

Why I'm Not Working on my Startup (yet) - IsaacSchlueter
http://foohack.com/2008/08/why-im-not-working-on-my-startup-yet/

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wheels
Having a bit of a runway is good, and real-world job experience can pay
dividends. Some suggest that you'd get the same out of a failed startup, but
both routes have their advantages.

One thing I learned, sadly later than I wish I had -- before starting a
startup practice living cheap. Start really considering if you really need
that iPhone or that new monitor, buy nothing but generic stuff, have one beer
at the bar instead of three, get a house-mate. Cook!

As I was building towards going full-time on the startup I managed to get my
cost of living down to less than half of what it was, with no major lifestyle
changes. That'll give you a nice pad and the skills to stretch it when you do
go full-time.

You can also spend the time learning; nothing teaches like experience, but you
can spend time building up your contacts, researching your field, learning as
much as possible about startups, setting up infrastructure, searching out good
co-founders -- so that when you're ready to run you can go at it full speed.

~~~
babul
Living cheap also has benefit in that it often forces you to assess what you
need and want in life and ultimately what is really important to you.

There is a certain pleasure to be had to free oneself of the materialistic
lifestyle we are often indoctrinated into following through nurture,
especially in many western countries/cultures (e.g. process of society and
education often teaches get a job, buy a house, get a car, get better job,
bigger house, newer car etc. much of which is not really necessary).

When you earn enough not to worry about food and bills, you can really begin
to do the things you want and learning to live cheap certainly helps.

The freedom is liberating and truly the best things in life are free (or often
surprisingly cheap).

------
okeumeni
Most assumptions you have can only be verified by you.

My advice is: try doing something on the side first, something that people can
actually use, share it with friend and see how you feel about feedbacks. I
found for myself that the greatest motivator is your will to build something
useful; your major test will be how you bounce back from negatives.

How many hours you put in, when do you work even whether you should leave your
job or not will depend of your level of motivation, it’s hard to build a
startup without sacrifices.

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
_My advice is: try doing something on the side first, something that people
can actually use, share it with friend and see how you feel about feedbacks._

Well, what I've found is that most of my side projects don't get very far,
because I invariably end up pulling a bunch of long nights at my main paying
gig, and that saps the motivation considerably.

Also, maybe I need ruder friends, but I've found much better results sharing
stuff with strangers. They're more honest. Friends are biased by their desire
to make you feel good.

~~~
bigbang
Post it HN. I dont think HN readers are biased(even if some of them are your
friends) :)

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
I'm not so sure. The posters may not be biased, but that doesn't mean that the
comments aren't. I've seen some ideas that were just not all that great get
lavished with praise.

It's possible that I just missed what was so useful about the site in
question... but it's also possible that those who didn't like the site didn't
comment. I didn't like the site, or indeed care about it at all, and I'm not
the type to want to hurt someone's feelings, so I didn't comment on it.

Friends or not, I think the best feedback is likely from users who have the
problem you're trying to solve. The best question is probably "why _wouldn't_
you use this thing?"

~~~
terpua
Why not build and solve a problem _you_ have?

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Actually, I have two side projects that are exactly that. But I keep ignoring
them. That's the problem :) My user is getting upset with me, and about to
look to my competitors.

~~~
terpua
Perhaps the problem isn't painful enough?

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rickd
This is _exactly_ what I planned when I left school. Cool! My plan was to work
for 5 years at a job I at least LIKED- put away enough to live for 1-2 years
without doing anything at all- and then work on whatever startup idea I
figured would be best at the time. Why did I choose 5 years? Honestly, it was
because most companies vest employees in their retirement plan of choice after
5 years.

Fast forward to 5 years later (last June 15th) and I'm ready! Money saved,
credit card balances at 0, no debt, no obligations! I've even started to work
on some of the code for my idea. The only thing I didn't count on was the
housing market... so now I just have to hang around my current job until my
place sells. anybody want to buy a condo in Chicago?

Seriously though- from where I'm sitting, it's a great plan. Give yourself the
opportunity and ability to do something amazing, and chances are you will! Not
to mention, if you are at least managing your money successfully, and not
going in to debt- you're doing vastly better than many Americans already.

Good Luck!! :cross posted from comments:

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alex_c
I feel that I've learned an incredible amount since I left my job and started
my start-up - and I think that's largely an indication of how little I
actually knew when I jumped in.

If I can offer anything for consideration, it's this:

When do you want to make your mistakes? Now, or in a few years? While working
for a large company, or while living off your savings? While doing stuff "on
the side", or while doing it "for real"?

I am not advocating one choice over the other, but this might be another
useful angle to approach the problem.

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Thanks, that's actually helpful.

Personally, I don't see "living off my savings" as a bad time to make
mistakes. Webdevs are usually in short supply, and we're past the first
speculative bubble, so "get a job" will likely always be an option. I can
"retire" every 5 years :)

------
prakash
There's more than one way to do it, and this is a more deliberate path. good
plan, seriously. I quit my job early this year, have enough savings to last
for a while (it's easy when you live like a grad student), and am exploring
ideas.

------
blakeweb
It's clear from your post and comments that you're a very smart guy. I can
tell you think so too, but I'd bet you're even smarter (relatively) than you
realize. I agree that if you follow your plan, you're likely to be successful,
if you don't give up just a bit too soon and go back to the solid, dependable
paychecks.

My only two cents concerns your patience. I'll admit, my only experience
working for someone else was a year-long internship right after college, but
despite it being a sweet gig in a beautiful place, I hated it, and it was all
I could do to make it to the end of the year. Since then, it's been only
startups for me, and it's so incomparably different and better that I just
have to weigh in that your 3 year plan is a little too patient and risk-averse
for me.

It sounds like you love your job already. That's definitely key. But if you
wait another 3 years to go for it, and find out you're fantastic at it and are
having the time of your life, won't it seem like you should have given it a go
even sooner? For instance, by getting a cofounder willing to pay the company
bills for a while as an even trade for your fantastic ideas? Seems worth
considering if you'd both rather start sooner than later. Making your own
stuff full time is so _fun_.

------
ajju
Bootstrap your startup to beta while still at Yahoo. Sure you'll have to put
up with not working on what you love 100% of the time but it'll be better than
0% and probably close to 100% seeing how you seem to like Yahoo o.k.

I am in a situation very similar to yours - good employer, o.k. hours and an
overdue startup. I am doing this right now. It's long days and busy weekends
and try as I may, a couple of days a week I don't get any sleep. But there is
both satisfaction and a reduction in risk in doing this for me. For me, it's
not the financial risk that matters as much but I just wasn't sure I would be
able to maintain my focus and enthusiasm doing just a startup - amongst other
reasons because my cofounders are non-technical.

On the other hand the fact that my cofounders have funded the startup, pay me
to do this (on top of my salary at bigco) and handle all the boring non-
technical tasks while still letting me be an equal part of strategy and
fundraising - all these make my situation a bit different from yours.

------
bookhuddle
I encourage you to work on one or more of your ideas sooner rather than later,
even while working full-time.

You seem to be at the stage in your life where you could pursue the
YCombinator program (or similar programs). This is one way to fund your ideas
without going the self-funded route.

You seem to have the skills that you'll always be able to get jobs at Yahoo or
elsewhere. You don't really have much to lose.

~~~
ajross
Actually, my reading was he (like me) was well _past_ the stage of life where
YC funding would be helpful. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but a first
round YC bet is something like "cost of living for two college students for a
summer". To an established professional with a stable job, this is noise: most
of us could fund such a company for three months right out of our bank
accounts.

The benefit to doing the YC thing is the exposure to sources for later funding
rounds, and the networking that comes with being part of the community. The
money isn't the draw for anyone but a brand new graduate. It's just there to
make sure no one starves while working on the project.

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
If the choices are: 1) get funding, and do it now, and give up even 1% of my
company, or 2) wait a year or two, and do it on my own dime, but own it 100%,
I'm leaning towards #2.

~~~
mleonhard
I don't necessarily want to own 100% of my own company, but I want to own at
least 51%. I think that Y-Combinator leads to individual ownership that is far
less than 51%. Even the founders together will have less than 51%. Am I wrong?

~~~
cypress-hill
are the lot of you fourteen years old? or just that old mentally? you're
sitting around talking about how you will divy up your little hypothetical
companies...did you read richie rich comics as a child?

1\. get an idea someone gives a shit about. 2. find someone to put money
behind your idea. 3. then you can get your rocks off playing god with the
stock options. without 1,2...talking about 3 is just mental masturbation

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Hi, troll.

~~~
cypress-hill
oh i'm sorry, do you own this thread?

------
IsaacSchlueter
I've been absolutely floored by the quality and quantity of comments and
advice from all of you, here and on my blog. I've reworked my plans and
expectations a tad, and gained a lot more confidence about some parts that I
was shaky on. Thanks, HN!

------
staunch
This is the hacker demographic I will be targeting should I become wealthy
enough to finance my own YC-inspired investment firm.

------
cypress-hill
so sad. his whole life has boiled down to fetishisizing work

how about this for a plan - get married and have kids. you'll have a regular
sex partner, and when you are sixty, you won't sit around wondering why you
are alone

and if you save some money, take a winter off and be a ski bum. one year
cruising between whistler, aspen, half the crazy ass monster resorts in the
alps...beats the hell out of pissing into the wind in the website game

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Hi, troll.

~~~
cypress-hill
keep swinging. sorry not everyone is in the mutual support echo chamber.

