Things to know before starting a company

I was truly not prepared for the seismic ups and downs of start-up life. On one day everything can be working for you -- big customers rolling in, order volume increasing, traffic building; but on other days (or sometimes rows of days) you see nothing, and question your strategies, or make minor adjustments to fix what you perceive to be deficient in your execution. Facing the markets, especially in the beginning, is gut wrenching, but you build up a tolerance, and move forward. You eventually learn to roll with the punches, to borrow the analogy.

Somewhat agree with the VC in-crowd idea; I mean you have to have some sort of network setup, or know someone at least that has access to available capital. The easiest thing is to move to the Valley, but there are opportunities elsewhere. I decided to stay in my home area of Tampa to take advantage of connections here, and it has gone well. But I’d say if you didn’t have any channels open at all, you have to consider moving where the action is.