

Ask HN: How do you stay motivated at your startup? - nubela

I always knew I wanted to work at a startup and the ideation and execution of the product was the easy part (I am a developer). But everyday I face small obstacles that bit by bit eats me away inside. And I have to buckle up and remind myself why I am doing this. It doesn't help that I am in this alone, and having a remarkably hard time finding talented individuals who would complement in what I lack, and am down to my last month in savings. And have begun seeking seed/angel funding.<p>I am going all out this last month to try to secure myself a certain posterity in my startup. This really mean making public pitches to various relevant user groups in my varsity. And cold emailing angel investors with my pitch.<p>How do/did you stay motivated? How can I go about convincing other people of my idea? I am not particularly good at that.
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kellco
Nubela,

Since I'm working on my startup too and Asian, I understand your frustration
and what you're going through. Since you're a programmer, my advice would be
to secure a business/marketing person ASAP because generally technical people
aren't that great at pitches and meeting people. Also, when you have a team it
helps you stay on track and you get great feedback, encouragement, support,
and everyone helps out. I got a great team currently and I didn't have them a
few weeks ago. It's a matter of winning them over slowly, building trust,
good/honest communication, getting them to know you and your project/idea and
making them believe that you really care about your project and that you're
passionate about it.

That's how I won over my 2 mentors/advisors, the best corporate attorney in
the state, and my programmer co-founder.

2nd thing I'd do in your situation is what I call back against the wall, what
can I do to make some quick cash and that I can do with small short term
projects? Since I'm the marketing type, my list of ideas will generately be
ebay, sell stuff, affiliate marketing, promote something, do a workshop
locally, or whatever I can come up with. Brainstorm a list that works for you.
But avoid getting a job until it's the absolute last resort.

3rd thing I do is go to networking events to meet more people and possibly
find your team. I met mine at a Startup Weekend and business functions. You
just need to get out there, seriously, just do it.

To stay motivated, I remind myself why I'm doing this. I think about what my
vision is and how many millions of people I can help and the impact it will
have. I also think about what I hate about the whole industry and why I'm
trying to change/revamp it, that drives me. You have to find out what
motivates you internally. If it's just money and fame, that's too easy because
you can do that with other things so why your particular project? So for me,
it's become a cause and a mission that I really believe in so it's been easy
convincing people to help me and getting them to see the cause/mission and how
it will help others.

I wish you luck in your project and don't give up. Take care!

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Permit
[http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...](http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html)

Try your best to keep your goals to yourself. When you start explaining your
idea to someone else, the thought is that you receive a dopamine reward
associated with completing that goal. Common wisdom suggests that if one tells
all their friends about their awesome idea, they'll be more motivated to
finish it, but this just isn't true. Individuals who explain and take credit
for their idea are more likely to feel more accomplished than those who keep
it to themselves.

This was one of the biggest things for me. Be humble. Keep ideas to yourself
and reward yourself on results, not just ideas.

~~~
gyardley
With all respect to Derek, I suspect this advice depends on personality type.
For me, common wisdom is 100% correct.

A goal no one knows about is easy to quit without loss of face. But if all my
friends know I'm doing something, I'm bloody well going to do it.

I _always_ tell my friends I'm going to do something when it's something that
really needs to get done. So far, whatever dopamine reward I get from talking
about it has overpowered by the knowledge that I said I'd do it and it's not
done yet.

As always, your experience may vary.

~~~
bmelton
I suspect that most advice like this DOES depend on personality type, but with
enough different people offering their insights, presumably the majority of
personality types are covered, if one chooses to read enough motivational
literature.

My motivation is progress, most of the time. If I'm not making progress, I'll
often switch to some easier task that I know I can get done quickly to get my
brain in the right space and make 'getting into the zone' a downhill process.

Sometimes, switching back to whatever task was slowing me down is like going
back uphill again, but I often find that I'll usually abandon the easy task
because, while doing that, the harder task has been mentally solved (once you
stop thinking about a problem, yadda yadda).

Of course, where I generally suffer is in getting all the easy tasks done.
Solving a problem is fun. Writing a login page isn't, generally speaking.
Making a 'reset your password' form isn't. So all those things often get left
by the wayside, and I end up with an awesome project that is completely
unsellable because the last 10% goes untouched while I work on something else.

~~~
no-go-mojo
I work that way too, which leaves a lot of unfinished projects, because I do
the hard/interesting stuff, and think "oh this is done, I just gotta do x, y
and z which I'll wrap up later." Now I've started to set a check point before
I start which must be crossed in order of my project to be finished.

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fezzl
I build a startup alone in the same country and thus same environment as you
(Singapore), and I know how it can feel running a startup and not having
anyone understanding what you do. Sometimes it even feels like you get less
credit than you really deserve for getting this far by yourself, while some
so-called fresh university graduate gets a job at, say, GIC or Intel and
receives congratulatory praises from everyone he meets (even though it's
barely a feat).

The good thing about such external pressure is that it keeps you in track --
they will not respect you until you have something real to show. Use that as
your motivation. Get your first revenue ASAP; that in itself produces an
awesome feeling and would probably keep you going for some time.

Figure out how you checkpoint app is going to make money. Work part-time at
the moment to pay the bills (this is Singapore, go teach tuition at
$30-40/hour). But keep focusing on making your app a revenue-generating
machine. Start charging very early.

Your parents, friends, and society in general will not get off your back
unless you produce real results, and rightfully so. Go make money, that's all
I can say!

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no-go-mojo
Wish I could say something like inspiration, grand visions, or something
someone a lot cooler would say, but it's my shitty day job. The shitter the
day goes at work, the more I am motivated. The more I realize I am smarter
than my boss' boss, that most of these people are sheep and I have nothing to
show for it, the more I'm driven.

It has gotten so bad that I often look forward to meetings that will make me
feel insignificant among a lot more significant yet stupid people who are
brown nosing each other to death (corp America). I have on occasion thanked
the almighty for putting me in such a shit hole and thus giving me the desire
to improve my situation. Satisfaction must be the death of all motivation,
because the dissatisfied me is the driven me.

~~~
bmelton
All due respect, you need to find a way to self-motivate fast, or your future
projects are destined to fail, if what you say is true.

~~~
no-go-mojo
I fall in love with problems, my own, others', or whomever's, and try to find
a way to solve it. I know most builders of software fall in love with a
solution first/and idea or a grand vision - but little ol' me don't think like
that, but thanks, you make a good point for someone who is a builder.

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Joakal
Although I accept that there's going to be rejections, I need to keep up the
optimism. So I play games, code, or whatever I can do to lose myself.
Sometimes I have a whole stack of movies that I've been considering to watch
for something non-interactive.

If I was going to be with people I know; spouse, partner, etc, I'd talk to
them about exchanging motivations and staying strong (movies, coop games,
etc). And to be someone I can get off my chest.

To add, I would print out a sheet along the lines of "You're going to enter a
period of many rejections. Stick to the plan. I even added predicted breaks.
Don't give up until the same duration of rejection afterwards has passed."

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bennesvig
I enjoy listening to motivating talks for at least a little bit each day. Seth
Godin has a few on doing great work and I'll listen to Zig Ziglar for about
20-30 minutes a day. A month of this has had a significant impact on my
thinking.

Just curious, what's your startup?

~~~
nubela
Thanks! I will definitely check out some the motivating talks before I retire
to bed later. (Its 2.14am in Singapore now) My problem has been really
amplfied a big deal because of the asian culture here. The talented developers
already secured great job offers from banks, or Facebook, or Microsoft. In
fact, the asian concept has had many great people conform to "find a great job
and your future is secured". Which is really annoying because it is so hard to
convince people based on the prospects of probable success! Then there is the
funding part, I am working my ass off and I refuse to talk to anyone until I
know exactly what I am going to do and something to show first. I'm getting
there. But money is getting really tight now.

As for my startup, I am working on a platform that allows users to save and
share worthy experiences one encounters everyday which I'd like to call them
Checkpoints. I have some pixel mockups here that I am using as a wireframe for
my development process. <http://imgur.com/LGDtO>

I am going to do something crazy soon and start doing things no entrepreneurs
have done before here just so I can get my word out that I am looking for
great people! Until then, I have to fantasize a little bit about success just
so I can chirp along the next day :)

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md1515
Sometimes I think about having a terrible boss working in some huge company
where I am told what to do and go into work 8-5 every day.

...then I realize I need to get my butt in gear and make the startup work,
because I can't handle that!

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rdudejr
What I do is go look at the other products which sucked, which originally
motivated me to make a better mousetrap.

Then I get back to doing it.

