
The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley - joshavant
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201207/leigh-buchanan/the-leanest-startup-kurt-varner-dailytoaster.html
======
damonpace
Repeat after me...You do not have to suffer to build a business. So many
stories like this are sensationalized in the media and it convinces so many
young entrepreneurs that it's a right of passage to struggle while building a
business. It's not true. Yes, other entrepreneurs had determination and some
sacrifice...but they most likely didn't suffer so dramatically, nor make their
loved ones suffer along with them. Don't fall for the trap. Be smart enough to
build a business without the struggle.

Capitalism says that in order to improve your life you must first improve the
lives of others. The more lives you improve, the better your life will become.
If you eliminate your own self interest of a good life, you have forgotten the
biggest reason you are building a product in the first place. You aren't
respecting your life, your wife, your business or your customers by doing
this.

Stop struggling and build something valuable that people will pay you for.
Living out of a van down by the river may get you a few news articles and
motivational speaking gigs, but your struggle is not related to your success.
I've been there...I've done it. It is irrelevant and unnecessary.

~~~
aswanson
Amen. Kindly dead the romanticism of starving and being pushed to the
brink...realize the first, last, and only thing that matters is providing a
solution for a human want. Period.

------
kposehn
> "People who aren't successful yet," says Varner, "can do anything they
> want."

This is the most important bit of the entire article. While not profound at
first glance, this actually is very insightful.

When you don't have anything yet, what really holds you back? Are you going to
lose your job? If you don't have one, no biggie. When you live in a car, are
you going to get much more in the (pardon the term) gutter? Not really.

Going for it is a great thing.

~~~
jonny_eh
Unless you get in a car accident :-/

------
da02
Why not slap a layer of buzzwords, while keeping your original concept
underneath?

Latest fad is turning everything social. Ugg... But, it might get the
attention of fad-followers:

DailyToaster: Social wakeup calls. Friends take turn to call you up. They win
"points" by getting you to your destination on time. Leader-boards, badges,
etc...

Did I say friends? Why not strangers. Plenty of loudmouths. Might as well put
them to use. The calls are routed through the DailyToaster call system to
prevent spam and protect phone privacy.

Why stop at meetings? Apply this to weight loss, book reading, etc.

------
wpietri
Oh god. I admire his pluck. But the headline is killing me. Lean != cheap.

Toyota is a major source of the Lean philosophy, and as the world's largest
car manufacturer, they spend plenty of money. They just continually seek to
deliver more customer value per dollar spent.

------
kurtvarner
Direct link to DailyToaster - <http://dailytoaster.com>

More info on my blog - <http://kurtvarner.com>

~~~
tomjen3
Brilliant. By living in a car, you will have very few distractions, though I
wonder how do you get electricity and an internet connection?

~~~
kurtvarner
I wrote about the logistics of everything here (although a few things have
changed since this post) <http://kurtvarner.com/post/19347794553/man-car-
startup>

~~~
wavesounds
Sell the Civic get a Toyota Previa - my buddy whose been living in his car for
years owns 3! Some people enjoy living in their car, especially if your work
requires travel or you like being able to move someplace new easily or just
don't want to stress over things like paying rent. That's great Palo Alto wont
give you a ticket. I think Walmart parking lots are all safe as well. I always
thought an app telling you safe places to sleep in your car or camp for free
or even good dumpsters to dive would be a handy thing to have - get in touch
if you want to work on it, I doubt its the right audience to get rich off of
though :-)

------
mindcrime
Man, I love this guy. I'm not convinced that the idea is big enough to get him
where he wants to go, but the moxie, the hustle, the spirit... you can't help
but root for somebody like this.

I'm shocked he didn't get into YCombinator, to be honest. Pg always talks
about how it's about "the team, not the idea," and if anybody has the moxie to
get in as a solo founder, I'd have thought it would be Kurt.

Anyway, Kurt, keep banging away and keep believing! I believe big things will
happen for you if you stay dedicated.

~~~
fusiongyro
> you can't help but root for somebody like this.

I can. Dude left his wife three hundred miles away so he can live out of a car
to work on his idiotic startup. "Moxie"? I'm sure that's something his second
wife will be able to appreciate. In the meantime, I agree with "Herbert": he's
a tool, and this moronic stunt is transparent and far from endearing.

~~~
mindcrime
I'm not a huge Teddy Roosevelt fan, but I think his words fit this discussion
quite well:

 _It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short
again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the
great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows
in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat._

~~~
fusiongyro
Those words are appropriate for Elon Musk, not a bum writing a social alarm
clock out of his car.

------
Lukeas14
Met Kurt at a few meetups and based on his pitch I have to disagree with the
"too niche" criticisms mentioned in the article. The number of people,
including myself, who have trouble getting up in the morning is a huge market.
I'm not sure if his current idea is the right solution, but if he can make me
productive during the 30-45 minutes that I spend hitting the snooze button
every morning that'd be worth paying for.

My only criticism is that I feel he's ignoring the root of the problem, which
is not getting enough sleep. Most people don't have trouble getting up after a
nice, long 10 hours of sleep. It's getting up after 4 hours of sleep that's
tough. And if Daily Toaster served its function of waking me up quickly after
4 hours of sleep I'd inevitably pay for it later that day/week anyways.

~~~
wpietri
Amen. I used to try to control when I woke up by setting an alarm clock. Now I
control it by having a regular schedule, getting plenty of sleep and making
sure there's bright light, hopefully natural, at the time I want to wake.

It reminds me of when I was a young sysadmin, leaping from emergency to
emergency, alarm to alarm. That was fun, but eventually I realized that the
maximally lazy approach was to rig things so that alarms were never necessary.

------
base698
Sounds like this guy took War of Art a little seriously.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Art-Winning-
Creative/dp/159071...](http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Art-Winning-
Creative/dp/1590710037)

As a younger person in college I always felt that being confident enough to
move to Silicon Valley and try to get attention you'd have to be able to code
a compiler in an interview for a language you've never seen on a machine you
were unfamiliar with. Or if you were the artist type you'd produce work
universally lauded for both it's execution and creativity. I guess you have to
start somewhere, why not here? Oh yeah, 10,000 hours rule that's right. :)

------
zinssmeister
I met Kurt for the first time about 4 months ago and have been sharing beers
with him since. Definitely a guy with vision, the right kind of work ethic and
attitude. Also a very talented Product Designer.

------
readymade
Good for him and all, but it's still a questionable product idea. He might be
better off spending his 3 months figuring out a product people actually want
and then moving up north.

------
firefox
Many of us go through incredible hard times and have to make difficult
lifestyle decisions, if you can get media attention while at it - more power
to you!

------
rokhayakebe
This guy needs to start a rent-your-car-for-the-night-as-a-bed , an AirBnB for
your car. Or a startup that sells kits allowing you to turn any car into a
place to live while camping or travelling cross country. Or a startup that
sells life-saving kits allowing you to live out of your car for up to x days
in case of an emergency.

~~~
jordanthoms
I have seen people renting their cars overnight on airbnb :)

------
kyt
I like his drive, but where are his 10,000 hours? I'd at least think you'd be
an expert at something before starting a business with zero cash.

