Ask HN: Keep Going? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Keep Going?

27 pointsthrow7530 comments

I'm about six months out of graduating college. No debt and currently living out of my relatives house who have allowed me to work here for free. I worked for a somewhat well-known startup right out school but decided to quit my job because it wasn't the right fit for me at all.

I applied to some other startups, got offers, but eventually decided to start my own company. I've been going at it for about 5-6 weeks. Things are going well: the product is really progressing quickly and investors are getting in touch with me (not the other way around). But damn, is life ever lonely.

I'm a single founder with 2 advisors. But I'm the one down in the trenches doing anything. The site is not completely public yet (we'll be launching full-on soon). I consider myself to be a pretty social person but not being from the SV originally I don't really have any friends or people I know. That being said, all I do is program and work on the company...which gets extremely draining with no social interaction.

Any advice? I feel like I need to give this a shot. I've got some money saved up and I've been thinking about moving into my own cheap place (just to have my own place for a morale boost). But, with no solid income its hard to really justify moving out from a free-rent place. At the same time, I've thought about quitting the entire thing. Should I just stop complaining? Advice welcome.

Sounds like your should stick with your start up. Fix the problem instead of giving up. The problem being, from what I read, you are dissatisfied with your current level of social interaction.

Establish a routine in which you regularly interact with people. Consider taking 5-10 hours of your week (or whatever works for you, and devote it to something unrelated to your startup. A part time job in a social place, like a cafe, or perhaps volunteer for a cause that matters to you. Check out classes in your community that you might enjoy. Maybe a martial art, or other physical activity to get two birds with one stone.

If you want to find more like-mind people, look for entrepreneur's and small business networking events and meets ups. You don't have to be in the valley to find people that are working on making a successful business.

Best of luck to you!

Thank you. Classes are a good idea for me I think. Established routine.

Instead of moving into your own place, have you thought about moving into a place with some other people? It would be a good way to be around people daily and also get connected into more social groups.

If investors are contacting you, you surely have something worth pursuing. No matter what, tough it out as long as you can.

To cope with the loneliness, get yourself out there. Are you alone in the "I need like-minded folks to talk to" way? Or in a more "I want to hang out and have fun with people" way? Either way, you can do something about it.

For the former: go hang out with people. It is easy enough to cold-email people and invite them to lunch or coffee (where in the bay are you, btw? let's go have lunch!) Go to tech meetups. Join users groups and go to their activities. Coincidentally, this is probably the best way to find co-founders.

The latter is a bit more tricky, but you can approach it the same way. Make use of meetup. Volunteer. Join a book club. Make it a point to talk to 1 stranger every day or every day you go outside the house. Go to bars by yourself and talk to people.

There is probably a large set of people who fit into both categories.

One way or another, keep at it through the hard times. I'm sure it'll be worth it.

As a very special case of this advice, climbing is hacker-compatible and it's easy to get to know people this way.

A cheap temporary band-aid solution is to work in cafes sometimes. Just being around people can help; as does the change in environment.

    Should I just stop complaining?

Just to say, in general, answer to this question is almost always yes.

Maybe so but there's nothing wrong with wanting to be told "We've all been there. You will be alright. Just hang in there."

YES!

Seriously, most people won't get to the point where you with their 'start-ups', so you seem to have a live one. If you ever wondered about stopping before this is the worst time to decide to do so, just another 6 months and you'll know what you've got.

Keep at it and make a go of it, you're very close to launch, why on earth would you give up at this stage. All the sunk costs you've already had, now is the time to push on and make a go of it.

Slow down and start talking to people. You don't have monthly costs, investor expectations, or debt forcing you to work at a fast pace. Take it slower, start having more social interaction, and start talking to people again.

Seconded. I suggest getting on an even keel before making yourself obligated to others. Having a good routine that keeps the level of social interaction normal and healthy is a very very good thing to have before taking on investors' money. The stress only increases :-)

I recently moved to LA where I know very few people. Building up friendships and contacts has been a pretty high priority. I've tried to make time for meet-ups. Following up with individuals afterwards to get coffee, beer, play sports has been the most successful way for me build a new network.

If you're enjoying the project, and think it can go somewhere, then don't give up. It's the hard times that flush out those who aren't committed.

As for being lonely, try jumping on Twitter. There will be hundreds of people in your local area on it who will most likely be very friendly. I've met at least 50 people in real life who I would never have known were it not for twitter, and have even made a couple of friends overseas. Meetup.com is another great resource for finding like-minded people.

in SV proper? head by the Hacker Dojo. You can bring your laptop and work, but there is a whole lot of social interaction going on there, too. It's better, I think, than a coffee shop for social interaction because it's expected that people will start talking to you. It's better than most parties or other social situations, 'cause it's completely acceptable to bring your laptop, and to mumble something about a deadline or needing to work whenever you are tired of talking.

I've actually been told this by multiple people. I think I may check it out.

http://desksnear.me/ - Would this help you? Keep going!=) You might want to try exercising regularly (running, basketball, swimming..) and hanging out with friends who are not necessarily doing startups. It helps to keep you rooted to the rest of the world who are not interested in startups.. =)

Some words from the great Churchill might aid: "Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up."

Why you are thinking about quitting when you've dedicated so much to your project and are getting investors interested in your product is beyond me. If the problem is loneliness just get out more! What difference will it make to move out anyways? Just work on your company and make a habit of speaking to people all the time. In no time you'll get rid of the 'loneliness'.

I'm in almost the exact same situation as you. Just graduated this year, worked for a startup, then moved to SF with a relative to work on our own startup. Would love to meet you and chat, let me know.

http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/10/startup-team-magic.html

Where in SV are you? I'm about 5 months out of college and working on a startup too, would be down to meet up. Send me an email ambition2188 at gmail

I'm in a similar situation as polymath21 as well. Shoot me an email if interested in meeting up.

Are you the same http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=throw999

No.

why not try working at Hacker Dojo, you can get the work done and make new friends the same time.

Thank you everyone for the advice. It has helped me monumentally.

Why do you use throw-away account? If your question was linked to a real person -- you would get more meaningful advice and possibly some other help.

I'm guessing a few of my would-be investors probably read this site. I'd prefer to remain anonymous.

Do you think that if investors read that discussion, probability of investment deal would go down?

If so -- why? I would expect that the chance of investment deal would go up for these reasons:

1) Open public discussion makes you more known, and therefore investment outcome is a little bit more predictable.

2) Public discussion promotes your future business.

3) Open public discussion indicates you are not embarrassed to connect your name to your business.

get a girlfriend

One thing you will learn is that it's drive that pays off. If you feel like quiting in the bad times during startup you're going to have a hard time when your company runs into hard times in the future once you've invested more into it. Look at the guys form airbnb, they lived of cereal and were broke but they never lost hope. Like bradly said find some like minded roommates. Also congrats on having investors contact you, thats a good sign. Keep it up.

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