

Help me make the leap - dustingetz

I'm 23 years old, no family.  My living expenses including student debt is about 3k/month.  I feel ready and competent to begin a startup, but I really don't have any idea how to transition from my salaried job, given bills, relocation, risk of failure and making sure I have a source of income in 6 months.<p>If I wanted to get seed funding for early 2010, what steps should I be takking right now?  I'm on the verge of committing to a few months of weekend prototyping but really want to feel like I Have direction before I stat sinking that kind of time.  Can you direct me towards posts from people in my situation who made the leap?
======
tsally
3K a month is going is chew through seed funding pretty quick. If most of that
isn't student debt, you need to figure out a way to lower that number. If it
is, you should probably get a job first so you can payoff a good chunk of your
debt. A happy medium for now would be to get a job and work on a side project.
After you have your expenses down, take that side project and try to get
funding.

------
byoung2
_My living expenses including student debt is about 3k/month_

Whether or not you're going the startup route, you want to keep your expenses
as low as possible (ditch the car if you're making payments, crash with
friends/relatives, learn to love ramen, etc). $3k/month seems high for a 23
year old with no family, unless you're already in Silicon Valley.

~~~
nostrademons
$3K/month seems high even in Silicon Valley - mine are about $1.5-2K/month,
and I live without a roommate in a nice apartment only a couple blocks from
downtown Mountain View. I think I could get them under $1k/month by getting
roommates, moving to Sunnyvale or Santa Clara, eating more rice & beans, not
having bought a new car, etc.

------
ScottWhigham
Just saw this - you might appreciate:

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/20/from-nothing-to-
somethi...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/20/from-nothing-to-something-
how-to-get-there/)

"This is the first post in what’s going to be a series of blogs on how to go
from nothing - no connections, no team, no money and no knowledge of how the
startup industry really works - to operating a growing business."

I've barely read it but I had just left your post and had you in mind. Good
luck

