
Everything You Wanted To Know About Startup Building But Were Afraid To Ask - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/07/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-startup-building-but-were-afraid-to-ask/
======
maxklein
Don't even dream that this will be your path. This story is like reading a
book on how to become an actor written by Steven Spielbergs son.

Aaron is an insider. He belongs to the club. You most likely don't. You'll
have to hustle a lot more, you'll have to prove yourself first of all.

~~~
mahmud
Excuses excuses.

[Edit:

Oh, so HN doesn't like me calling a spade a spade. Fine. But let's face it;
even if the man is well connected, at least he is able to leverage his
connection to get a decent deal for his _work_. His connections didn't help
him build mint; he did that with his team. He went out and got a programmer
who was making $1k a month! If he was so well connected, surely, he could have
afforded a $200k/mo boutique J2EE crew and built something fancy.

All of us have experience, relationships, skills, and other assets that give
us an insight into a particular market segments and puts us at advantage
before all others. The wise ones know how to find these assets and exploit
them to the fullest.]

~~~
maxklein
I'm really the last guy to believe in any excuses. I am not in any way saying
what he did is bad, or that it fell into his lap, but the fact of the matter
is that someone like me does not even have close to a shot at doing what he
does in the same way he did. I cannot follow his path, because for me it will
lead to nothing but frustration.

If I send anybody of importance an email or anything, it does not get replied.
If I tried talking to anyone about funding, it will get ignored. I don't have
references, I don't have people that will vouch for me, I don't have anyone
that will introduce me, I don't have any name-brand colleges. He has them.

Now, if I tried to cold call the same people he gets introduced to, I will
meet with failure. For me, the best path is to FIRST establish why these
people would want to talk to me at all, either by profiling myself in some
noticable way, or by showing them the money. That's the path that works for us
normalos.

Insight into market segments are things that are learned the hard way - by
work and focus. Most people will not have this, but will rather follow such
paths and try to find funding, not understanding that these people are
different from them.

------
terpua
An informative video, especially the % given to cofounders/early employees but
this is a very _atypical_ startup (when they were starting up) with VC funding
(early on) and seemingly everything going right. I mean they signed up Wilson
Sonsini as if you just walk in, pitch and that's it. That wasn't my personal
experience talking to Wilson Sonsini (via a referral).

I think most of us have a lot harder time in all departments (getting
cofounders, early employees for cheap, legal, etc.).

~~~
tptacek
My experience with WSGR in 2005 was that they were ultra-interested in helping
us despite a near total lack of any credible way of paying them in the
immediate future. I'm guessing Mint is _not_ atypical in this regard.

Could it have been the Manila thing?

~~~
terpua
I was in SV at that time. Perhaps it was the sign of the times and WSGR had
their pick of startups. Luckily, we were able to raise VC money but at the
time, it was a bit demoralizing to have a legal firm say no to your money.

------
lunaru
Everything he talks about is subject to the old YMMV rule, except the last
part about entrepreneurship - there isn't a single entrepreneur who walks away
from the experience of starting a company unchanged. Success or failure,
you're guaranteed to be a different person afterward. It's really not a bad
deal :)

~~~
krav
You nailed it.

------
CitizenKane
For those who are impatient like myself there is a video with working audio
here [http://vator.tv/news/show/2009-10-07-aaron-patzer-lays-
bare-...](http://vator.tv/news/show/2009-10-07-aaron-patzer-lays-bare-mints-
numbers)

~~~
startuppal
Thanks. Great stuff by a great guy.

------
edw519
edw519's informal rule for giving advice:

If you have suceeded once: "Here's what I did."

If you have succeeded several times: "Here's what I did, and here are the
patterns that I have noticed."

If you have succeeded many times: "Here's what I found that works and may work
for you too."

If you have never succeeded: You should be listening, not talking.

No advice should give the "rules" (there are none) or claim to know
"everything" (you don't).

------
ntoshev
Please, _please_ edit these TechCrunch titles to make them informative.

------
mattiss
Excellent video. Must refrain from quitting job......

------
tptacek
The advice to ignore overhead during seed stage and "clean it up when you get
funding" is interesting, but you should be aware that if you screw anything up
with your employee's taxes, the IRS and, in particular, state governments are
going to fuck with your employees. I saw it happen on an innocuous clerical
error.

I'd be careful with this.

------
grinich
Also, check out Startup Bootcamp next week at MIT. It's free and features many
founders and entrepreneurs, including some from YC.

<http://startupbootcamp.mit.edu>

It will likely be streamed as well. Details will get posted to HN on Monday.

~~~
fjabre
Thanks. Just registered.

