
Why not to do a startup - elq
http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid_1.html
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elq
to this list I can add a few more reasons: A fairly strong potential for
financial ruin; an amazing amount of personal drama; and deep strain on
friendships among the founders.

After my last (also my first) company failed - my credit was heavily damaged
(and after nearly 4 years it has yet to fully recover), repaying debt can take
quite a long time (I spent the last 3.5 years working at a well paying corp
job and I was only able to fully settle the debt early last year), and due to
bad advice from a (very) expensive accountant the IRS was a thorn in my side
for 2.5 years.

But, I'm about to do it again as the experience is amazing and a _fantastic_
education.

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gyro_robo
Sounds like incorporating early would've helped a lot. Don't accept personal
debt.

~~~
elq
started off as an LLC, switched to a C corp 4 months later.

we found it impossible (within the time frame we needed) to sign big ticket
contracts, for things like 10k sq/ft in office space (yes, stupid in
hindsight), or a cage in a datacenter; for a company less than a year old
without personal guarantees.

~~~
steve
Buy a shelved company for a few hundred bucks? Heh, I've wondered how well
that would actually work.

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brianmckenzie
It's appropriate that Marc should post this piece today, the first weekday
since I quit my job to work on my startup full-time. Just so I truly know what
I'm in for.

Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Good times!

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palish
I wonder how many potentials will be discouraged from doing a startup by this
advice. Those potentials are probably not founder material anyway.

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dpapathanasiou
I'm glad he said something about sales; too many of the silicon valley blogs
gloss over it or ignore it completely.

It's certainly the toughest thing to do (especially if, like me, you come from
a technical background), but it can be tremendously important to your company,
if there's no exit on the immediate horizon.

