The real cost of starting a startup? | Hacker News Reader

The real cost of starting a startup?

blog.gregduffy.com

17 pointsgduffy13 comments

We did once fund a startup that didn't even get an apartment. They lived in a hostel in SF. They said it was nice and quiet during the day because everyone else staying there was a tourist and went out to see the city. They didn't make it, though. I don't think they ever launched. So maybe they found out where the edge of cheapness is.

I feel like it's a good idea to have a separate office from where you live, but why don't more (2-3 person) startups use the library for an office? It's quiet, you can rent conference rooms and equipment by the hour, and there's free wifi.

It wouldn't work forever, but it would be fine for the first few months.

Libraries generally close around 8pm. Software startup founders are probably just getting started at that time. :)

Unless you go to a campus library. Then you also get access to lots of fun research journals

Seconded.

If there's one thing I miss about college it's the 24-hour facilities. Even though there was always "home" it felt more entrepreneurial to work in a dedicated workspace, if a public one.

Then hit the starbucks.

There is a 24hrs one open close to my place (laurel heights, sf), and now there is even free wifi, and they remodeled it.

Get a double shot machiatto, (1.99), and just hack. There is food, water, bathrooms right there.

After the remodeling, for some reason, I find myself being incredibly productive there.

It's quiet. Too quiet. You can't hold whiteboard meetings and wave your arms a lot in a library, or they ask you to leave.

The conference rooms do exist, sometimes, but it's probably hard to consistently get one several times a week. When you find you really need a conference, the rooms may all be full.

Sounds like 2DBoy: http://www.2dboy.com/about.php

Clearly there is an unspoken psychological cost, which is much, much harder to analyze.

Also: opportunity costs.

The closing line "Dear Gabor, take note! Maybe starting a start-up isn't quite as impossible as they make it out to be" makes it seem like this is a revenge fantasy casting the recently departed VP Eng Gabor Cselle as a homeless person trying to get his new start-up off the ground. There may be considerably more bad blood around this departure than has come to light. Founders are best advised to avoid jokes or insults around departed employees no matter how they feel about their contribution or exit.

The "Going Bedouin" model has a much better outline in http://www.charterstreet.com/2006/02/going_bedouin.html

Actually, I'm not a founder, and Gabor's a friend of mine. He sits right across from me at work (he hasn't left yet).

He thought it was funny, since we often talk about how much people exaggerate the various barriers to building a successful startup. If anything, that line is meant to condemn any discouragement he faces.

Credibility: Priceless.

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