Why not to do a startup

to this list I can add a few more reasons: A fairly strong potential for financial ruin; an amazing amount of personal drama; and deep strain on friendships among the founders.

After my last (also my first) company failed - my credit was heavily damaged (and after nearly 4 years it has yet to fully recover), repaying debt can take quite a long time (I spent the last 3.5 years working at a well paying corp job and I was only able to fully settle the debt early last year), and due to bad advice from a (very) expensive accountant the IRS was a thorn in my side for 2.5 years.

But, I'm about to do it again as the experience is amazing and a _fantastic_ education.

It's appropriate that Marc should post this piece today, the first weekday since I quit my job to work on my startup full-time. Just so I truly know what I'm in for.

Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Good times!

I wonder how many potentials will be discouraged from doing a startup by this advice. Those potentials are probably not founder material anyway.

I'm glad he said something about sales; too many of the silicon valley blogs gloss over it or ignore it completely.

It's certainly the toughest thing to do (especially if, like me, you come from a technical background), but it can be tremendously important to your company, if there's no exit on the immediate horizon.