
How to start a company with no free time - prostoalex
https://medium.com/startup-grind/how-to-start-a-company-with-no-free-time-b70fbe7b918a?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8XF6JxEsNsoDkX4Nh1vXUm7BW13ZDeL7A8zh7qXhZCq8kkP9GI97HtMDxtAlRVUJkRIoriVRO23_Q7xZxTjQ5EqbOiXg&_hsmi=37851568#.aoxnxfl7o
======
lubujackson
After having a baby I struggled to switch from marathon coding sessions to
trying to punch out code in hour, half hour or even 10 minute increments. The
best advice is what she said - plan and divide tasks ruthlessly. There's
always bits of time to work on your task list on your phone or flesh out a bit
of meta-code in your to-do list, and now I'm able to do the brunt of the
"thinking" work in the shower or wherever, so when I finally sit in front of
the computer I am mostly punching out the code that is nearly complete in my
head.

It has also made me a more efficient programmer by saving time rewriting
because I do most of my mistakes before I start writing anything down.

~~~
drieddust
> There's always bits of time to work on your task list on your phone or flesh
> out a bit of meta-code in your to-do list, and now I'm able to do the brunt
> of the "thinking" work in the shower or

I want to move to this model of working but nothing seems to stick. Do you
follow any specific routines or use tools to manage yourself?

I have tried a lot of tools but nothing sticks.

~~~
marktangotango
I did this, what worked for me was leaving myself a note of where I left off
and exactly what to do next at the top of my task list; "validate input x on
form y" for example. Just a simple 'trick' that really worked, for me at
least.

~~~
nraynaud
In code, I think a good trick is to leave a lexical error in your current
file.

------
ggregoire
I'm surprised by the points 1 and 3.

I started a company 2 months ago as solo founder and I work everyday on the
product (a SaaS for small/mid companies). I really have no free time to do
marketing yet or promote my idea. I just focus on having a MVP.

1\. "Decline invitations from VCs to drink a coffee"

I've never received any attention from a VC, like probably most founders when
they started their first company. It seems to me inappropriate to suggest this
in "first point" of "how to start a company". Or maybe it's common in SV?

3\. "Hire awesome people"

It would be really great but I can't even pay an intern.

~~~
ryandrake
Yea, kind of bizarre, especially as point #1. How would a VC even know you're
working on a start-up? I also don't get random E-mails from VCs asking me
whether I am working on a start-up and if so would I like to drink a beverage.
Is this really a common problem for people?

~~~
nols
She's a lot more popular than your average person, and more tied into SV than
most. Her resume includes Google, Youtube, Twitter, and Postmates before
founding her own company, plus she's got 35K followers on Twitter and had a
TechCrunch article written about the startup. I think a lot of what she wrote
is applicable but she also moves in spheres the average person doesn't.

~~~
rhizome
"0\. Spend your free time building your network before you don't have free
time anymore."

~~~
bbcbasic
-1 be born in USA or get a green card.

Still to be fair are we expecting a single article knocked up in an hour to
apply everyone's situation? Not even a book could be that.

------
ChuckMcM
I find my productivity gets hung up sometimes between the 'doing' and the
'learning', this is particularly painful when I consider the 'learning' to be
non-useful later.

A common case for me is 'use this library/package to complete the task to do
this thing', I want to write the code that uses the package, the package API
is opaque, it speaks in a language that makes sense if you have been playing
with a dozen different similar packages, it isn't going to be useful for any
other project there is something about this project that makes this package a
requirement.

I've come to recognize that I have to give myself permission to read all the
docs on the package, and then read large chunks of the discussion amongst
enthusiasts of this type of package, then read the original docs again, and
contextualize what they say into what I need to do in order to get the package
to do what I want. If I don't give myself permission I perceive all of that
time as wasted just trying to get the package to do what it does and I need it
to do so that I can forget it and move on.

So painful.

~~~
annekate
"If I don't give myself permission I perceive all of that time as wasted just
trying to get the package to do what it does and I need it to do so that I can
forget it and move on." Wow this is really insightful. Also, the best and most
reliable engineers I've worked with are very meticulous about reading the
docs. They end up down less rabbit holes and it saves time in the end.

------
tswartz
This post had some great advice. Her fourth point really resonated with me.
This is something I've struggled with a lot when asking for help from friends
and family.

>People are really bad at being helpful. Even when people ask to help you,
they usually don’t follow through with it or do it in a way that is actually
helpful. A lot of people would ask me how they could help me with Winnie and
I’d say things like “I’d love your feedback on the app!” and I’d hear back…
nothing.

>It turns out “give me feedback” isn’t actionable enough for most people. Now
when someone asks me how they can help I will give them something very
specific to do.

~~~
ams6110
If you're ever working with a volunteer organization this is also important.
I'm president of a small (all-volunteer) nonprofit. It doesn't really work to
delegate general tasks or responsibilities except with a few individuals who
are exceptionally motivated.

Much better for most people is to give them very specific assignments with
deadlines.

------
gyardley
When I read articles like this, I realize just how differently I'm wired than,
well, the sort of person who writes articles like this. And I kind of dislike
articles like this, because there always seems to be an implicit
prescriptiveness underneath them - you _can_ start a company even when you've
got no free time, and therefore you _should_ start a company even when you've
got no free time.

HN, if you happen to be wired like this person, go right ahead and do what she
does - but if you're wired more like _me_ , and the only thing you want to do
after your baby's born is look after it and be with your spouse and take in
the whole experience, you should go ahead and do that without a second
thought.

~~~
erikb
I think that mostly depends on the community you are in. If you want to focus
full time on family and baby you can probably find like minded communites as
well. But being a YCombinator website HN is inherently about building
businesses how to do that from different starting points.

------
smustin
Thanks everyone for the awesome feedback :-) By the way you can find out more
about what we're building at [https://winnie.com](https://winnie.com).

~~~
annekate
Can confirm, Winnie is really cool.

~~~
_faster_
I don't know if this is the classical definition of grassrooting because your
HN tag mentiones you are the Co-founder & CPO of Winnie but there's also other
new accounts just commenting on this story (tvnut999)

~~~
smustin
what's your point?

~~~
dwaltrip
I'm guessing the commenter would have appreciated if annekate mentioned that
they were a co-founder.

Doing so would leave no room for someone to mistake the recommendation as
coming from a random, unaffiliated HN regular.

------
old-gregg
Great post and I agree with everything, but:

As always, carefully vet someone else's experience against your own reality:

    
    
      >If you’re not raising money you will accomplish very 
      >little for your business by meeting with VCs and 
      >networking.
    

Unless you are an enterprise software start-up, in which case your first
customers may come via introductions by coffee-drinking VCs who may realize
that you're solving a real problem for their portfolio companies. [1]

    
    
      >Building your product and finding product market fit 
      >is going to yield much higher dividends for your 
      >company than networking.
    

Unless you're networking with your target audience, in which case going out
and talking to real people with real problems actually directly contributes to
you finding the product market fit faster.

[1] Good VCs have great reputations for a reason.

~~~
erikb
I think the point in the article can be understood in a more general sense:
Only do "polite things" with other people if they fulfill a specific task. In
"hiring" she also talks about that she in fact spends a lot of her time with
other people, just not to find good VCs but good employees. So I think the
article agrees with you quite well.

------
allemagne
I really like #2 "Prepare your tasks". I wrote a series of small scripts on my
laptop that I can run from the terminal. All the files, applications, and
webpages I need for assignment x are opened in a few seconds and I can
immediately start working on it. It's small and unremarkable but it really
helps me to get beyond the mental block that makes starting work seem
daunting.

~~~
jakobegger
This is a really good idea! I have to try this too. I have a couple of
projects that I really dread, and I think part of it is how much effort it is
to set up the dev environment after working on other stuff.

------
xrd
I didn't start a company but wrote an app I'm very proud of. And that app put
me in a position to write a book for O'Reilly. I did lots of the coding and
writing at 3 am when my wife was asleep and I was up with one of the kids.
Kids are great at forcing you to focus and prioritize, things I was never
great at before they arrived. And, kids teach you what's really important and
that is a good lesson when running a company.

~~~
roryisok
I have two kids, and my coding time is suffering. How the heck did you code
while up with your kid at 3am? What was the kid doing??

~~~
smustin
I didn't code while taking care of my kid. My kid has childcare during the
day! People love to assume that women are all just staying home watching their
kids all day...

~~~
CaveTech
Who are you even replying to? No one assumed anything about you and jump in
anyways with a negative spin.

------
BadCookie
I can't help but think the author has her priorities completely messed up. A
brand new baby and a husband with cancer, and she decides that starting a
company is the best use of her time? Sorry, but it's beyond bizarre to me.
Just because you can do something by sacrificing your health and your time
with your family members doesn't mean that you should.

~~~
ladytron
Who are you to judge her priorities? Watching an infant can be brain numbingly
tedious, and so can sitting in waiting rooms for hours at a medical office.

Maybe the startup gives her husband a positive distraction to focus on instead
of his treatment and it gives them something good to talk about. You have no
idea.

A startup might be the perfect antidote to balance out her other duties to her
family.

Remember that all people are not equal, some people are in the top 1% of
population for energy, or IQ, or organization, or even with a need for sleep.
Aka do not attempt to measure this woman against the "norm", she is probably
very very capable and can handle everything better than most.

All of us have a unique blend of skills and abilities, and it takes less
effort for some of us to fulfill priorities than others.

~~~
BadCookie
Obviously, she can do what she wants with her life, but by writing about her
decisions, she has invited people to comment on her experiences. I've dealt
with a newborn. It is soooo stressful and exhausting. I have dealt with
serious health problems. Even more stressful. I have almost a decade of
startup experience (though not as a founder). Also stressful. For 99.9% of
people, and maybe more, combining the three is a recipe for disaster.
Apparently she got lucky and it worked out, but I really hate this message
that people can "have it all" because life doesn't work like that. There are
always trade offs.

~~~
ladytron
This post is written for that .1% then, and probably not for you.

Founders are very different people, with very different energy levels and risk
profiles than the general population, or even the population of startup
employees.

Some of us CAN have it all, and there are not always trade offs for us
compared to the "norm".

For example, some can excel in multiple college varsity sports while holding a
4.0 in EE, when most college students play club ball and feel overwhelmed
getting their homework done.

I would like you to entertain the thought that others may have 10x more
capacity than yourself.

My goodness, let Hacker News be at least one place where unique women feel
free to be honest about their drive, ambition, and productivity.

------
civilian
I have a related question for the author or anyone:

How do you keep your energy up to code in the evenings on your own project,
after a full day of coding at the office?

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
I would say this really depends heavily on how motivated you are to begin
with. When I was working on my side project while I had a full time job, I
would:

1\. Get off work at 6 and get home at 6:30.

2\. Eat something very simple (no carbs because it will make me sleepy)

3\. Start working from 7:00

4\. Work till 6:00am (that's 11 hours, which is 3 hours more than my day job)

5\. Go to sleep at 6:00 and wake up at 10am and go to work

6\. Minimize lunch time and take a nap.

This was possible because I was super motivated. If you're not excited enough
about something that you would go through all this trouble, then it's probably
not worth investing your time in. That's why I think you're asking the wrong
question if you ask "how do you keep your energy?" You don't. You will be
always tired and you will not have a balanced life while you do this. But at
least you are doing something that means a lot to you, and that's the main
factor that helps you keep going.

Of course it is not sustainable to keep going like this for years with no
break. So you should take a break once in a while. In my case, at times I
would feel very tired or start feeling like burning out. Then I would just
take a couple of days off from doing ANY work. Go out and party, watch a
movie, do all the "bad" things I would never normally do. I think most people
who haven't tried this would say this doesn't work. But from my experience,
just a couple of days of doing absolutely nothing is enough to get me back on
track--that is, assuming that I am excited enough about the project to begin
with.

So if this model doesn't work for you, it probably means you should find
another project to work on.

~~~
er0l
Wow, this does seem intense. Did you work through the weekend? Did your
performance at your day job suffer? How did you manage to keep focused during
the late night/ early morning hours?

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
Yes, weekends/weekdays didn't really matter. I think I did take a long sleep
once in a while during the weekends. Then I recover.

Most of the times I would work like this for a 2~3 weeks to a couple of months
without being exhausted. But when that does happen, I would take a break for
as many days I want. Normally this break never lasts over 3-4 days. (Like I
said, it is important that you are working on the right thing. Otherwise you
will never pull this off. For example if the main motivation for your work is
you're just looking for some easy way to create a side project that will give
you good enough passive income, you are probably not passionate enough about
the problem and will give up. In my case I truly believed in what i was
working on so it didn't make sense to just go slow on it)

As for my day job performance, it didn't really suffer because most people
don't really focus 100% at work anyway.

While I was going through this lifestyle, I tried my best to stay disciplined.
For example, I would start working immediately after I arrive at work, with no
web browsing. And no web browsing while I am working. If you stick to this
principle, you'd be amazed how much you can get done in half the time you
normally spend at work. Then with the extra time I have on my hand I would
take a nap etc. so I don't get too physically tired.

------
thenomad
"Force Yourself To Work Imperfectly" is amongst the best bits of productivity
advice I know.

Work expands to fit the time available, and all that.

Sometimes you've gotta get things just right, but a lot of the time getting it
done and moving on is better.

------
a_imho
3\. Don’t go it alone

Using the money <-> time duality is a bit cheating to be honest. At least in
my experience people with 9-17 jobs don't have that kind of money to hire
people.

~~~
logicallee
I think we should be respectful of the audience that this blog post is and
isn't for -- where it says that VC's can be "quite persistent" asking for
coffees, this kind of shows you the kind of audience this is written for. And
yes, if you're the kind of person that in the words of the article:

>I would say “Hey, during these next couple months it will be very tough for
me to meet in person, but I’d love to still help how I can. Can I help with
anything over email and we can go from there?” It turns out this was a great
way to get to the point with people. Most people admitted they didn’t have
anything pressing to discuss though some would respond with specific
questions. One person let me know he was just interested in participating in
our round whenever we raised money. We ended up contacting him when we did
raise money and he did participate.

If you're the kind of person for whom "many VCs were extremely persistent",
and for whom if you say, "is there anything I can do just over email?" and a
VC writes back, "Yes, just let me know when I can send a check" (obviously not
in these words), and then when you're raising money they do participate --

well, that is the kind of audience who has the money to hire people :)

So this blog post is very useful and helpful, but not for everyone.

~~~
_faster_
Respectful? Give me a break, you've been successfully gas-lighted.

>where it says that VC's can be "quite persistent" asking for coffees

Lets be pragmatic. How many VC's are we talk about, 5? 10? Can we not read a
little bit of a veiled humble brag into this point on the fact that the number
isn't mentioned and that if the number is 5 that the author couldn't spare 5
hours over "multi months" to meet with someone signing checks? Which brings me
on to-

>If you're the kind of person for whom "many VCs were extremely persistent"

What does this person do that they seem to fart rainbows when every one of the
most talented engineers that I know has to hustle to get these sorts of doors
opened? We can only assume that something else is at play.

Which brings me on to Op's point-

>in my experience people with 9-17 jobs don't have that kind of money to hire
people.

This is entirely correct, most startups can't trade money for time but the
author doesn't reveal her fountain of money which further undermines the
blogpost.

~~~
logicallee
I'm sorry I didn't see your reply sooner. if you see this in time to edit,
please tone it down by two notches, come on. The OP (of the article) is here
answering questions, and we're _one_ community. you yourself are the article
author in a few years if you want to be.

You know "what does this person do" because they are up-front about it: what
they do is "Winnie, helping parents navigate the world with their children."
Apparently within their network people really want to do that, and lots of
VC's have kids, etc. (Many of the most famous ones do, often in the same age
bracket.)

So welcome to our community, but please be a civil member in line with our
rules. There's no distinction here between people. you can talk to VC's. you
can literally talk to the blog author, they're here answering questions.
people on this forum aren't born into wealth or the like (arguably for the
most part they have had access to superlative education, but on the other hand
much of it is self-taught.)

so try to be civil :)

I also share your frustration and agree:

> when every one of the most talented engineers that I know has to hustle to
> get these sorts of doors opened?

what is likely also at play (though the author can clarify for us) is their
past enterprises or other businesses they had similar roles in. i.e. their
track record.

~~~
_faster_
How dare you. If someone wants to defend themselves they have every
opportunity to do so but I (and I think the HN audience) don't appreciate
being-

1\. patronised about things like: "this kind of shows you the kind of audience
this is written for". How pathetic, as if there are some levels of access
beyond which peons like us cannot comprehend. and

2\. Your concern trolling. Where I come from we believe in the scientific
method and meritocracy. You are entitled to your opinions if you can defend
them and your attempt to stifle discussion is reducing efficiency.

~~~
eloff
You can do all that and be civil. It's not an either/or thing. Downvote.

------
disordinary
A surprising amount of developers have their own side projects. These should
be encouraged by employers because

a) most of these projects don't go anywhere and so the likelihood of you
loosing a staff member to their hobbies is low, and

b) because employees often explore new technologies and educate themselves
when doing these things. It means your employee loves what they do enough to
keep doing it in their spare time, and is getting an education which helps
their day job and doesn't cost you a cent.

But not all employers see the positives in this, so make sure that any clauses
about your place of work owning your work produced outside of office hours are
removed from contracts, and NEVER do any personal work on company provided
computers or using company provided software. You're just setting yourself up
for trouble.

~~~
eloff
Just a heads up, after passing 50 hours of assignments and interviews, I
turned down an offer from IBM because they wanted to own my side project. Stay
clear of big blue if you like doing side projects, their legal dept is
overzealous.

~~~
disordinary
Yeah, I've negotiated out that clause on a few contracts.

I think Google is the same, people who are Googlers with opensourced projects
that have nothing to do with Google all have them hosted on the Google github
account for this reason.

I'm not in the US but AFAIK US law (or at least Californian law) states that a
company can only own what you do in your personal time if it competes with
them, the problem is that for companies the size of IBM and Google that could
be most things.

------
quirkot
I love the 100% practical advice here. Words from someone that has a real
appreciation of the fact that time is the most valuable resource and treats it
accordingly

------
r00fus
All of these points of advice work even if you don't do startups. Raising
kids, having a job, a life, a home all need your attention.

It's just generically good advice. Take a look at #4. So many people either
just throw up their hands early on a problem (I'll just ask the guru on this
subject a generic question - which, if I'm that guru - I know is a time sink),
or just assume no one can help them and don't ask. I know I'm guilty of both
at times.

One of my mantras to break the back of #4 and #5 is:

Get out of your comfort zone. If it feels uneasy - maybe you're just pushing
your boundaries.

------
timewarrior
It seems difficult to believe the point 1, where she is being chased by VCs.
The author has never built a startup before. All her previous roles have been
mid/entry level roles in big/mid size companies.

This articles seems like an attempt to create pent up demand.

I do agree with the points mentioned in the article though.

~~~
beepboop2045
She's not talking about VCs hounding her down to throw money at her, she's
talking about VCs wanting to grab coffee so that they can gather information
about the space. I think if you are starting a startup publicly, and live near
low-level VCs this will happen to you.

------
keyle
I swear you could write any counter-intuitive article with a top 5 list of
highly controversial steps and make it to HN front page. Like "10 tips to make
a unicorn in your sleep". Tip 1, don't sleep, you don't need it anyway. Tip 5,
remember to catch some sleep, sometimes.

Pardon the pun but you had me at "force yourself to do things imperfectly".

------
smaili
_During my husband’s multi-month cancer treatment, I declined every invitation
for coffee, drinks, and networking of any form. Most of these invitations came
from VCs who were trying to get information about what I was working on or the
parenting space in general._

Given that most of the time it's the founders chasing the VC's, I was quite
curious why she seemed to be on the other end of the stick. A quick click to
her Twitter mentions:

> Previously #KillEricsCancer, Postmates, Twitter, YouTube, Google, MIT.

Not saying other people can't have similar success, but you may want to learn
more about a person's background before getting too confident.

------
this-dang-guy
Must say I'm a bit jealous - when I started my company, I didn't have any need
to decline VC coffee invites... it was all I could do to get enough interested
parties to even get moving.

Good tips on time mgmt though, I guess

~~~
bbcbasic
Are you based in San Fran though? Sounds like the city flowing with VC cash

~~~
smustin
Yes I'm in SF.

~~~
photogrammetry
Why do you keep replying to questions not directed at you? It's plainly clear
that you're located in SF.

------
FlyingSnake
> I declined every invitation for coffee, drinks, and networking of any form.
> Most of these invitations came from VCs..

I find it really hard to believe that VCs are chasing the author, who had no
track record in Startup land. Her advice looks solid, but how can VCs be
bending over backwards for a meeting with her? I've never seen VCs do that
based on what I've seen so far.

Anywas kudos on shipping, the idea looks promising.

~~~
JoblessWonder
It seems like she certainly has a track record with major companies as a
Product Manager at Google, YouTube, Twitter, and even Director of Product at
Postmates.

She even got a dedicated write up in TechCrunch.[0] That is probably enough to
get various sized VC's attention.

[0] [https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/09/postmates-and-twitter-
prod...](https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/09/postmates-and-twitter-product-guru-
sara-mauskopf-is-working-on-parenting-app-called-winnie/)

------
untilHellbanned
This post is irrelevant to 99.9% of founders as that's the % of people who
could raise $2M without doing anything first.

------
drited
For those with babies on the way like the author and reading material to get
through for business, I found that a text to speech app like @voice with a
good sounding voice like the AT&T voices, plus a Bluetooth earpiece helps a
lot. Baby needs a bottle? Earpiece on, start listening. Baby needs a walk in
the buggy? Same. Baby wakes in the middle of the night and needs to be in your
arms for a while to get back to sleep? Same. Helped me to get through a couple
of books a month I couldn't have otherwise read. Obviously has to be
relatively easy to understand material.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
When my oldest was a baby I used to read the C++ annotated reference to him to
send him to sleep.

~~~
frandroid
Did your oldest end up becoming a C++ dev? 8)

~~~
tonyedgecombe
No, bit he did study CS at Cambridge.

~~~
insulanus
Ack! There are university grads older than C++ now! Aaaack!

------
er0l
I think I agree with everything but #1. Completely shutting off from people
who although may not invest, can still provide valuable information or advice
as they may have experienced something you have not.

~~~
exergy
Personally, I get the feeling that most people who start a company are tired
of _some_ status quo, and have strong opinions on how they want the end
product to look like. Therefore, the last thing they want to do is listen to
people telling them how their product should be. And since initially, all you
care about are the technical challenges, it stands to reason that coding
minutes and hours are more useful than schmoozing and advice garnering.

------
iaw
I think if you generalize the concepts behind each bullet point you'll find
that her concepts are much more broadly applicable than at first glance.

1) Don't get coffee with VCs -> Don't spend time on things that don't
accomplish your objective, even if they seem like they're 'progress'.

2) Plan your tasks. Context switching is hard, if you have a pre-planned task
you can work on things in smaller gaps without having to figure out what needs
to be done.

3) Ask for help when you need it, let go of things you _don 't_ have to do.
Long before you get employees you could ask your support structure to help
lighten the load for you.

4) Ensure feedback you receive is actionable. Don't accept broad statements,
get specific details about what you can do better. Even at normal companies
this can be taking a manager saying "I wish you'd demonstrate more leadership"
and holding them accountable by asking "what are specific instances where I
could demonstrate leadership that I did not and what actions would you like to
see me taking in these instances in the future?"

5) Hold yourself to a high standard but be realistic about where it matters.
Some things just need to be done, not everything you do has to be building a
Stradivarius.

------
spoinkaroo
This strategy seems very relevant and pertinent to me, especially the parts
about delegating time, asking for actionable help / emails instead of
meetings, and hiring good people. Very helpful for scheduling and structure.

Is there anything else you guys would add? For me, it doesn't seem to address
motivation, setting aside time to complete deep work, and the circumstances
where you'll actually output the most quality stuff.

------
JustSomeNobody
Don't have plans to start a company, but even for side projects #5 gets me. #5
is brutal. #5 kicks my tail all over the place. #5 won't let me get things
done.

But that's ok #5, #2 is gonna start having my back! And maybe, just maybe,
we'll overcome you.

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z3t4
This is a good blog post, but a web directory ? Being hunted by investors, and
over two million dollars raised ...

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bbcbasic
Number 5 is tough to break. I decided to have a go when I created
[https://www.dealomni.com](https://www.dealomni.com) by getting something
minimal up and using whatever I am already familiar with. End result is a js
site with no backend using knockoutjs!

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kirpekar
1\. Where there is a will, there is a way.

2\. To get something done, give it to someone who is busy.

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kelukelugames
The last time I saw Sara she was playing beer pong 10 years ago. Crazy.

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pstew
Step 1a) have a bunch of venture capitalists have you on speed dial.

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CarlsonKeith
Invest money, hire a team and hire a manager to manage the team.

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rbc
I'll add: Automate everything that can be automated.

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kimshibal
In Asia, We can have 1 to N maids to take care kids

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rjdevereux
What's the tl;dr; ?? :)

~~~
known
How to start a company with no free time for women with a child

------
heyeho
What?

------
omouse
why start a company when you can start a co-operative?

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aoeu345
Sara Mauskopf, if that's you in the bottom pic, then can you please invest in
some ergonomic keyboard and mouse? Laptop keyboards and trackpads are very bad
for hands in the long term.

Your employees and you should all be working with keyboards and mice on nice
big monitors. Ergonomics is an easy win to grab, so do it! Get the Microsoft
ergonomic keyboard or the Advantage Kinesis if you want the best.

~~~
cauterized
Do you carry around your ergonomic keyboard and mouse and use them when you're
sitting in a hospital waiting room?

Laptops are useful because you can use them places other than desks. Places
where you don't have room for an external keyboard and mouse.

Yeah, laptop ergonomics suck, but they suck less than being unable to use your
computer at all on the go. And that doesn't mean that one doesn't hook the
peripherals back up when one returns to one's desk.

