Y Combinator here I come – update

First, please make sure to proof read your posts and find a few folks who are willing to help you do so: ability to write well counts a great deal (especially if you're serious about running a business). Good news is that you already enjoy writing and thus you are far more likely to invest in deliberate practice.

Second, I think you drew the wrong conclusions in your previous post. Big companies are rather predictable: you have (with some margin of error) a fairly good idea of what the culture, environment, et al are going to be like when you decide to join one. Startups, on the other hand, vary greatly from one to another: you're more likely to have a horrible experience, but you're also more likely to have an amazing experience. You've had an unpleasant experience at one startup, but it doesn't logically follow that your only option is to start your own company: there are plenty of companies that are actually great to work for.

To be honest, I don't think this is the right time for you to do a startup: looking at your previous posts and comments on this site, it sounds like you need to build your technical skill-set (looks like the last company you've worked for didn't even use source control!), confidence, and a network of like minded people. If somebody asks you "why would I want to move to Silicon Valley to start a company if I already have a great job?", they have a very different set of values from somebody you'd want as a founder. Great engineers (or product managers, designers, and so on) always have many options available to them besides starting their own company: it's a matter of choice and not a last resort.

Spend some time improving your online presence: at the least fix the gramatical errors (e.g., its/it's and build/built), build a few web or mobile applications (assuming that's what you're interested in), put up a few projects on GitHub/Bitbucket (but have a few strong programmers review them before making the repositories public). This will make it easier for you to show people (potential co-founders, clients, customers, employers, coworkers, or just like-like minded folks) that you're serious and have potential.

Essentially I feel you're running from something (in this case a job you didn't enjoy and the experience of being laid off). Instead, put yourself into a situation where a startup is something you run to.

[Edit: corrected a few grammatical errors of my own]

http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22405055017/peter-thiels...

If there's any single variable that seems to be best correlated with early-stage success, it isn't "marketing" so much as "hustle." How many different ways can you think of to get the word out about your product? How many people can you get yourself in front of, and in which novel situations? How can you inspire better-connected, deeper-pocketed, and more influential people to evangelize on your behalf?

I've got two friends right now running startups. The first started out in investment banking, so he's got a big ol' warchest. The second started out in relatively modest circumstances -- but she's somehow managed to weasel her way (I say "weasel" lovingly, as a compliment) into blogs, journals, conferences, Entrepreneur magazine, lectures at our alma mater, and so forth. More important, she's actually built something and is actively acquiring users, one small batch at a time.

I'd bank on her over the first guy any day of the week, and I'd have banked on her even before she started getting all her press and attention. We've all heard the old cliche about not taking no for an answer. In her case, the cliche isn't nearly sufficient. I'm pretty sure she's pathologically incapable of understanding the word no.

I say this with a lot of respect for your honesty, integrity, and bravery in putting yourself out there. But if you're the type who's constantly starting and stopping projects -- who seems to put up imaginary barriers before he even encounters real ones -- then you need to think very carefully about whether you should be a founder. Joining an existing startup? Sure. But being a founder? You need grit, hustle, balls, and borderline fanaticism. You also need an ability to break a bigger picture down into smaller, bite-sized chunks, and to tackle those chunks systematically. Most people look at the set of all activities called "marketing" as a single lump of work. Founders look at "marketing" and see 2,500 discrete activities they need to perform every month.

That statement plus your co founder staying home probably didn't help.

Why lack of enthusiasm for current product? Why not build the right product, rather than build the wrong one (and need to fix it later)?

Work on projects that are more objectively inclined. iPad apps ( although the guys @ YC like them ) aren't exactly simple to evaluate objectively.

IMO the more objectively valuable something is ... the less marketing hocking you need to do.

This coming from a BS in marketing and a programmer / hacker. People like to do simple shit and the app is the current easy eval for YC.