically where the place is located.

That's really easy to understand. The user can vote yes or no in a minute or
two.

------
DanielBMarkham
Here's another bit of sunshine to brighten your day:

Looking at the stats, and hanging out on HN for a while, it occurs to me that
_having a successful startup might be the coolest thing you do in your life
business-wise_. A zillion guys kick ass on a startup after college, only to
hang around the community for decades afterwards, looking to write a check,
trying to get back in on the action. As rare as profitable startups are,
repeat entrepreneurs are even rarer. Maybe you're that one-in-ten-million guy.
Probably not.

So if it takes 20 years, I wouldn't sweat it. If there's one thing I've
learned to believe in, it's that everything in startups takes a lot longer and
is a lot harder than you think it is. So even when you imagine this really
tough and difficult journey lasting for years, it's probably going to be worse
than that.

I'm not saying that to encourage you to give up, I just wouldn't spend a
second of my time waiting for the calvary to arrive, because they aren't.

~~~
ra
> _"...everything in startups takes a lot longer and is a lot harder than you
> think it is. So even when you imagine this really tough and difficult
> journey lasting for years, it's probably going to be worse than that."_

Never a truer word spoken.

------
sawyer
It's anecdotes like these that reinforce my belief that for a bootstrapping
pre-success founder it's easier to focus on revenue rather than investment.
The growth curve might be slower, but the friction you face as a first time
entrepreneur trying to raise money is deadly.

------
bluekite2000
You are still in a better situation than many here. SF's coffee shops are
littered w/ debt-laden (pseudo)-hackers who have half-baked ideas/projects, no
gf's (or wives), zero connection to anyone of value and sleeping on a sofa of
some friend's musty apartment.

~~~
PStamatiou
Haha I get lots of my work done at coffee shops. :)

------
dabent
Someone offered me a job recently. One of the people who interviewed me knew I
had a side project that could become a startup. His advice was exactly what
jazzychad said: startups are hard. He had been in one, so his advice meant
something.

I turned down the offer, but for reasons unrelated to my side project. Still I
feel like my project/startup is floating in the Sargasso Sea. If you think
getting funding in the Bay Area is hard, move to Atlanta. There's a reason
Stammy is out there.

And you can't be _too_ much of a Nobody if you can get into YC twice. I wish
team Notifo (or whatever your next project is) all the best.

~~~
jazzychad
I think there are different degrees of Nobodiness and Somebodiness, but I also
think there is a pretty big gap between the highest Nobody, and the lowest
Somebody. Maybe I am moving up the Nobody scale :) I don't want to belabor the
point or make it seem like I am self-deprecating, but you get the point.

~~~
dabent
> I think there are different degrees of Nobodiness and Somebodiness

Indeed. You now at least you know a Somebody or two. Many folks don't get that
far.

A misquote from the article (my perspective):

> Am I jealous of other companies' success? I would be lying if I said no. I
> am slightly jealous when I wake up and read another story about some company
> getting into YC when I didn't even get an interview.

I'd also be lying if I wasn't genuinely happy for every company that gets any
sort of success, because I'm now getting a taste for how hard it really is.

------
divya
Great post! The thing that really rang true was the part about the
fundraising/depression/derailment, and how that can lead a start-up to
consider some random/terrible offers that would otherwise be totally bogus.
Paul talked us off a few bad-acquisition cliffs as well.

We certainly went through all of that at Jamglue. It's absolutely true that
being a founder, especially the fundraising part, requires a really thick
skin.

Each time I think about doing another startup, I start having flashbacks to
broken termsheets, bullshit EBITDA projections, and VC's telling us that they
could introduce us to Quincy Jones (I swear, at least 7 different people told
us this). When we came out of our fundraising stint (penniless), we realized
that our product had suffered and we were completely broken people.

The ability to be self-aware about the emotional roller-coaster is invaluable,
and essential to forward progress. Thanks for this honest account so that
others can make some sense about what they are feeling.

------
rmason
This is the reality. I well remember hearing Steve Blank speak when he said
nine out of ten of us in the audience would fail. But he said each of you are
thinking that you will be the one who succeeds and are feeling sorry for the
other nine. I didn't realize it at the time but he defined what it is to be an
entrepreneur for us.

------
spottiness
Your problem are irrationally high expectations. Most of us suffer from naive
optimism and that is a great motivator, a harmless one if we use it to fuel
our enthusiasm while working late at night. The problem arises when
dehydration makes you see an Oasis everywhere, when you become delusional. We
humans suck at calculating expected value, particularly when there are huge
outcomes with very very very tiny probabilities. That's why so many people
play the lottery and that's what you're doing: playing the lottery, and
there's nothing you can do to win it. Even with your perseverance and focus,
with your knowledge and hard work, if you win it you are just very lucky. On
the other hand, there's a lot you can do to be happy. With your youth, your
wife, your intelligence, and your hard work, if you don't reach a state of
emotional satisfaction then you are very unlucky.

My advice to you would be to define your threshold of success as something you
can control. Focus on your surroundings. Get one client and satisfy him. Don't
do it for money but for the pleasure of having an impact on somebody else. You
can be your first client too; in fact, that's what we did when we built
Spottiness: it's for us, we do what we can, we are nobodies and we don't care.

------
adebelov
As an entrepreneur reading your post, I couldn't sympathize more with your
situation. Startups are hard, startups are not for everyone and as Arrington
would say, you are not a pirate until you start a company.

However, I would change your attitude a little bit. In your post you seem to
focus on your sacrifices and being jealous of other successes. Well, when I
see that Color and other startups raise a ton of money, I get SUPER excited!
Why? Because if they can do it, I can do it too! As far as sacrifices go,
realize that you are still better than 90% of the entire world. Being grateful
for things that we have is a force multiplier. I am grateful for what I have
and having the opportunity to build a company in Silicon Valley is a life long
dream come true. Dreams are bigger than sacrifices. If you believe in
yourself, you believe in your product, your customers will believe in you and
your investors will too.

Good luck. And enjoy the journey, in the end life is just a game (whether you
are a doctor, investment banker or entrepreneur, we all have finite amount of
time on this planet).

------
ZackOfAllTrades
"The less you need money, the more people want to give it to you." - some
advice I have heard about finances. Applies to businesses selling a product,
startups looking for money, and, especially well, to scholarships.

The best indication that people should invest in you is that you don't need
them to invest in you at all.

------
pclark
so wait, is notifo.com going through yc again? (I only ask, because if not,
and notifo is dead, that sucks)

~~~
jazzychad
Notifo is not dead, but the future is not certain (just as for any startup).
We are going through YC again in order to figure things out and really figure
out our direction for the future.

~~~
pclark
Are you going _in_ with that product?

~~~
jazzychad
We are going _in_ as founders with ideas. Some info we can't reveal just yet,
so I'll have to leave it at that.

~~~
nhangen
Well heck, getting into YC is a feat unto itself. Considering all of the
others that can't even get that far, at least you have a glimmer of hope.

Edit: I'm curious - why the downvote?

~~~
dwynings
I didn't downvote you, but if I had to guess, it'd be because people perceived
"at least you have a glimmer of hope" as downplaying or minimizing their
struggle.

~~~
nhangen
Not at all. As someone going through very similar struggles, I can relate
100%.

~~~
dwynings
That's what I figured. :)

------
Maro
Great post.

I've also had "Startup depression" where I didn't sleep for 1 week and was
totally unproductive for a grand total of 2-3 weeks. Ever since then I stopped
recommending doing startups to my friends.

We've also experienced the "You're Nobody until you're Somebody problem." The
work-around we're trying right now is to bring a (non-technical) "Somebody"
onboard as a partner/founder, who is also, unlike us, located in the US where
our market is.

Location has also come up in this thread. Early on I thought that thanks to
the Internet location matters "less". Not true. You have to be where your
investors/customers are. Deals require massive face time.

------
gersh
Are starups really that hard, or do they just require certain skills? Is it
luck? Are you in the wrong place in the wrong time? Do you just lack the
necessary skills? Do you lack the social support?

In school, you just gotta do what the teacher tells you to do, and you get an
'A'. You get a job and you just gotta be able to do what your boss wants you
to do. Startups require you to find your own nitch, and do something
different. No one is telling you what to do.

So, you can work real hard and work like before, but end up pursuing an empty
hole. However, is this really harder?

------
cft
What I find interesting, is that you can build a fairly large and profitable
bootstrapped company, but unless you got VC money in the Silicon Valley the
standard way, from the right people, you will always remain a bit of persona
non grata, not particularly liked by Arrington, Techcrunch and the
establishment. There will be no hype, no press, even if your revenue is larger
than say Digg's in its heyday. I am speaking from experience, but I know of
many other examples.

------
ojbyrne
I think startups are like poker.

\- they're 80% luck and 20% skill

\- but the people who have been successful work hard to promote the idea
(which they also generally believe) that they're 20% luck and 80% skill.

------
zacharytamas
Good luck to you guys! I've known Paul a couple years and even helped him
catch some bugs in Skribit back in the day. The article was very interesting
as a friend and I are just starting to design and develop on an app idea that
started out--like many do-- as a very small humble idea but with a lot of
dreaming has evolved into an interesting solution. Good luck on Notifo, and
with any luck maybe we'll cross paths somewhere.

------
hong
I can't believe how much you sacrificed. Here I am thinking I had it hard.
It's so great that you are upbeat and energetic long after the YC days despite
all your sacrifice. Best of luck to all your efforts!

Strange and pathetic as it may sound to my non-startup friends, I couldn't
agree more on the point of having a support group. Everyday there are things
pushing my limit, and if not for my friends, I would have gone crazy by now.

------
ttran08
Thanks for the great post! I don't think you'll ever quit until you succeed. I
think the key to creating that one successful company is about trials and
errors. "Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing
the failure, making a change, and then trying again." Don't be afraid to fail
early and fail often, until you hit the nail right on the head. One thing I
didn't understand from looking at your project is, why did you feel the need
to get funding to begin with? It doesn't cost much to keep a website alive,
and you have the support of your wife in order to continue developing for
Notifo or a new project. I'm also a co-founder myself, so I'd like to know if
there's something I'm missing here. :) Another thing I'm curious about is, why
you're so set on sticking with Notifo, instead of moving on with a new idea?
Is it because you already have tons of users and you need money to expand your
company? I've only been involved with one website and I'm still learning, so
it'd be great to learn more insights so I know what to expect ahead of time.
:)

~~~
jazzychad
Why raise money? We wanted to expand and move faster by hiring and finding
office space. That takes a big chunk of money. Also, we are paying ourselves
meager salaries in order to pay rent/bills, which also takes money. If we
hadn't raised a Friends and Family round early last summer, we would already
be dead. Raising another round was supposed to help us grow.

------
ad80
Great post Chad, people thinking or already starting startups have to wake up
and stop believing that if every second article on TC is about another
funding, that there is already money waiting for them.

And with regards to Nobody / Somebody.... this post, might get you closer than
you think to Somebody ;)

Good luck! You have the right product. Think what's missing...and is it really
money?

------
stevelaz
Great read! It's great to hear some of the brutal truth about attempting to do
what we all love to dream about but mostly FAIL at.

------
thomaspun
Startups are harder than anything I have read online (yours definitely put
another well needed perspective on this subject). I have also wondered why
none of my investors (or even YC) asked what the founders sacrificed to do
what they do.

I"m so glad that your plan to go thru YC again worked out. Beer time! I so
believe in you two and can't wait to see what comes out.

~~~
PStamatiou
Beer time indeed Thomas! Thanks for chatting with us when we were down in the
dumps. :) You guys are part of our startup support group. One of these days
I'll be able to make it to one of your basketball games!

------
dools
Wow you went on a cruise? You have money in the bank? You're going through YC
again? Sounds awesome! Focus on the positives. You'll regret getting down in
the dumps now, when you look back and realise how good you had it. Make the
most of now and stop worrying so much.

~~~
jazzychad
The cruise was a Christmas gift from my in-laws. No way we could have afforded
it on our own :)

Yes, there are plenty of positives to focus on, and that is what we are doing.
It doesn't mean that there aren't still struggles.

~~~
dools
Certainly and it's good to hear about the struggles. I was chatting with a guy
the other day about how little information there is about failure and how then
only really spectacular failures make the news. There must be so much we can
learn from people who don't quite make it, or who make it small time!

When reading this post, though, I was just a little nonplussed at why you were
telling me how hard it all is when it seems as though you're going pretty
well.

------
barisme
Wow, your catharsis really comes through in your writing. If nothing else,
maybe there's a memoir in all this ;) Seriously though, stay positive and stay
in the habit of asking people for help when you're stuck. And don't just ask
investors, 'cause their agenda might force them to say 'double or nothing'
every time. Ask friends, other tech people, people who work on FOSS, old
college professors, online friends. You need to develop, but you also need to
spend a lot of time in front of other people. Also, make sure you're doing
something you like. If the work is not rewarding, find something that is.

------
trickjarrett
Kudos to you for saying and admitting the hard things for the startup
entrepreneur. Failing sucks. Struggling to not fail sucks even more because it
can just drain you. Best of luck :)

------
gsharma
I understand the frustration when things are not moving along, but finding a
solution to that is the only thing that filters out successful startups out of
all the other startups.

All the best with your YC Summer 2011!

For what's it worth - Tim Westergren of Pandora pitched 300+ VCs before he
raised money for series A. More on it:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/pandora-300-vc-
rejections-201...](http://www.businessinsider.com/pandora-300-vc-
rejections-2011-2)

------
jkaljundi
_"if you are having trouble putting together a round in the first few weeks of
actual investor meetings, just say, "screw it," and get back to working
ASAP."_ \- this seems a little extreme, to say the least, not sure I agree. It
might apply to some premium selected YC startups in frothy Silicon Valley
conditions, but not in general. Putting together a round takes time and quite
often much much more than a few weeks.

~~~
jazzychad
that's why I say "of actual investor meetings." doing all the intros, and
phone calls, and scheduling leading up to the meetings can take quiet a while
and are necessary. But after you get to the "meeting phase", you really don't
want to be spinning your wheels too long.

~~~
jkaljundi
A few related links: [http://www.quora.com/Brendan-Baker/Anatomy-of-Seed-An-
Inside...](http://www.quora.com/Brendan-Baker/Anatomy-of-Seed-An-Inside-Look-
at-a-1M-Seed-Round) [http://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-typically-take-to-
clos...](http://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-typically-take-to-close-Angel-
or-Series-A-financing-once-the-valuation-and-basic-terms-are-agreed-on)
[http://www.quora.com/For-a-seed-angel-round-how-long-does-
it...](http://www.quora.com/For-a-seed-angel-round-how-long-does-it-typically-
take-from-initial-pitch-to-closing-money-in-the-bank)

------
JoeAltmaier
So startups the YC way are hard. The sacrifice is self-inflicted, and
avoidable - just give up more of your company up front, or choose a more
visible partner, or have a spouse that has a real income to start with, or
work at BigCo then quit and create something they need and lease/contract it
back to them, etc.

Its winning the lottery that is hard, and only because you make it hard on
yourself for that big prize.

~~~
jazzychad
No pain, no gain.

------
fleaflicker
_The truth is, it hasn't been worth it at all... yet._

What about being your own boss? What about learning & producing at 10 times
the rate you would at a desk job?

Also, I think you'll find there are plenty of "Nobodys" with past successes.
Don't do it for the fame.

~~~
jazzychad
Those fall into the "hard to quantify" category. They are positives, yes, but
there are equal amounts of negatives to go along with them. Hard to measure
exactly, so I went with the easiest way to measure "worth it" in terms of
running a company... finances.

------
je42
Thank you for posting this ! The whole post means quite a bit for me. Almost
every word you write feels familiar.

I wish you good luck with with your startup. Actually I wish all startups
having difficulty raising the next round good luck.

------
rogerjin
I'm right there with you Chad. We've got a strong team, yet are still weeks
away from launching, and it's just truly amazing how much failure and
rejection we have faced over the past few months.

------
szcukg
What a bloody good read......they say nothing in life that is worth having
ever comes easy....stay there chad...grit it out....you'll reach where u
want....success will come..good luck have fun

------
happyfeet
Thanks for sharing this Chad. It means a lot to me, for someone who is just
getting into startup life with wife and kid to support, giving up a well-paid
'secure' day job.

An inspiring poem shared by my friend. Was read out by Winston Churchill at
the beginning of Second World War.

\-----------------------------------------

SAY not the struggle naught availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The
enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the
main.

And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light; In
front the sun climbs slow, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright!

\----------------------------

Here is the paraphrase shared by the friend:

Don’t say that the long struggle [against tyranny and injustice] is of no
avail; don’t say that all your efforts, and all the injuries you’ve sustained,
were in vain. Don’t say that the enemy’s just as strong as ever; and don’t say
that nothing’s changed for the better!

If the things you hoped for haven’t happened, well, maybe the things you’re
scared of won’t happen either. Perhaps over there on the battlefield, now
obscured by smoke, your comrades are chasing the enemy away, and all they need
to ensure victory is that you go and join them.

Look! Those waves don’t seem to be making much headway, even though the tide’s
supposedly coming in. But far behind you, unseen creeks and inlets are
swelling with incoming waters: the sea really is on the move after all!

Look! The eastern window you’re sitting at isn’t the only place affected by
sunrise; from there, yes, it’s true, the sun hardly seems to moving up the sky
at all— but cross the room and look through a westward-facing casement: see
how the whole landscape’s already flooded with light!

Clough had just personally witnessed how Garibaldi's brave attempt to help
preserve a new Roman Republic had been foiled when the forces of reaction
(led, ironically enough, by the French) had successfully brought the Siege of
Rome to an end in 1848. He was trying to cheer up fellow-supporters of reform
and of independence for Italy. They were all feeling pretty downhearted.
That's the historical context.

------
hamiltonchan
Super duper post, Chad. What you've done so remarkably in this post is you've
captured "truth." Looking forward to one-upping you in comparing sad founder
stories over beers.

------
lsiu
Good read. I hope you make it someday!

------
meow
Wow, thats an eye opening picture of startup life. I really hope these guys
succeed.

------
Eagleman99
"A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them."
H.Kravis

------
zackattack
I always thought notifo was a terrible idea. It doesn't really add any value.
Change your idea please. I mean look at your services page. The number one
thing is "google voice alerts" so you can save money by not getting texts.
Let's say you save someone $1. There's no way they're gonna pay you $1 for
that. Then you also list Skribit on that page, a dead service.

I would take the mobile notification technology and pivot to notifying about
something people care about, like people in the vicinity with similar
interests.

~~~
jazzychad
There are a lot of non-public facing services using Notifo for internal
communication/alerts. We do have an app in the pipeline that is an offshoot of
Notifo's tech, though... coming soon.

I'm sorry you thought it was such a terrible idea. It's hard to hear that
coming from someone I have respected for a while and followed along with your
successes with AR and CP.

~~~
zackattack
The good news is that I care enough to say what I really think despite the
definite collateral damage to my reputation by saying something negative and
going against the grain of what everyone here is saying?

The social consequences to my statement make me think of pandas and lobsters -
[http://ifindkarma.posterous.com/pandas-and-lobsters-why-
goog...](http://ifindkarma.posterous.com/pandas-and-lobsters-why-google-
cannot-build-s)

and I was eager to hear responses to my comment - perhaps related:

[http://cognitivesocialweb.com/home/2010/12/19/on-facebook-
an...](http://cognitivesocialweb.com/home/2010/12/19/on-facebook-and-the-
identity-reinforcement-theory.html)

btw I've been rejected by YCombinator multiple times

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
_I was eager to hear responses to my comment_

I thought it was overly harsh and missed the entire point of the post. The
article was titled "Startups are Hard" not "Ask HN: Please review my app" I
greatly appreciated the honest reflection on how hard it is to start
something. It mirrored many of my own experiences and provided a valuable
counter example to the standard "Oooh, I fell out of bed into a pile of money"
startup story that's usually tossed around.

Regardless of the value of Notifo or any particular case, startups (hell, all
businesses) are hard and having people tell you your idea sucks doesn't really
help all that much. Sucky ideas sometimes do extremely well (ie. Facebook,
Twitter, and many more), and great ideas sometimes do terribly (ie. tons of
shit we've never heard of because they're all dead).

~~~
zackattack
You're right.

------
MenaMena123
Keep up the dream, screw going back to a 9 to 5 and something you settle for.
Do what you love, I am in the same boat, I am moving down this summer to San
Fran. and I think at times if I am making a mistake and say hell no! I rather
be after my dream my whole life than settle for something. Its all about the
chase of the dream.

~~~
MenaMena123
Ps: Anyone wanting to meetup this summer in the Valley, I'm more than willing.
Let me know. My first time. Rmena123 at Gmail

------
sabat
This post is one long moan. Of course startups are hard. So is marriage, and
so is jogging. So if you're doing it, you'd better love it, because if you
don't, you're going to be miserable. You do it because you love building
things and love to learn things -- and you can handle failure, whether it's
temporary or permanent. You can recognize that you have not actually failed if
you've learned in the process, made personal connections, etc.

People doing startups need encouragement. They may need to be warned that this
isn't easy, but they really don't need moans.

~~~
jazzychad
My apologies if it seemed like a giant moan. I was just trying to give a slice
of reality about our personal experiences. Startups and the Silicon Valley
Life are made to look pretty glamorous, and I wanted to offer another
viewpoint.

I went into this whole thing being pretty naive about a lot of the process, so
I wanted to relate some of the things I've learned along the way.

I'm not looking for pity.

~~~
dools
Although you haven't cracked the big time yet, this still all sounds pretty
bloody glamorous to me!

