Starting Entrepreneurs Anonymous

[blizkreeg]

I envision this as a real-life community of founders and doers who are bootstrapping, juggling a full-time job while working on their product/business on the side, or otherwise just lack resources.

My story:

For the past year, I've been bootstrapping my startup full-time. More recently, I've had to take up a full-time job again due to diminishing finances and work on my startup on the side.

I'll admit, at times it gets really hard and the nature of problems is entirely different from funded startups. I've wished that there was a support group outside of family who I can reach out to and draw support/motivation from. Honest dialogue is what I'd like to see in this community.

https://blizkreeg.typeform.com/to/A79l8I

[Mz]

At first glance, this existing site: https://startupsanonymous.com/ looks incredibly depressing.

Over the years, I have participated in various kinds of support groups for various things. They are often incredibly depressing and are often drama fests where it is difficult to really talk about solutions. Social pecking order and "respecting" the pain of people who can't get their act together becomes far more important than actually being useful to people who desire to move forward. This means anyone with real answers is shouted down by the folks saying it cannot be done.

So, I will suggest you put some thought into how you intend to keep the focus on problem solving. It is all too easy for "support" groups to just become places to vent and not places to get real solutions.

I am semi interested, but I am not going to give you my city and I am not sure I am a good fit for your group. But I would be happy to exchange a few emails. (And I have posted this HN discussion on my blog.)

Best.

[blizkreeg → Mz]

That's a really good point, and honestly I'm not sure I know how to avoid those problems. That being said, I'm open to discussing this with others. I don't claim to know how to run a group like this.

[Mz → blizkreeg]

I will suggest you either consider renaming the project or take pains to indicate that this is "Entrepreneurs Anonymous" in the sense of "We don't want our current employer to know, so this is confidential" and NOT in the sense of Alcoholics Anonymous.

If it were me, I would frame it in a way that focuses on "People starting small" or "seedling businesses" or "Biz Lite." I would frame it as being aimed at people choosing to start it on the side and actively looking to avoid VC money. I would frame it as "for folks looking to bootstrap" rather than "for overwhelmed people who desperately need a shoulder to cry on."

"Bootstrappers pooling their knowledge and experience to achieve success more rapidly and with less pain."

You might also go over to metafilter and check out their FAQ and guidelines for the AskMe section. There are a lot of things about Metafilter that I think suck, but AskMe has developed some best practices for keeping the focus on actually answering the question. It isn't perfect, but if you have no idea what you are doing here, it is a model to work from.

[jf22]

Its better to have a good mastermind group instead of a large community. Masterminds allow you to really dig into your issues and get to know people on a personal level. The moral support from your mastermind buddies is worth so much more than what a forum or slack member could give you.

I used to be part of a couple of communities like this and while they are amazing a mastermind is a thousand times better.

http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/

https://www.foundercafe.com/

[sharemywin]

I just wish I could use karma I've earned to ask questions and get answers. surveys etc. I doubt there enough people in my city for an actual physical group.

[blizkreeg → sharemywin]

I imagine there would be an online community aspect to this too. So long as we limit the topics discussed to feedback, support etc that bootstrapping/struggling entrepreneurs need.

[anthony_franco → sharemywin]

What type of questions or surveys are you looking to have answered?

[sharemywin → anthony_franco]

I have a lot of Ask HNs that go unanswered. Most are probably pretty dumb ideas I guess. just wish I knew it was lack of interest or lack of exposure.

a lot are project/community ideas that I could never launch on own but could possibly be done as a community.

[anthony_franco → sharemywin]

Probably best to ask those in a forum setting. Such as here: http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/

[blizkreeg]

Link to Typeform for whoever is interested and relates to this: https://blizkreeg.typeform.com/to/A79l8I

[santa_boy]

I respect your idea and understand where you are coming from. However, I think being genuine and "non-anonymous" is very important for someone at this stage. I can imagine the fear-factor while bootstrapping but on aggregate I feel people are supportive to those who try and the honest dialogue is way more practical with a real virtual person. Just my experience.

[supernormal]

Thanks for starting this. It's a hard balance many of us are tackling, mostly by ourselves. Looking forward to see what comes out of it.

[poirier]

Best of luck.

Note: https://startupsanonymous.com/

[blizkreeg → poirier]

Thanks. I've known of this. What I'd like to bring is the personal aspect to it - knowing the people fighting the battles, a sense of real interaction and talk.