

Why Startups Suck - pepeto
http://www.entrepreneur2be.com/2008/02/28/experience-the-down-moments-of-entrepreneurship/
Anyone else in that situation?
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jyu
Your blog post seems to focus on a dwelling feeling of hopelessness,
uncertainty, financial insecurity, without a clear certainty of what to do
next. With only a couple hundred bucks and a burn rate of $400 (or 3 months at
the most), you're really playing against the odds. I mean, I'm sure there are
a lot of people interested in getting $60,000 besides your group. On the
bright side, you have a bunch of ideas, and seem to have a willingness to push
your limits. These qualities don't go away quickly.

Here's some sage advice I got from one of my mentors: "A good opportunity != a
good opportunity for you." Also, it's ok to not start a start up right away.
Without knowing all the facts of your circumstance, I would suggest focusing
on making your long-term situation better by getting your finances in order,
and getting indispensable skills/experience by working at some job (depending
on what skills you want to get) and hoarding your money. Spend your nights and
weekends figuring out how to spot good opportunities for you, getting a team
together, mentors, etc. Six months to a year from now, you should have
$10k-15k and be ready to rock. Then you can quit and pursue a good
opportunity, reduce unnecessary stress, and increase chances of success.

~~~
pepeto
I generally think stepping back for a little bit is ok. After all, this is why
I am not a banker like most of my friends around.

I just feel that I have decent chances this time around and I am willing to
take the extra. Once those 2 things I am betting on unwind, I will have time
to relax and rethink.

Thanx though, considered.

~~~
tim2
Don't listen to the quitters. Your money situation sucks but there are much
more limiting, harder to recover from factors that you could be up against,
possibly in the near future. Maybe what you should look at now is what you
have to lose.

I've worked a day job before which gave me lots of time for a startup but
that's not an easy find.

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Prrometheus
I love your music blog. The tracks are smartly chosen but it’s not MY music,
so it has the new and exciting factor.

Are you guys looking for seed money, by any chance? I’d love to hear your
business plan, although I understand your reluctance at spreading it around
too much.

~~~
andr
Send us an email and we can talk. contact at thefeelgood dot com.

~~~
Prrometheus
Sounds great. I’ll email you after work (they frown at using company email for
outside business activities). I’ll even be in the area next week so we can
meet if preliminary discussions go well.

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ekanes
Hey pepeto,

Taking a long term perspective, it can only go uphill from here. If you do
take a job, try to get one that's either brain-work and pays well (build up
reserves) OR physical and not brain-work (work on your startup ideas at
night). My company was started while I was working a minimum wage job as a
movie theatre usher.

Try to stay physically active, that will help with depression.

Remember, others want you to succeed!

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coffeeaddicted
Man, I wish I could get down to $400 per month. But you don't even get a room
in the town here for that. Even cheap apartments are at $600 and as I'm living
in germany it's also rather hard to get around some insurances - so make that
another $600. Some other costs like water, electricity and internet will make
another 150$ and then add the normal living costs (about 450$). Ok, part of
the reason is the currently low rate for $, but I don't think it would even be
possible for me to get down to 400 € in any way.

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ken
Yep. I've worked at big companies, and they never had "downs", and our
products always launched (on time, even!), and nobody ever got fired.

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webwright
"So funding is planned through winning the the Merrill Lynch competition and
if we don’t win it (which I feel we have decent chances) I will be totally
lost."

Was this part a joke? I find it hard to believe that a back-of-a-napkin biz
plan would have "win a contest" as the only bullet point under "financing".

~~~
pepeto
You're right. All I wanted to say is that generally I am leaning towards
making product rather than looking for financing, but I still decided to go
for the competition first with this specific idea. Also it's not a "back-of-a-
napkin" but it's 6-9mo thinking/research on brains, learning, market etc.I
also have real chances since it's down from 41 teams to about 7 now and I have
won other competitions, so I have a feeling of what judges are looking for,
which is different than what investors are. So yeah, badly described there.

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daniel-cussen
He's going to make it big in a few years.

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edw519
To anyone struggling who thinks that $15 = 3 meals, I have one word:

ramen

~~~
gscott
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=106506>

~~~
pepeto
=) The first 5 comments of that recipe are:

1\. YUCK!

2\. gross

3\. no way i would eat this or anyone in my family

4\. that sounds gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5\. That spunds so nasty. This will not be something that I will be trying to
make. Yuck!

but thanx, I will try it...

~~~
gscott
This was on Yahoo and they just don't have the quality comments that news.yc
has :)

