
Ask HN: My startup has failed. What comes next? - blinduck
My startup of about two years has failed. We were hanging on for the last couple of months in the hopes of getting a big break. We&#x27;re out of money now. My motivation levels are also pretty low after so many repeated failures.<p>My question is, for other people that have been in the same situation: What did you do after?<p>Did you start looking for a job? Did you jump straight into your next startup. I&#x27;m also considering whether it&#x27;s possible to pick up small programming jobs on Elance to pay the bills.
======
aerovistae
Hey man, Elon Musk's rocket blew up today. Even the best of us don't succeed
every time. Just think carefully about your possible courses of action and try
planning out different routes in your head ("If I worked in city X for a year
doing Y, I could save Z, and then in my free time I could...", "If I went
straight on to this startup then I could...", "If I went to work at this cool
startup I know in a field I'm interested in, then....") and see which one
makes the most sense to you.

I know this is cliché stuff but remember Thomas Edison's 1000 ways not to make
a lightbulb, and JK Rowling getting rejected from a dozen publishers, and Elon
Musk nearly going bankrupt in 2008, and that Abraham Lincoln didn't do
anything particularly notable whatsoever prior to turning 52.

~~~
keithwhor
"Hey man, Elon Musk's rocket blew up today. Even the best of us don't succeed
every time."

This is a fantastic quote. A (literal) moonshot failed, and that's not
stopping anybody. Cheers for the perspective. I think it's easy to get trapped
in our own little bubbles and forget the bigger picture.

~~~
panjaro
" I think it's easy to get trapped in our own little bubbles and forget the
bigger picture. " \- A major modern epidemic

------
cat9
What do you _want_ to come next?

If you can constructively and reliably ship code to prod, you almost certainly
have better immediate options than Elance.

Worst case, calling ten different web agencies in your area will probably get
you enough work to pay the bills, likely at rates which are not unreasonable,
and with far less pathological clients than you'd find on Elance. You might
have to call another ten after that, if your luck is bad or if your sales
skills are poor.

After that, what? Full-time job? Freelancing? Another startup? Get out of
software and into the exciting world of fruit vending?

It's a wide world and you have skills that are in high demand. What do you
want the next chapter in your life to be about?

------
shortsightedsid
Our startup failed early this year. We didn't make any money and while we did
have a few interested clients, to keep going we needed funding that didn't
come. End of the day, it was the wrong product. Period.

So - lesson learned.

I did try odesk/elance for a while but you can't make any money from it. My
work is more embedded, and systems programming and the jobs on places like
odesk are suited for very low end webdev. (The good webdev work isn't on
odesk). As a result, they are very low paying.

I called that quits pretty quickly and started looking for a job. It took me a
couple of interviews (including bombing the first one) before I found work.
I'm pretty happy now. It pays the bills, but I am saving up for my next
startup sometime in the future.

In short, don't be disheartened. Very few actually make it, but the journey is
one that's really worth it. Sometime later you will find the right idea and
your motivation will be up again.

~~~
blinduck
Thank you for the advice on odesk/elance. I was wondering whether I could pick
up freelance jobs related to data processing/data analysis.

I do agree that the journey really has been worth it, although I haven't
actually got anything to show for it.

~~~
Kaizyn
Don't underestimate the value of experience. While failing must certainly have
hurt, you have actually learned more than if everything had worked out.
Whatever you do, be sure to take a bit of time to regroup before you jump into
another high intensity activity like your next startup or someone else's
software project with a ridiculous timeline. That way you will recover
quicker.

------
staunch
1\. Pay the bills, save some money.

2\. Take a vacation: _" Me and my friends have been too busy sunbathing off
the southern coast of St. Bart's with spider monkeys for the past two weeks,
tripping on acid. Changed our whole perspective on shit."_

3\. Tinker: [https://www.physics.ohio-
state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html](https://www.physics.ohio-
state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html)

~~~
newman8r
#3 has been the key to my happiness ... and by the way I love to collaborate
on awesome experiments - down any time.

------
ChuckMcM

       > My motivation levels are also pretty low after so many
       > repeated failures.
    

Several startups? Or failures in a single startup? Have you sat down and spent
some time evaluating the failure? What did you not know that you would have
liked to have known? What skills worked? Which didn't? Etc.

Many people I've known have gone to work for a larger, more stable, company to
build up a reserve before putting their hat back in the ring. Sometimes they
will take a different job (like working in product management instead of
engineering) to round out their skill sets based on what they felt good at, or
weak at, during their startup experience. Others have gone back to school to
get additional training that way.

Much of it depends on your resources and what your mental state. I find it to
write down in a journal as many things I can think of from the previous
experience and what strategies would have either made them more impactfull or
mitigate their damage. If nothing else it meant I was unlikely to repeat
previous mistakes.

~~~
blinduck
3 failed products across 2 different startups, over a period of about 3 years.
I definitely feel I've learnt a great deal over the last few years. I've grown
as a developer, but also learnt about things like management and marketing.

I think this is good advice. I've never worked in a corporate environment, and
I might get a job just to see what that's like.

I'm definitely going to compile and reflect on all the mistakes I've made over
the last couple years.

~~~
Animats
The success rate for VC-funded startups is historically about 10%. About 20%
fail outright. The rest often end up in zombie mode, able to cover their
expenses at some reduced level of activity but unable to pay back their
investors.

In some ways it's better to fail. You have to stop and go do something else,
rather than being on a death march to nowhere.

------
Maro
I did my startup for almost 4 years. It was this:

[https://github.com/scalien/scaliendb](https://github.com/scalien/scaliendb)

After the startup, I was "unemployed" for about 1-2 month. Then I took a
chance and went to work for Prezi as an engineer. It was a really good choice.
During the startup it was 2 of us coding along, not much social interaction.
At Prezi there's tons of people, diversity, it was a nice break. Also, good
challenges, lots of learnings. I'm approaching the end of my 3rd year here, I
hope to also do a 4th. Right now I'm a "Director", which is like a engineering
manager. So I'm also learning about how to manage people. After Prezi I don't
know what I will do, doing another startup is at the top of the list, but
we'll see...

~~~
AdrianRossouw
did you end move to budapest?

Last time I spoke to people there, they were only hiring people who were
local/willing to move.

~~~
Maro
I'm Hungarian, I live in Budapest.

------
ryanteo
Just some suggestions through the tough times:

    
    
      - Talk to friends and family who understand
      - See if there are ways that the work done can be absorbed into another company
      - Drop a note to mentors/ advisors when you are professionally ready
      - Do some small projects for companies in your network who can pay on time, and hopefully also let you slowly ease into a different team and environment
      - Cut down on expenses
      - Plan your project portfolio and resume
      - Try to do at least some light exercise regularly (e.g. 3 times weekly)
      - Try to see how you close the loose ends (tough, but take as much time as you need and take into account your mental state)
      - Don't force yourself to go all out socially
      - Write down thoughts about why you think the startup failed, organize it later when you can look at it calmly
      - Don't try to over-analyse the situation
      - May want to explore meditation
      - May want to explore religion as a way of thinking about life's meaning and putting things in perspective

~~~
kweks
Great suggestions.

Last year, I went through the same thing. We had a great idea. We had a solid
client. We build a platform that worked, and produced products that were high
quality, that the end user loved.

Due to miscalculations on our behalf, and due to the client's company
disintegrating, we were left in the horrible situation of having to kill the
company.

We were worked to the bone. I was emotionally and mentally drained. We felt
we'd let ourselves down, and let our staff down. It hit both myself and my
partner very hard. But, we paid our bills, and paid our staff out of personal
savings, and gracefully closed the company.

I 'forced' myself to take the time off required to get mentally and
emotionally stable. For me, this involved riding my motorbike solo from Europe
to Iraq (You will have other ways to decompress).

The final step in getting closure was to watch the delight of a friend's kid
playing with one of our products. We _had_ succeeded.

\- Be gentle to yourself. This is really important.

\- Don't force yourself into new projects.

\- Take time to look at your startup, and highlight what you achieved. You
probably paid your staff. Your code was probably solid. Your servers maybe
never went down. Your final product made people happy. These are all successes
- and it's very important that you congratulate yourself/yourselves for these
successes.

\- If you can afford it, take some time off and travel. Change your physical
and mental environment. \- Spend time reconnecting with your family, friends
and contacts. The relationships have probably suffered during your crunch
periods. These people will help you back onto your feet, so reach out to them.

\- If you need to get a job to pay the bills, contemplate taking a job in a
totally different domain. Flip burgers (or whatever your personal equivalent
might be). This will allow you to mentally build yourself up again to get back
on the horse.

\- When you do try again, be aware of the warning signs you probably ignored
the first times (especially the 'oh no what am I committing myself to'
feeling)

You'll find that over time, and only time, the points of what you did well,
and what you did less well, will percolate down into clear, future actionable
forms.

Incidentally, I'm back in the saddle. On my time off, I picked up a hobby to
tinker with a device, learned two new languages (Python + Qt) and a few new
frameworks, and circuit design - and now have my new startup, which is hitting
the market in a few weeks.

Just be gentle to yourself :)

------
mackram
The first I would recommend you do is talk to your investors connect with them
on a human level and explain why the business tanked. I did this in my case
and one of the investors went on to land me very good contract.

Second I would recommend analyzing really well what caused the situation.
Rarely is the answer running out of money the real reason. In my case the best
way I found to deal with this is to give talks in my ecosystem on why my
startup failed. This way it gave me a better chance to figure things properly
because I had to explain them.

Third I would not recommend things such as Elance or Odesk, but rather direct
consulting with people. I have done this personally and the financial payback
from direct consulting is incomparably better then online marketplaces of
services. The bottom line is that in direct consulting people are looking for
your expertise while on Elance they are looking for code and we as software
engineers produce code but what we sell is the expertise (ie the code is only
the means to the end). Fourth for your motivation levels I would recommend
forming a sporting habit. Personally I run long distances and I find it helps
me stay "earthed". On the really off days I find reading science fiction is
quite helpful but that is just me. Finally I would like to point our that your
startup has only failed if you do not see the rewards at the end of the
journey and only focus on that you missed your goal. As an example Columbus
failed to reach India by a new route. If he had only focused on that he would
have never gone back with the fact that he had discovered the Americas.

~~~
blinduck
Thank you for this advice. We've already planned to sit down with our investor
next month to do a proper post mortem. I've also been penning down my thoughts
about what went wrong and what went right.

------
davidbanham
Know thyself and accept that you may need a little bit of a mental health
break before you're ready to jump back in.

You are probably much more employable than you think. You probably also have
more connections than you realise.

As soon as you're ready, reach out to the people you know in the industry both
locally and elsewhere. Let them know that you're looking for work and the kind
of work you're interested in doing.

What worked well for me when I was in your situation was short term technical
work with no managerial component. I found it quite relaxing to just show up,
write code for a client, then go home. No team to worry about, no wage bill
looming, just some issues in the backlog.

After I'd done that for a little while, I was back in a position to stretch
myself again.

------
endymi0n
Just one tip: Don't just follow the money if you're a product guy and get
attached to your team and work. I quit a disintegrating startup with burnout
and went right into the best paying corporate job, not realizing it was
compensation for personal suffering. Dealing with 10 years of technical debt
and a hot mess of legacy architecture together with a erm... wide variance in
coworker's & bosses competence stressed me out just as much, and i quit no 12
months later.

------
mariusz331
If your motivation levels are pretty low, you may want to delay job searching
for a bit. Looking for the right job is hard and comes with its own setbacks
that you need to be prepared for.

I started looking for a job in May. It takes a lot of time finding the right
kind of company, going through all the interviews, and determining whether
there's a fit. It's very draining and, of course, rejection always stinks.

You probably have a lot of great skills you picked up from building your
startup, but practically no interview judges you on that kind of experience.
I've encountered two main assessments: the take-home challenge and algorithm
coding. Honestly, algorithm coding punched me right in the face when I started
looking for jobs. It took me a little while to get back into the algorithm
mentality (leetcode helped a lot).

Take home challenges are frustrating. You can put in a whole days worth of
effort with no guarantee of getting to the next step where you can talk about
your awesome startup experience. What's worse is that you probably are
interested in the company because, otherwise, you wouldn't have put in the
effort in the first place.

If you aren't ready to face this yet, I recommend picking up small coding jobs
for a bit to get your spirits up and work on interview prep.

------
trb
This happened to me. I worked on a side project in high school that grew into
a company after about eight years of work. Three years and a pivot later we
gave up due to decreasing traction, and returned whatever funds were left to
the investors.

I moved back to my parents for about a year to work on other side projects,
but ended up looking for a job and found an awesome small company that I'm
very happy working for. I'm still working on market-focused side projects and
without the stress of having to make money/gain traction it's a lot more fun.
I really prefer this setup, especially since a small company allows me to
scratch most product-development itches I have since there's not a lot of
bureaucracy.

A lesson I've learned: Quit early. If you feel bad about the project right
now, end it as soon as possible As in, tomrrow. Don't stick around waiting for
the big break. I've done exactly that, and while we actually ended up with
some paying customers after our pivot, we would've had to achieve an insane
growth to be worth anything to my co-founder and me due to the dilution of our
shares. It's not worth basically building a new company for the smaller
fraction of shares you have after taking an investment.

~~~
mikeokner
> we would've had to achieve an insane growth to be worth anything to my co-
> founder and me due to the dilution of our shares.

Seems like that's the bigger lesson in this situation. Never give up so much
equity that you cease to care about the outcome of the company.

------
matthewking
Id take a few weeks for yourself, then find a 6 month contract. That'll get
you back on your feet again professionally and financially. Depending on how
the contract rates are in your area, you should then have a small runway again
to think about your options. Id avoid committing to anything too big too
early.

I don't know the details of your startup, but if possible can you reduce costs
/ reduce scope of services to the point its self sustainable? If so, go for
it. I've regretted shutting down past projects, sometimes a bit of time off
can give you new perspectives on things, and you've presumably built some
value even if its not realised yet. YMMV but something to think about rather
than outright closing it all down.

------
AdrianRossouw
I highly recommend taking some time for yourself first, just to reconnect to
your loved ones and find some kind of stasis in your life. You're going to
need the space to rebuild your confidence levels to be able to show the moxie
needed to land the right position.

I have found that taking consulting work is a good way to buffer your income
for a while, until you find the position that is right for you.

I don't know if e-lance is the correct way to go about it tho, because there
is an element of social branding and networking related to all of this.

You could start blogging, or do some presentations at local user groups of
various techs. Writing about experiences like what you have been through can
actually be very freeing.

------
newman8r
An innovation does not have to be a business idea, remember that. Supporting
yourself can be incredibly cheap without a 9-5. Joining a team at a real
office can develop your skills in ways you'd never imagine - but it's not
right for everyone. It's not 'giving up' either - it can open up new
opportunities, but make sure you still work towards total independence if you
do that - and consider working for someone else's startup that might have more
traction.

2 years is a long time - I've been in situations similar. I don't let projects
last that long anymore. Motivation is an extremely important thing. You need
to find what you love so you can enjoy working on it without the only carrot
being a big payoff. NEVER force yourself to work on projects you don't enjoy.
In life we have to do things we don't enjoy like paying taxes, apologizing,
going to the DMV - but when it comes to your projects you cannot expect
yourself to excel in something you don't absolutely love. You can always do
'ok' in those things but it's debilitating after a while.

Take a month, if you can afford it, to hone your skills - watch youtube
videos, read a book (Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is what was once
recommended to me and I recommend it to pepole all the time in these
situations).

Be strong. Let the thing go, don't look back, don't jump into the next thing
so fast - make sure you're taking your life in the direction you want it to
go. Take a minute to pause, meditate - most people experience 'failures'
because they only ever work on a business venture where success is binary -
either you're profitable or you're not after x time. If, however, your goal is
to better yourself, to build things that you can use and you want, to explore
- to not worry about trying to make money with every concept you work on, but
to be open to the possibility of it.

You can do amazing things - just admit to yourself what your shortcomings are
personally, what your failures were in your last venture - and how to set up
your life so that no matter what happens, it will be impossible to 'fail'
because you no longer look at things as such a strict dichotomy.

~~~
newman8r
Also I may get some hate for this but adderall (amphetamine salts) can
potentially help some people in your situation - it's not something to get
hooked on though - talk to a doctor, never get it illegally.

------
rdl
If your project failed, and you can take some time off, go or it. I'd suggest
joining an obviously-successful project for a year or two after (a "unicorn",
although they're not all great, is a good choice; a successful team at a
successful company is, too), then doing a startup again if you feel like it.

Taking more than a few months off might be counterproductive (and expensive),
and getting trapped doing consulting/contracting doesn't contribute as much to
doing another startup again later.

------
patrickryan
I was in the same situation as you at the end of last year. After 2.5 years
working on a Techstars VC funded startup as a co-founder, we failed.
Unfortunately at the time, I didn't have the extra cash to take time off, so I
sent a few emails out (to the Techstars network) and a few weeks later jumped
onboard another early startup as the first engineering hire. I honestly wasn't
sure if I wanted to join another early stage company, but they offered a nice
salary (I obviously chose salary over equity), a nice bonus, + some equity.
They were the perfect fit for me, so things worked out well.

If you have the $$ to travel before moving on, I would advise you to take some
time off to relax and get your mind away from the startup world. Go see your
family, it's amazing how much they care.

Lastly, you will experience many emotions for many months following, don't
take it too hard. Life goes on, things happen for a reason, and good luck! It
will all work out.

------
geoffw8
Contracted for a bit. When I had enough cash in the bank after a month or two
I took a few months off and did some travel.

I couldn't even bear the thought of another startup (while it was always a
long term goal) until I took a break. Now I'm back in the grind.

Shit happens unfortunately, its how you pick yourself up and dust yourself up
that separates us. Best of luck.

------
1speed
Life goes on. Please forgive yourself whatever happened in the past. In my
case i started lokking for a job under stress and failed with the first one,
so please rank your interviews and go to least interesting ones first.
Sometimes going the ones you will never except helps, you will never now what
it will bring to you. Good luck!

------
raymondgh
From experience, I can say that it's stressful and unsatisfying to do
approximately "nothing." I recommend taking a hard look at your finances and
setting up some kind of concrete goal(s). Take that class, build that joke
app, polish your resume -- Whatever it is, just have your goal clearly defined
and at the right difficulty level. You've basically just been transported
forward in time 2 years and you're sure to have a lot of culture to catch up
on, friends, family and acquaintances with whom to reconnect, and reflective
thoughts to ponder. Don't be too hard on yourself as you build a new
foundation from which you'll make your next move. As for money, my advice is
to be wary of stringing along odd jobs for income. I think that kind of
instability does more to harm your environment of freedom than to extend your
runway of cocoon-mode.

------
soroso
I do not know details, but it seems the biggest mistake was not failing before
cash ended. I had two startups that were successes, but I had other few which
were failures. The trick, back then, was to set a certain threshold in which
we could call success or failure, and move on.

If you happen to have spared some cash before the actual declaration of
failure, consider to take a 3 months break (I did). 3 months break does not
mean not working, but actually removing from your life entirely any concerns
for future plans or making another business.

It is a sort of short and strong detox, that will allow you to regroup and
think better what's come next. But keep doing business... Those who felt the
taste of startup never really let that go. For some reason, I can't explain,
it is addictive.

------
h_o
I got a corporate job after my most recent failure.

I am working on another idea on the side now - but it took me a good few
months to recover before even wanting to work on something in my own time.

That was my first real total failure. We had €50k funding received with no
notion of what to do with it - and I left before the money was even drawn
down.

My advice is to relax. Take some time, play some video games, drink some beers
with friends, and read some books.

If it's in your blood, you will bounce back.

------
saran945
I started over with different idea, moved to a place where I can pay less, can
live sparingly. what I learnt helped to develop/market 5x faster.

------
mikerichards
_Did you start looking for a job? Did you jump straight into your next
startup_

I'm always curious about comments like this. Do you have enough personal
reserves to go into startup mode again and still pay rent/mortgage, household
expenses for another year, whatever?

------
adamzerner
Personally I wasn't a great coder after my startup failed (right after
college). So I went to Fullstack Academy, and then got a job as a web
developer. I plan on taking another stab at it once I get some more experience
though.

------
confiscate
maybe the best thing is just to find someone to talk to in person. Someone
outside looking in whose mind isn't as bogged down by the startup and can
offer a more uplifting 3rd party view

I'd find someone like that to talk to in person over a beer, before jumping
into what's next

------
Yadi
These are my two different experiences and hopefully one of them might help
you.

My first startup didn't go that badly, which is why it left me with enough
cash for rainy day during my 2nd / 3rd startup.

So without saying, yes the 2nd and 3rd crashed n burnt pretty badly.

Experience after 2nd:

I know this might sound meta, but your sanity and your self worth more than
anything else and that's what you should be looking at. I was a noob by all
means when I did my 2nd startup, because my first startup had an early
acquisition which I didn't really go through a lot of things. So due to that
my 2nd time it left me with a lot of bruises of rookie mistakes.

It was awful, but I decided take school and help me forget about Startups,
business and the sorts of things I was obsessed was before. So this helped
because I got to talk to people whom were not necessarily talking startup and
business, which diverts your anger/disappointment towards something different.

After 3rd startup:(run out of money, quite literally)

After my 2nd startup I had enough cash to not get a job, but this time around
I had a lot more pressure which left me with no choice, but getting a job. I
had some great investors whom knew why I fall into this situation, which
helped a lot.

Few things I did:

1- I put behind everything I was hopping for before, because I knew that I
have reached a new low (which is not good).

2- Making new hopes!

3- I started fresh (joined a tiny startup and worked for them like it was my
first ever time programming / building a team).

Things learned:

1- I wouldn't jump into another startup of your own. (don't, just don't) The
pressure becomes too much and productivity tanks.

2- Make sure you agree on leaving behind the miseries of a startup to start
something new (aka joining a team). It's a good time to let go of things when
you feel your shoulder is holding too much.

3- Your sanity and your life is the most precious thing you have, after my 3rd
startup I had death threats and that was the reason I had to let it go. So
things like that shows you how cheap life can be in others eyes, while for
you, that is the biggest asset you have your control over.

So feeling shitty or guilt shouldn't stop you from going into something new.

Also, if you have enough of experience with programming and building, then you
can do some consulting or freelancing very easily.

PS: if you're in based States don't freaking try Elance or Odesk. Because that
will just destroy your thoughts more, it's like race to the bottom for prices.
Try using HN (Who is Hiring) or Reddit /r/forhire or Twitter or friends to get
some gig.

Ah and one last thing, ego and pride can be hard to get over, but don't bury
them, because these times will be your medal of honor and soon enough you can
feel proud of them.

------
lsc
I don't have "real startup" experience with, you know, investors and stuff.
But I do have failure experience. Without funding, the line between failure
and not is way more blurry; but you fail the same. Sometimes those failures
come with emotional problems, sometimes not. When failures don't come with
emotional problems, cleanup is easy. Get a job and do financial cleanup.

When the failures come with emotional problems, well, then it's harder. For
me? I think it's a bad idea to go to my contacts when my performance is below
a certain level, because... I'm just not performing up to my usual standards,
and actually doing a job with people who expect me to perform at the level of
most of my friends would be a challenge when I'm fully functional. And when
I'm really messed up? expecting me to perform at the level I've been capable
of performing at in the past is a bit unrealistic.

But, the problem is that my job is absolutely central to who I am. I'm not
going to get better until I get a job and feel like I'm making forward
progress at that job. That's just how I work.

So... personally? I go through body shops when I'm like this. Why? Mostly
because employers don't go for the body shop until they've exhausted their
contacts. They don't know any more good people, so they'll settle for warm
bodies. And depressed-me can meet those standards, usually. I'll probably even
have enough skill-margin for them to put up with the downsides of me still
being messed up.

And eh, I've had good luck with getting help from the managers; I mean, my big
problem is staying on-task, and that gets way worse when I'm not in a good
place, mentally, and my experience? managers in those situations seem to be
pretty cool with me asking them for help with that sort of thing. I think they
know the score, too. They know they're gonna get second-raters from the body
shop, and they're willing to put some effort if it looks like some effort can
turn you into something useful.

When the economy is good like this, most of the gigs you will find are
"contract to hire" \- meaning you work for them for a year, and if the economy
is still good in a year, they'll offer to hire you on full-time, which gives
you a nice path forward, if you still need training wheels after the first
year is up. When the economy is bad, that expectation isn't set, but the rules
are about the same either way.

Oh yeah, to get a body shop job? put your resume on DICE. take the calls,
listen carefully, reject jobs you aren't qualified for (the body shops aren't
qualified to do that, and you will go to a lot of interviews for jobs you
aren't qualified for if you don't take charge of the filtering)

But yeah, especially if you are in the bay area, body shops are like a million
times better than e-lance

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getajob_duud
bankruptcy

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abrookewood
Couple of things: Can you sell your code? If not consider open sourcing it.
Either you get some money or you get some kudos in the community.

If you still want to work in startups, look at the post a few pages back for
people looking for founders:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9795503](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9795503)

