

Farewell NYC (and YCW11 rejection next steps) - richpalmer2
http://www.richpalmer.org/farewell-nyc

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jordanmessina
I give you a lot of credit for making the jump. This is exactly what I did,
and it was exactly a year ago that I quit my well paying day job to jump in
with both feet. Our start was similar to yours too, we had an idea that got
some funding from an incubator. We had some prototype and our idea wasn’t
really proven at all. I found HN, read Founders at Work and every one of PG’s
essays too. I felt exactly what you’re feeling now. Ride that high as long as
you possibly can. You’re going to have an amazing journey no matter where this
experience takes you in the end, and I can promise that you won’t regret
anything.

With that said, please think about if this is really the right time to make
the jump. As you know, an idea is worthless, it’s about execution. Testing can
take forever to find the right direction to go in. When I was making the jump
I always told myself that we’d figure something out before our runway ran
short. We had so much time to do it, how could we not? Well, we ran out of
time and could never find that key feature to make us profitable. I did a
million things completely wrong and so will you, but you don’t need to quit
your job to make those mistakes and learn from them. I always try to encourage
people who want to make a similar jump to make the really dumb mistakes when
you can pay your bills with a 9-5, not when those mistakes can cause you not
to eat for a night. I personally think it’s a bad idea for anyone to quit a
job just to waste time building and testing an idea. I feel it’s best to make
the jump when you find something that’s working and use all the new free time
you get from quitting the 9-5 to sell/test/improve that. When you find that
revenue driving feature or idea you can easily improve on what you have, but
If you have nothing you can be stuck trying to find it forever.

I wish you the best of luck, and I'm looking forward to reading more updates
as the company grows. Your team sounds like it has a lot more experience going
in than mine did, so I'm sure you will figure something out soon.

If you're interested where I am now, I’m actually writing this from my desk at
the same 9-5 I quit a year ago. That’s right, I’m back working at the same
place I left (I guess they liked :) ). I don’t regret a thing, but in
hindsight I do wish I waited until the vision I was going on was a little more
clear and mature. I'm 100% sure I'm going to give it another shot in the
future, and I'll get a lot further than I did this time thanks to everything
I've learned.

~~~
richpalmer2
Thanks for the detailed advice Jordan. It's good to know that we're not
completely crazy in doing this (just partially). I'm also glad to see that
even if the first time didn't work out, you learned an incredible amount and
are going to give it another shot. Best of luck!

For our situation specifically, we discussed a bunch of non-terminal options
with our employer. This included staying at the job with new incentives,
consulting, and prolonging our departure. We also have been given the speech
of "call me when you guys need a job again" by them as well.

However, in the end, we think that forcing ourselves, by leaving behind the
comforts of a 9-5, is the best way to learn, fail at some things, and
hopefully succeed in the end.

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calbear81
Hey Rich, good luck on your move to the Bay Area and thanks for starting a
blog to provide more insight into your mindset. One quick question, how are
you getting the expenses down to $148/month, that will barely cover utilities
at any 1-bedroom apt. in the city.

~~~
richpalmer2
The expenses are pre-rent/laundry/internet/etc right now. That number will go
up significantly after we find out where we are living. We have budgeted for
about 1300 per person per month.

~~~
pekinb
If anything, budget for slightly more than you think you'll need. I just don't
see how 1300/mo is going to be possible.

------
wiseleo
Remaining at IQ while working on your market research would have been my
preferred option.

Fastest way for that, by the way, is to visit the expo of your target
industry. I am visiting an expo for beauty products in the near future, for
example, as that's one of my target markets. Lots of people will have nothing
better to do but to talk to you about their problems while everyone else is in
their sessions. :)

You business analytics background will be a major asset when analyzing
customer pain.

You have about 6 months to build something to a revenue-positive stage.
Doable? Sure. :) See you at one of the many startup events.

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ig1
I was surprised that you can get still get to the interview stage at YC
without having a prototype.

Am I right in guessing that your business was bringing the home-cooked food
selling model to the US ? (like <http://www.super-marmite.com/> is doing in
France).

Congrats on making the jump.

~~~
richpalmer2
Thanks! Yes, that is really similar to what we had planned to do.

~~~
ig1
What made you give up on the idea ?

~~~
richpalmer2
We haven't given up on it just yet. What came out of the whole process was
that we are up against big hurdles - including legal obstacles that might make
the business model impossible in the US.

What we took to heart was that we needed to really get more in touch with our
end users, validate that they would use the service in spite of these issues,
and understand what it would take to get the public past the potential
discomfort of buying food from strangers. Actually seeing it work on a small
scale would go a long way towards proving that it would be worth our time (and
other people's money) to pursue the idea.

In the meantime, we are applying this thinking to two other ideas to see if we
can't come up with a more compelling business.

~~~
ig1
I looked briefly at the possibility of applying the business model to the UK,
I found a good source for legal info to be farmers markets and local food
markets where people already sell homemade foods as the organizers have often
already put a lot of work into researching the legal (and insurance) issues
surrounding the business.

Also if you want to get some initial providers onboard, checkout
Craigslist/Gumtree as often people sell home cooked food services on there.

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noelchurchill
So, because its one of your follow up questions, why do you feel the need to
move to SF from NY?

~~~
richpalmer2
I'm working on a post for that. Our friends and family are mostly in the North
East, so we needed to think long and hard about the pros and cons of either
scene.

BTW, looks like you are in San Diego. Why did you choose that area (besides
the fact that the weather is 62 in SD vs. 34 in NYC)?

~~~
noelchurchill
I'm from San Diego, so after completing college, I came back here. It was the
default place to go.

I'm now getting an itch for some bigger city life, and to take some time away
from usual and familiar routine. SF and NY are tempting options.

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pclark
what _is_ your idea?

~~~
rjett
Yeah, that was glaringly lacking in the post. I doubt the idea is one that no
one's ever thought of before and keeping it a secret is only going to prevent
him from getting potentially valuable feedback.

~~~
richpalmer2
Absolutely agree. I was looking for feedback and encouragement/doubts from
people who have done this before, so I left it out intentionally so I could do
a follow up post focusing on the idea itself. Several users in this thread
have guessed it already though.

------
jw84
This happens after every round for the past four years I've been paying
attention to Y Combinator. I don't applaud you for taking the jump, as moving
and doing all this stuff is more normal than abnormal to me. In the wake of
youth, you're going to enjoy everything you're doing.

Will it increase your likelihood of success? No. There has yet ever been a
startup that has developed after a rejection from YC. Will moving to SF help
you? No. There's a lot more action in the east coast for tech then there are
out here. In fact, I would say you're going to have a much harder time trying
to figure yourself, your startup, and navigate the social culture and scene.
Your budget is also naively out of whack.

But you're going to enjoy your adventure, good or bad. I applaud that, I
applaud that simple affirmations.

Good luck, let's grab lunch when you're out here.

~~~
nostromo
> There has yet ever been a startup that has developed after a rejection from
> YC.

And you know this how? It seems even YC couldn't know how many false negatives
they have had.

> There's a lot more action in the east coast for tech then there are out
> here.

Citation requested...

~~~
jw84
I know this because no one reports it. Everyone moves on. To another idea, to
another company. The better candidates work for a YC company.

Deal flows in Boston and NYC is better than Silicon Valley right now. Pay
attention to OnStartup.com, JasonLBaptiste.com, and things Bijan Sabet is
saying.

~~~
jeromec
Here is a thread about some YC-rejects that went on to either raise money, get
acquired, or otherwise do well.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1191566>

