Practical Tips on Starting Your Own Company | Hacker News Reader

Practical Tips on Starting Your Own Company

blogs.hbr.org

87 pointsacconrad38 comments

We need more posts like this. The nuts and bolts of bootstrapping. Too many articles talking about what to do at step 43, need more about steps 2-5.

Speaking of, has anybody had success with rather than dumping the 9-5 and jumping straight into your startup, tried going contractor for a while and use the down time to work on the start-up?

Yes, me. Been doing it for a couple of months, although I started contracting 3 months ago.

Key points:

1. It's hard. Get a calendar and worship it.

2. It works only if:

A. Your contracting is earning enough to pay the bills. Otherwise you'll be stressed beyond belief (because you'll be failing at 2 things simultaneously).

B. You force non-contract time to do startup. Doing it on the side/evenings/weekends doesn't work. I average 3-4 days a week contracting and working on startup a bit daily with guaranteed 2-3 full days a week. Yes it eats into the weekend, but you'll be 100% ok with that!

Happy to talk more if you want by email. Drop me a line.

> The nuts and bolts of bootstrapping. Too many articles talking about what to do at step 43, need more about steps 2-5.

Step 1: Sell. Step 2: Sell. Step 3: Sell. Step 4: Build a little bit. Step 5: Sell some more. I made this mistake so fucking badly when I started in business, I'd build something then try to sell it. Don't do that. Get users, ideally paying users ASAP. Or at least get people to give you an email. Something. Anything. Don't build then try to sell, you're bringing a world of hurt upon yourself if you do (and getting locked into design/feature decisions that aren't what people want).

I consulted to pay the bills. It worked for me.

I think the three toughest things with the contracting approach are: 1. Being disciplined and actually working on your business. I don't have a great answer for this one. Just knuckle down. 2. It often takes a fair amount of time to generate consulting business. This is time that you aren't making money. 3. When consulting gets busy you eat into the time you have for your project and stop making progress and loose momentum.

What I did to deal with items 2 and 3 was get a long term, part time contract (3 days a week). I then had two full days a week to work on my business and rarely struggled with burn out or time conflicts.

I think this approach is a lot easier than straight up freelancing.

Overall - not bad, however I'd have to say that "Print your long emails" is pretty old-man-ish for such a list. Also, the part about "pick a time of day to work" should probably just be changed to religiously manage progress on set goals - hours are even a little retro in many businesses.

This is a great example article with short, concise points that are practical and EVERY startup can use.

For his point 8, I would suggest getting the best chair possible since you'll be spending 10+ hours a day in it. If possible get something ergonomically like the Herman-Miller Embody. It may seem expensive, but if you divide by the hours you're going to spend in it you're actually getting a deal.

This can't be emphasized enough. Herman Miller chairs were made fun of during the dotcom boom as an example of lavish spending, and it was totally unfair. Those chairs come with 10 year warranties, so they're still around today. $1000 might seem like a lot for a chair, but not when compared to how much we spend on computer hardware.

Exactly. About 95% of the DotComs who bought Aeron chairs are gone. But probably 95% of the Aeron chairs they bought are still in use, somewhere, by somebody. Something to think about when deciding what's a wise thing for a business to spend money on. Spend money on assets or things that last a long time and have decent resell value.

I had one of those, many years ago, and honestly it wasn't the most comfortable chair I've ever had. It didn't support my back quite right. I think my favorite was some bomb-proof thing I bought off a guy shutting down his welding business in Mountain View. It weighed a ton, but was quite comfortable.

To add this point, consider a laptop/pcthat could last 3 yrs, not easy to code with a slow pc. Important to get a good setup for the essentials; table, chair, laptop/pc... then you can focus on the core -> that's to make something.

I'm assuming this article is aimed at more traditional, brick-and-mortar businesses. I'm starting a new online venture this week ... here's my thoughts on:

1. Not a fan. Quickbooks (IMO) is for painting contractors and coffee shops. I'm digging InDinero so far–I have linked to our chase account and it looks to be a good product.

2. I did a California LLC

3. Why even get a cc? Why not just a debit card on your business checking account? I did this and it still earns rewards so I see no value in a cc.

4. Hiring is not part of starting a business. It's part of growing a valid, established one.

5. Not familiar with this, but I can get one here for $9: http://venturehacks.com/articles/cap-table

6. Don't have a printer in my office. GMail -> Instapaper

7. This seems to be pertinent to people in financial industries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errors_and_omissions_insurance

That's all I got for now ...

Not crazy about having "Fifteen Amazing Tips" lists on HN, but this one did make me smile:

> Never ask for an NDA from third parties, except a) actual employees, b) contractors, or c) key business partners. Don't ask for an NDA from friends, potential employees, or potential investors. If you do, they'll say no, and they'll know you're amateur hour.

Could someone explain or expand on that particular point, for those of us who are just plain inexperienced or ignorant?

"Pick a company name based on URL availability."

What does everyone think of this? I cringe every time I see another company name ending in '.ly', and I think names chosen by URL availability often sound cheap rather than clever.

I'd rather go for a name I like and pick a domain of the form <name><verb>.com, but will that be bad for business?

I think you're agreeing with the point, with the caveat that not all domain names are created equal. I too am not a fan of TLD hacking - I figure if you can't get the .com then there are other domains out there.

I'm also a fan of the two-short-easy-to-spell-when-heard-words domain names. My startup, for instance, is GeekStack.

Before you hire your first person, decide when your company's "day" starts (i.e. what time you are going to open the office each day). Stick to the time and expect your first colleagues to join you. It's a tone-setting decision that's hard to change later.

Ugh. The Asses In Seats syndrome. This article is old, I hope.

One Tip on Starting Your Own Company:

Satisfy a customer.

All the rest are details, "hyper-practical" details maybe, but details nonetheless.

As they say, the devil is in the details.

Thats one half of my favorites set of words, could't help replying

"The devil is in the details..."

The other half "God is in the details"

Maybe; but if you have a customer then a business can usually be pretty shoddy and still turn something of a profit

good tip, and very true too.

There might also be something about turning a profit in the process...

It was also submitted 6 minutes later, but without all the feedburner, etc, crap in the URL:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1612318

I know it might not be totally related but I often see that and I was wondering if anyone could explain it to me:

(quote You will become a better interviewer fast, learn more about the right requirements for the job, understand the candidate pool, and learn how to sell the role to the best candidate well before you meet (emphasis her.))

Why is "her" used there?

Because in English (at least speaking formally) there is no singular gender-neutral pronoun that can be used to describe people. Many people (including me) incorrectly use "they", which is actually a plural. "Her" was used in place of "his" more in the interests of political correctness than anything else. Some authors will switch genders between examples, some will use "his or hers" (which seems overly formal to me), and some just use "they".

I'm of the opinion that English will evolve over the next few decades to include "they" as a formally recognized singular pronoun. Languages exist to serve the culture they're a part of, not the other way around - and many (most?) of us are already using "they" incorrectly.

More information available at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Modern_E...

Not a bad little article, but "Get good t-shirts"? Methinks 15 tips sounded better than 14.

I read the title as "hyper-spatial" and was all excited, only to be disappointed. Apparently obsessively reading the Doc Smith Lensman series recently is taking a toll.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series

hyper-practical? What the does that even mean?

Ha I know right? Sorry about the feedburner crap, and the start of the article seemed suspect but the later half of the advice is pretty solid.

hype-r. ie, makes the title sound more sexy.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyper-

It's a prefix, to denote an unusually high amount of something. I'm guessing the reason why he wrote the article in the first place was because he wanted to share start-up tips that had an unusually high practicality. Thus, he's signifying the significance of these tips with that phrase.

still doesn't make sense.

And I'm going to stop here because my original comment isn't grammatical since I removed the word "fuck" from it.

I saw a job ad last week where the company said they wanted a "dynamic" sales professional who was "reliable and consistent".

"Dynamic" means constantly changing.

"Reliable and consistent" means the opposite.

My point: it's just one of those buzzwords that people like to throw around. "Hyper" and "dynamic" are like the packing peanuts of the English language.

I see your point but I don't think they meant that. When they said dynamic I think they meant, "We want somebody who's going to be making calls, sending emails, knocking on doors, chatting people up at conferences, getting in people's faces -- not somebody who sits in their cubicle hiding from the world." And by reliable and consistent they mean, "We don't want somebody who's doing all those things we want on Monday but then doesn't do it the rest of the week. Or does in January but not in February. You have to keep producing for us non-stop or we're going to run out of runway."

Agreed some words are used too much. But sometimes words are chosen to signal something like, "Our last guy in that role, who we fired, was not dynamic. You must be dynamic or we will fire you earlier so that we don't go bankrupt and not have the money & time left to hire your replacement."

buy E&O insurance? that sounds like a later stage tip, if at all. felt so out of place it almost smells like front-running. screw that, just find paying customers, tune and scale up.

even rent is not something you have to think about when starting a company. use homes (that everyone should have anyway), garages, sheds, Starbucks, libraries and bookstores to start.

> use homes (that everyone should have anyway)

I agree with your overall sentiment, but this part... I'd disagree with. Home ownership is not for everybody.

Replace with "the place where you sleep at night" for the general case, in the developed world. (Roof, kitchen, livingroom, bedroom, etc.) Possibly shared with family. The point is, even if you don't own a business, you're going to want a place to live, and you'll have to pay for that anyway so, assuming no other complicating factors, it seems like a smart idea to also consider using that space to work on your new business. Home != house != ownership. Home is where you sleep on a regular basis, where you store your stuff, etc.

Sorry, I was being dumb. I thought you meant 'buying a house is better than renting,' not "don't get an office, your house is fine."

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