I've read many of Paul's articles and others about starting startups, however many of them deal with the conceptual do's and don't's, and don't provide a methodical guide of how to go about getting things in motion.
I am a 20yr. old undergrad university student, so the entire startup scene is relatively new. However, do not mistake this for me having a lack of dedication. I have the drive and desires to do this.
It would be greatly appreciated if you guy could post helpful articles, your suggestions, advice, etc. of how to go about doing this alone.
You don't need to do ANY further reading on HOW TO start a start-up. Provided you know what you are building, get working on the ACTUAL start-up rather than worrying too much about funding.
There are people on the other end of spectrum too that start too many startups. I was on that end and had to conciously control my urge to start new things and focus on one thing. A lot of you guys here though that have been THINKING about a start-up for months now just need to do it!
1. Call a meeting of your partners to finalize what product you are building; PIN DOWN who will use it; have SOME idea how you will get users
2. Have another meeting and sketch out all the functions
3. Start coding; set tight deadlines
One thing that might help is to start thinking of what you are doing not in terms of a start-up but as a product. When we say start-up we associate with it all the luggage of fund raising etc. but when you are just building a product it is a very specific goal you are after.
Good luck!
-Zaid
In the evenings and weekends, build your idea.
If you've got funding to finish your university degree, then build your idea in your spare time and stay in school. Not as good, but a number of stratups have come out of college started projects (eg: napster, facebook.)
The really important thing is not so much your idea, but the skills that will come with trying to make your idea a success.
Trying to make it a success and totally failing is much more valuable than getting a job writing enterprise software or staying in school.
Assuming you're an engineer, and your idea is a web based one, you don't need money- you don't need investment-- what you need is living expenses. Get that covered and you're in a no lose situation. (Just make sure you have something to show for it if it fails- so that you can use the epxerience to get a job if you need one....)