Ask HN: Who keeps you accountable and on track with your startup? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Who keeps you accountable and on track with your startup?

11 pointsnicholaides9 comments

Myself and a 2 other startup/entrepreneurially-minded folks have been keeping each other accountable with our startups and entrepreneurial endeavors. It started with a weekly Skype call and now we're keeping each other up to date and motivated online via software I'm working on (more on that later).

The basic structure of the group is to ask each other these questions: What have you accomplished? Did you accomplish what you planned to? If not, why not? What will you do next?

My group mates have kept me motivated, encouraged, and working on the important (rather than fun) tasks. They offer fresh perspective, feedback and new ideas. Hopefully, I do the same for them. It's been an incredible experience so far.

So, HN: who keeps you accountable and on track with your startup?

For my project, I want to start online accountability groups like these for entrepreneurs and startup founders. We'll provide the online tools, organization, direction, and means to keep yourself and group mates motivated, productive and (eventually) profitable. Right now, the web-based software we're using & developing is in alpha stage but usable.

If there's enough interest I'd love to take on some alpha testers and let them use the service for free until we launch. If you're interested in alpha testing and being placed in a group, being a coach/mentor, or just want more info, let me know: mike.nicholaides@gmail.com and/or leave a comment here. Also, you don't need to have a group formed already to participate (nor do I expect many people to).

Along similar lines, I had thought of a slightly strange idea for a web app where people could sign up to get a "virtual boss" to encourage them in whatever way to be productive (whatever "productive" may mean). A lot of people do much better when there's somebody pushing them.

These virtual bosses would also be people who've signed up to do so. Communication would be in the form of email, or an internal messaging system. The web app would make the experience more like a game, where bosses get points for having productive subordinates, and the subordinates get points for being productive themselves.

This is just a very minimal concept at this point of course. I don't plan on building anything like this, but I thought I'd throw it out there. It could actually work.

I joined a local MasterMind group that meets for dinner every other Tuesday night -- the results have been mixed so far. We generally tend to move forward on things but we're pretty relaxed on documenting things so I'm sure stuff is slipping through the cracks.

I'll email you shortly about your new service, I'd be interested in serving on the coach/mentor side. <shameless plug>Outside of MailFinch, my latest startup, I do some consulting for early stage startups on issues related to their back office (billing, provisioning, invoicing, etc) operations and generally keep them accountable through monthly "Board" meetings, if they want.</shameless plug>

Funny you say that. Over the past week, I have been invited to join such a group and on two mailing lists such groups were announced. I actually looked into them a bit and decided they were too expensive for the value I'm likely to get out of them. It's not that I thought they were of no value, it's that the £££ they wanted from me was too much for what I thought I'd get.

With that said, I'm happy to help you alpha test your service.

> It's not that I thought they were of no value, it's that the £££ they wanted from me was too much for what I thought I'd get.

Care to elaborate?

Sure.

I know such a thing is very valuable, especially for sole founders. You need a support group that keeps you on track, helps you bounce and develop ideas, etc. The groups I saw also talked about coaching and other leadership type seminars, which is not of interest to me.

The range of prices was £90-£400 per session (one group stated £250-£400 per session), with 1-2 sessions per month. I just couldn't see myself paying that for what value I perceived I'd get. A call on Skype or a meeting over beer would be perfectly OK for me.

BTW, my group members were the ones to convince me to post this on HN for feedback, rather than working on the fun stuff like coding.

My customers. Just a few hours ago I had one of them ask me on IRC what the status of the next Tarsnap release was.

I work in a co-working incubator (w/o funding) type space and we try to keep one another on track. This sounds like a great idea, I would definitely be interested.

My clients are pretty effective at keeping me moving along the right track. It would be nice to have a network like you describe, but I don't have time to try to find them!

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