

Ask HN:Looking for blogs and real life stories about entrepreneur with family’s - umen

Hi 
i really need to read and learn how startup entrepreneur's that have family’s managing to take the big risk and do this crazy thing called "start-up" as i see it from my point of view ( 2 kids and wife + mortgage) its impossible task.
Thanks for sharing!
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charliepark
Hey there, umen. I'm in the same boat as you, although with three kids. I
don't have a lot of time to write much at the moment (see above), but I wanted
to let you know it is doable. And worth it. I see far more of my family and
have a far more rewarding job than I would if I were working in a corporate
environment.

In fact, I have a proposed panel in to SXSW on this very topic — your startup
and your family would each happily take up your entire life ... so how do you
balance the two of them and not fail at both? Once the panel picker opens up
for voting (August 9th), I'd love it if you could vote it up.

Anyway, there are a bunch of different ways your startup can go, and a bunch
of different ways your family can go.

On the family side, are there any grandparents nearby? Is your wife supportive
of what you're trying to do? Is she income-earning? Are the kids super-needy,
or are they older, more capable, and more self-contained? Do you have
resources in the community that you can rely on (church members, neighbors
willing to babysit for free (or trade babysitting time), etc.)? All of those
will help.

On the business side, how young is the startup? Are you bootstrapping, or are
you looking for investment? If you're going the financed route, have you taken
any rounds yet? Are you the only founder, or do you have co-founders? Do
_they_ have families? Or are they all single? Those all have a bearing on how
things will go.

My super-quick story: I mentioned my wife and three kids. I also have a
mortgage. And it's all paid for with our bootstrapped small web-business. Most
here would call it a "lifestyle business", as we've neither taken funding nor
are looking for funding for it. I also have a second subscription-based web
app (<http://monotask.com>) that's just about to launch, that I've worked on
with a cofounder who also has a wife and three kids.

Summarizing _my_ advice (recognizing it might be wildly inappropriate for your
goals, as I can't give advice on financed startups), I'd say: * build
something small that meets a need you either have or see as obvious * launch
it as soon as you can, and start getting feedback on it * don't quit your day
job until the side project has proven itself * if it doesn't seem like it's
going to prove itself, pivot * start to hoard your cash now; don't spend any
money you don't absolutely need to; this is your runway * don't wait to get
moving on it: as someone said once, almost every person you'll talk to who's
started his own business — whether it succeeds or fails — will say "I only
wish I'd done this earlier."

~~~
umen
Hello Charlie park and thanks for the reply I appreciate it. Well some answers
From my family side I do have more family here that can help me and my wife to
babysit but this can only help not be full job baby sitter. My wife is
supportive she is earning but we can’t leave only from her income. No way...
is my kids small 1 year and 2 years old. From my business side, im only in the
idea phase I haven’t got any thing I haven’t got the time to code prototype. I
have no time for any thing I have full time job in the hi-tek industry. if I
ever wanted to do something I defiantly will need some investment I don’t see
any other way around. For now I am single no partners. And no extra cash. Well
as you said and I was reading in the net that I need to start and go online as
soon as I have something . Some questions How long it toke you to build the
first version of your site ? How long it take it to get revenue? Do you still
work full time?

