

Startup Cheat Codes - flashblu
http://www.ecquire.com/blog/startup-cheat-codes/

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droob
Bonus tips:

\- Save space on your bookshelves by tearing all the pages out

\- Hire actors to be your friends and family

\- Wear a suit once and return it

\- Wine tastings help you forget

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jongold
Fucking hell that's an awful post.

Lean Startup is great but you should realise the value of investing in good
design. Don't go down a rabbit hole of 'big vision' design perfection straight
away, sure (a $50k set of Photoshop comps before you've got product-market fit
isn't a great idea) _but_ you're not going to get very far with a fucking
Unbounce template.

Hire a good designer—one who knows how to do 'early stage startup'—and
flourish.

~~~
larsmak
I tend to agree. The "start-up"-term has become so bloated that it hardly make
any sense any more. To churn out hundreds of generic landing-pages based on
templates, built with "start-up generators" wont create anything of value.

"Don't have a product - no problem!" Get your idea out there and get that
seed-round running - then you can surely hire some eager developer-monkeys to
do the implementation.. wrong. IMHO a start-up is a game-changing idea; unique
and ahead of it's time. Developing it should take time, and it should be risky
- if not it will already have been done.

~~~
davedx
> The "start-up"-term has become so bloated that it hardly make any sense any
> more

> IMHO a start-up is a ...

Ironic. :)

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wiradikusuma
I'm a single founder. Even though I know I must delegate, I still have
difficulty putting it in practice.

I'm told that I must focus on the business side of things, and outsource (some
parts of) development. Being a programmer myself, I always think that "good
programmers are expensive, and cheap programmers are not good", so it hinders
me from hiring my peers.

How do you guys handle this situation? Esp. if you're perfectionist (I believe
many programmers are).

~~~
thomaslangston
To quote the old adage, "Quality, Speed, Cost: Pick any two."

Quality is possible without cost, but the speed at which you will acquire
those developers is low. You will need to hunt from the bargain bin of
inexperienced and/or overseas developers. You will choose poorly and you have
to be ok with that. Create a process where you can let go the developers who
don't work out and retain those who do easily. Parallelize this process if
possible. Your local college, local programming user groups, and online
contract work websites may be good places to stat looking.

~~~
risratorn
Shouldn't that be Good/Fast/Cheap? Basically means the same and is known as
the Trilemma :)

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Udo
The things that irked me most about this terrible article have to do with the
absence of any real product that "startup" has to offer, and when it does talk
about making a product it's more a cumbersome afterthought than anything else.

 _Don 't I need a product? Nah, let's not get ahead of ourselves here._

 _Hey, just outsource that onerous coding task to some monkey, it 's not
important._

Don't get me wrong, not every founder needs to be able to do technical stuff.
But I believe _some_ understanding of what it is that you want to build is
essential. If I had a cent for every time some "ideas guy" asks me to think
through his entire product for the first time and then build it for a couple
hundred bucks I'd have ...more than 20 cents I think. For some reason the same
cheapness showcased in the article always coincides with the most clueless
people.

~~~
mistercow
>Hey, just outsource that onerous coding task to some monkey, it's not
important.

I don't think that's a fair characterization of the author's advice about
outsourcing, which I think is pretty clearly a relatively smart way to do
outsourcing. They are not saying to outsource all of your coding, but to pick
well-encapsulated units with a clear spec, and outsource those.

That makes sense, because doing it that way means that you can completely tear
out that component and rewrite it later if needed.

~~~
Udo
You have a point. Maybe it's not quite fair if you just take the paragraph
about outsourcing, but it all slides into place if you look at the entire
article. Of course, having clearly-defined components is a good idea, and
maybe _I am_ somewhat weary from experience with these people. But the overall
impression this article leaves just conjures these images up for me.

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normloman
I'm thinking of creating a startup, but I'm a busy guy. Can I pay someone else
to make it for me? I'd still collect the profits of course.

~~~
mcovey
I've not even got time to coordinate outsourcing my impending fortune. You can
forward those profits to my checking account.

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shubb
A much better, more useful article than I guessed from the title.

The author signposts fast / cheap ways of getting (the things that take
ages/money) done. Mostly this consists of paying someone to do it. I hadn't
come across (or though of) a lot of the services he links. Very useful.

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adem
I assumed this article is some kind of a joke but after reading the comments,
I seem to be wrong?

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flashblu
I found some of the resources in this article very helpful, such as Stylate,
which looks like it can quickly provide value for a specific aspect of your
startup. In terms of making mockups before diving into making the actual
product, the author is advocating doing that for gauging customer interest in
the product. You wouldn't sell mockups of a product in place of the actual
product itself.

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johnx123-up
List is good. But, I'm not sure why the author is recommending costly
HTMLBoutique instead of cssilize ($35 + pms + w3c standards)

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janlukacs
How did this get on the front page of HN? Following those steps if you want to
go out of business before starting :)

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pc86
> You can get fantastic [design] work for the price of a beer – definitely for
> under $20.

Bullshit.

~~~
paul_f
Your evidence-based, nuanced response is most helpful, thank you. Are you a
designer by chance?

(Someimes good enough is good enough)

~~~
cscheid
> > fantastic [design] work...

> (Someimes good enough ...

Can you see the problem here?

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ollydbg
That's a solid advice. It's all about MVP + fast release cycle these days.

~~~
emirozer
absolutely , for example i didn't knew stylate which is pretty cool imo.

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micahroberson
Out of curiosity I checked out ecquire's homepage and without watching the
video, I had no idea what the product actually was. The supposed 'great
headlines and content' are non-existent.

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rholdy
...because we all know the way to make your start-up successful is to begin by
looking for the easy way out for every possible decision...

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chasb
Don't worry about thinking carefully or critically! No time for that! Get a
website up now!

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vinight
I guess the thing to take from this is dont waste energy on shit thay doesbt
really matter

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drcongo
Use two phones without ringtones so you're always on the offence, never
defence.

