

Startups: "I take a break" means "I give up" - danielfrese
http://eventlake.posterous.com/why-startups-die-and-why-you-should-be-like-c-30394

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hvs
Is it just me, or do a lot of the reasons listed seem to be focused on
founders that are still in some form of school? I doubt that a frequent reason
that non-college going founders fail is because "one of the founders chooses
to do a term abroad and get back to the startup "later"".

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danielfrese
Yes you are right. My two co-founders and me are still in college/university.
We live - to some extend - in a college world and we face problems which may
not be faced by folks already out there working at companies.

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pork
You might want to add that qualifier to your article. Startup founders and
employees may be in different life phases; your advice is likely to be
relevant only to college-aged founders.

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rhizome
Not to mention the title.

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danielfrese
Do you mean the Chuck Norris part?

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marcomonteiro
project != startup; hacker != entrepreneur; desire != drive;

Some people should drop off. The road is long and it's best to find out who's
willing to endure it up front. In my 20's I knew a lot of people who wanted to
"do big things" and I learned the hard way that most people just want to look
like they're doing big things. Less talk, more walk.

~~~
danielfrese
True. A lot of people are probably better off not living the startup life.

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jakejake
Probably the bullet points are specific to student/founders. But in the case
of us old geezers you run into the same basic concepts. Often people get a
"real" job because they need some stability (mental as well as financial) and
it becomes a drag to spend your free time working on the startup. As somebody
who has been trying to make a startup work for about 3 years, it takes a lot
of passion on everybody's part to keep going.

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danielfrese
Exactly. We started to work on our startup about 15 months ago and we still
don't have a publicly launchable version. But we made a prototype and have 80+
test users. That kind of interaction with our users makes things easier and
helps us to stay motivated.

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l_frequency
I remember there was an article about climbing Everest that was pretty high up
on HN for a few days. It makes a lot of sense that it was popular now that I
think about it since there's plenty of startup analogies to climbing Everest.
Fall asleep because you need to "take a break" and you might never wake up.
Just one of many interesting parallels.

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jessedhillon
Ray Dalio has a maxim that guides interactions at Bridgewater, it goes
something like this: ask yourself, 'have I earned the right to have an
opinion?'

I don't think the author has, yet. Frankly, the advice of an undergrad/first-
time entrepreneur is not worth the bandwidth it takes to deliver it.

All that's here is uninformed, sweeping judgments about people who have come
to difficult decision points that this guy _might_ have to face in 1-5 years.
Except, without any of the nuance or experience necessary to understand why
it's a difficult decision for some. I'll keep to getting my advice from people
who have been There And Back Again, or as I call them -- experienced,
knowledgeable and successful.

Taking a break == I give up? Fuck off. Write back when your life demands
actual compromise.

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danielfrese
You are right.

This article is targeted at other undergrads and not at people who have come
to difficult decision points. I'm sorry that wasn't clear enough.

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BerislavLopac
Daniel, kudos to you for a graceful response to, though correct, quite a rude
comment.

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wmwong
Momentum. It's very important. I can't remember how many times where I half
start something and get distracted. I rarely return back to the project. Don't
underestimate momentum. This is one of the reasons to have a co-founder. When
one drags their feet, the other keeps the team going. What do single founders
do to keep momentum up?

~~~
felipemnoa
Sheer perseverance. You either want it enough or you don't.

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dgallagher
You'll have a million reasons to give up. All you have to do to succeed is
ignore every one of them.

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klochner
prestigeous[sic] 6k/month job?

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danielfrese
From the perspective of a college student

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DigitalBison
I realize that HN doesn't represent the general population, but $6k/month puts
you ahead of 70% of Americans. Relatively speaking, that's a very high income,
not just for a college student.

