

Ask YC! What can I do to prepare myself to start a company. - prpon

I believe that my career at a big software company is coming to an end. I am still a valuable member of the team that I work in and totally not motivated by the day to day job.
I have several pet and personal projects that I work on at nights and weekends to keep my startup hopes alive.<p>I've dreamed about starting my own company for the last 10 years and that's the only single thought I carry with me every day, day in and day out.<p>I've recently visited a start-up in Los Angeles (where I live) for a job opportunity and I came back with the feeling that I can do a better job than what the founders were upto.<p>I am technical (software architect at my company) and can work on my own thing. It's just that currently I do not have any projects that I am passionate about.<p>My question for you guys and for which I need advice is:<p>I have 3 weeks of vacation that I cannot take and travel (my wife's work cannot give her vacation).<p>How can I best use it to start something on my own.<p>1) Work on a project
2) Travel locally, meet with fellow entrepreneurs and learn.
3) Attend seminars.<p>What would you think would be the best way to spend my time before I quit this job and start something.<p>Regards,
Pras
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bayareaguy
4) Short answer: make something people want so much that they would rather
have your product than their money.

Long answer: Ignore other entrepreneurs and start looking for customers. What
you want to do is get face time whenever feasable. Find out how they can
possibly get by without your great system and do your best to determine where
that solution is letting them down or making them suffer. Adjust your idea
accordingly and present it to them. There's usually some politics involved in
any significant purchase so try and find out things like which people really
stand to gain and lose when your customers adopt your product. Then try and
find ways that will turn the losers into winners. Be sure and validate your
assumptions about who the decision makers are for the kind of product you're
planning by finding out what else those people bought into or vetoed in the
past. Stay focused and do your best to really verify the market for your
system is there.

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ehedberg
1\. Network extensively. Not just with fellow tech entrepreneurs -- you should
also make friends with the local small business community in general. They've
done this the hard way, they've been where you'll be, and they have useful
friends.

2\. Scratch an itch. If you can build a product yourself, you're in better
shape then most of the funded startups out there. If there's something you
want to do online, the odds are that you can both a) do it right, and b) find
enough people on the the internet who also think that you're doing it right to
make some money.

3) Figure out how to cut your expenses to the bone, now. Ideally, and this may
be tough in LA, adjust your lifestyle down to the point that you and your
family can live on your wife's salary. Sock the money away somewhere you won't
touch it, but that there won't be tax consequences if you do.

4) Get laid off. Ok, that's a reach, but trust me, there's nothing quite like
walking out the door with your finances already in order, your vacation paid
out and severance in the bank, and still qualifying for unemployment to be
able to bootstrap a startup.

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smoody
Advice given to me during my first startup by a very successful entrepreneur:
To succeed, you have to be able to kill a puppy. Don't just think "yeah, I can
kill a puppy," but imagine yourself holding a puppy underwater until it stops
breathing.

The person dispensing this advice was not talking literally, of course.
Starting companies that last until they succeed often means making tough
decisions. The kinds of decisions that impact people's well being and future
-- and not always in a positive way in the short term. It often means saying
"No!" more than saying "Yes."

I was never able to imagine myself killing a puppy, but even going through
that process and realizing that I couldn't do it taught me something about who
I am and the kind of leader I wanted to be, which was the real purpose of the
exercise.

~~~
bigboote
Wise advice. Some of the things you have to do to succeed -- firing dud
employees, saying no to early acquisition offers, telling girlfriends that
work is more important than them -- are at least as hard as drowning a puppy.

Maybe the next round of YC interviews should have a qualifying event requiring
a big tub of water and a trip to the humane society.

~~~
staunch
A better example might be shooting a terminally wounded horse or something.
Killing a puppy for no reason is just messed up and _drowning_ it is really
messed up.

~~~
LPTS
If you are going to kill a puppy for no good reason, drowning is a relatively
humane way to do it. Once you're at the killing a puppy for fun stage in your
decisionmaking, most of the fucked up has already happened. Drowning doesn't
make it more fucked up.

It's not like someone is gonna say "you killed that puppy for no reason. But
you really crossed the line with drowning."

I can think of many cases where drowning would be a preferable alternative to
other modalities of needless puppy murder.

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amirnathoo
I left my job at IBM a year ago to start a company. For several years before
that I did many things to prepare: brainstormed ideas with friends, built
prototypes, did online and market research...

However, the only things that have since proven useful are: 1) Network:
through the network I developed before I left IBM, I secured contract work in
lean times and introductions that have now resulted in investment. 2) Save
money: has helped hugely in lean times. 3) Hand in my notice. A necessary
step!

Having said that, to answer your question well, we would need a better
understanding on why you have dreamed of starting your own company for 10
years but this has not yet happened.

~~~
prpon
Fair question as to why I've been dreaming about a startup for long and not
started yet. I was employee #3 at a decently funded startup in bay area from
2000 to 2002. That startup failed and I needed to take care of visa issues
before I could do something on my own.

Any tips on networking with entrepeneurs? Los Angeles area is not so hot when
it comes to tech meetups.

thanks

~~~
babul
I am in a similar boat, and simply have started going to the events I can.
Where I live there is not much happening.

Ultimately you reap what you sow, so with this in mind I select the key events
and make the time and effort to go there and engage with people.

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edw519
Make sure you have at least 6 months expenses set aside.

Find a customer with his hair on fire with a problem you'd like to solve.

Hack away.

~~~
bprater
Read and re-read and then print out and frame this poster's words, it's solid
gold:

"Find a customer with his hair on fire..."

You can't just follow a whimsical idea you "think" might be relevant. You want
to find a market where people are hurting. Imagine someone with their credit
card out of their wallet tapping it against their screen, frustrated that they
can't find someone to give their money to.

Sell stuff to that person. I've been that person about a half-dozen times this
week. Your challenge is to figure out how you can determine what I was
searching for. (Or what the masses were searching for.)

~~~
Xichekolas
> "I've been that person about a half-dozen times this week."

Easier still is to just notice when you are that person and then solve that
problem. Whenever I find myself frustrated with something, that tends to be
the most interesting (and possibly lucrative) idea.

If your own hair is on fire, then chances are someone else on the internet is
suffering from the same affliction, and is willing to pay you for solving it.

Solving your own problem is much easier than trying to guess what someone
else's problems are, and you are more likely to stick with it since you can be
your own user.

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JacobAldridge
Definitely 1), but a combo of all three (and others suggested here). You
really answered your own question

> "How can I best...start something on my own" ? A - Start something!

but if you want some more encouragement and guidance along the way, you'll
find it here.

There were some good suggestions to a similar question made here
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=183128> that you should read as well.

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iamelgringo
Get into a place financially where you can take some risks. One of the biggest
things that will stop you from being an entrepreneur is you own bills.
Essentially, you'll be able to work on your own projects for as long as you
wish as long as your own personal finances don't implode.

After you have some saving built up and some room to roam financially, go
ahead and do your own thing.

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dennykmiu
Go find someone who could be your co-Founder(s). It takes two to sustain a
fire and a third to light them.

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wumi
join someone else's startup that you are passionate about

