trussi

If you already know .Net, so go with .Net. You don't have time to learn a new language.

Don't get swept away with the romance of a new language. .Net is a proven technology. It will be able to do whatever you need it to do.

And between DreamSpark and BizSpark, there's no licensing costs.

Do you want to bounce your ideas off somebody else? Or vice versa?

Do you just want to meet others interested in startups?

Can you provide some background on yourself? Your profile is blank and doesn't include any contact info.

[Below is a bit harsh, but use the critical feedback to grow and improve. I'm honestly trying to help, not just criticize.]

What are you and the other biz dev person doing all day?!

What value do you (and the other biz dev) bring to the table?

From my perspective, you two should be busting your balls selling. One should be selling the product to customers to gain traction. The other should be selling the product to investors.

You both should be on the phone, road, plane, train or in a lobby waiting for a meeting all day, every day.

You don't need a product to sell first. That's a first-timer's excuse for not getting out there and making it happen.

It seems like you really need to step up the hustle level here.

I'm available via phone and email anytime to discuss this further. Feel free to reach out any time. Like I implied above, I want you to succeed and would like to help in any way I can.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Anything consumer-based requires a huge user base because you can only charge a small amount per user. Huge user bases take time (read: a lot of money) to build. And users are very finicky and not very loyal. They get bored easy and move on to the next hot thing.

This idea of building the huge user base first, then trying to figure out how to monetize it later is way too risky for me. One false move trying to monetize it and your entire user base just disappears. No thanks.

To summarize, my opinion is that, based on my limited experience and common sense, B2C products are way more risky than B2B.

I think B2B is much less risky with a lot more opportunity to actually make some money. It's (relatively speaking) very easy to monetize a B2B product. And there are so many niches that it's very easy to find a product that adds value.

My comment of not quitting your day job if you're going after B2C assumes you are trying to bootstrap your startup. You simply don't have the money to bootstrap it. If you are going after VC money, then you'd have to get the VC money before quitting the day job. However, you won't be able to get the VC money til you can prove your product can gain hundreds of millions of users. It's a catch-22.

My advice for anybody looking at doing a startup is to stick to the boring B2B market. Don't get swept away with a grandiose idea of building a hundred million user product. Even the most pedigreed players in this space can't figure out how to manufacture huge users bases (i.e. Color).

Most mid and small cities have some sort of business development program. The goal of these programs is to generate jobs in the local community. I googled 'reno business development program' and came up with this link: http://www.nsbdc.org/

The business development program I'm in provides hours with a life coach (for time management), marketing consultant, SEO consultant, web designer (I don't use this one), a CPA and a lawyer. They also provide introductions in the community.

I think the stated output of the program is a polished business plan. Everybody in the tech scene scoffs at business plans (and most of it is justified). However, if you want any financing, you'll need one. And it's actually a very powerful tool to help you focus and answer questions you haven't thought about yet. A business plan is really for you, not anybody else. At least that's the value I'm getting out of it.

The program is not internet startup specific, but you really don't need that (I'm assuming you've never started a business before). You need help with the basic nuts and bolts of operating a business.

The primary benefit I get out of it is accountability. You commit to certain milestones. Then you're on the hook to deliver. Personally, I really need this type of support.

---Hiring a Designer---

This one is very tricky because design is so subjective.

I used oDesk to find my designer.

I'm very picky about design aesthetics, so I can be kind of demanding. I looked at a bunch of portfolios and tried out a couple designers before I found my guy.

I would give fairly specific instructions that still had some room for artistic interpretation. I was partly evaluating their ability to read directions (most people suck at this), turnaround time and the quality of the work.

Again, being subjective, the quality was really just 'do I like it'.

I ended up working with a Romania designer that speaks perfect english, turns out great work and is really fast. The only downside is that I pay $25/hr for him, which I think is pretty high for outsourced design. He's worth every penny because of his efficency and the fact we don't have to go back and forth iterating a bunch of times. Usually his first pass only requires one round of minor tweaks.

One note of caution would be to not get too picky with minor stuff. Perfection is the enemy of good enough. You're just going for good enough.

---Technical Support Clarificaiton---

I was referring to finding technical talent/resources/people, not the specific operational task of 'tech support' or 'customer support'.

---Engaging Potential Customers---

Coming from a similar background, it's pretty scary, isn't it?! :)

It's actually not that scary. The hardest part is just doing it. People are nice and want to help you out.

Leverage your network for potential customers.

Make sure your first interactions are with lower-value potential customers; preferably customers you have a personal/existing relationship with. You don't want your first customer interaction to be with a high-value target because you will fall flat on your face! Inevitably the customer will ask you some really simple obvious question about your product/service and it will completely blindside you because you never thought about it. Yea...get those questions out of the way in the lowest risk environment.

The purpose of your first interactions is to feel out the space you are trying to work in. Do they have an existing vendor providing the same/similar services? How much is that service? Do they like it? What do they like best? What do they like least? What's it missing? What pains are they having (probably not within the space you are trying to be in, but very important question to identify other synergistic opportunities)? How can you help?

Notice it's really going to be a lot of asking open-ended questions and listening. Common sense stuff, but most people screw it up and talk too much.

Talk just enough to establish expertise and trust, then shut up and let them tell you want to build.

------

Wow, that was a long response. Good thing I get paid by the word. Haha.

Did you connect with Lloyd? It sounds like he could use your services.

Good for Lloyd and RippleQ.

All that should make his job of finding technical talent much easier.

However, obviously something is askew if what you said is true and yet, he can't find any technical talent.

I'm actually meeting with him next week to see if we can figure it out.

It might be at a city level, a county level or at a state level. There's also the federal option of the SBA.

They are not that hard to find. Just call your city's mayor's office or town hall and ask.

This is a great question.

The short answer is to license the IP between several corporate entities.

Here's a structure that offers a huge amount of protection and risk reduction:

-You own 100% of Company A

-Company A owns all IP

-Company B licenses the IP from Company A

-Company B is an operational company (with a merchant account, employees, office, etc).

Any potential litigation will target Company B because it's exposed. However, you structure the licensing agreement between Company A and Company B such that:

-Company A is indemnified of all of Company B's transgressions

-Company A has very little value because most income is paid to Company B as the licensing fee. You want Company B to essentially be worthless, which means it's not a big target for lawsuits.

Company B would probably be a US-based company. However, Company A could be based in another country, which would further reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit touching the IP.

So you get to operate in the US, but still protect your IP from litigation. The best of both worlds.

I have no experience (or advice) on the immigration piece.

I have no experience with LLCs or any other non-corporation entity. I have formed and have been using Corporations for many years with a lot of success.

---Ownership Advice---

Do not try to get you ownership in your name. Get your ownership in the name of another company that you own.

Here's the structure:

1. You own a Nevada or Florida Sub-Chapter S Corporation 100% (called Aniketm Corp).

2. Aniketm Corp owns X% of Company Y (the startup).

The legal structure of Company Y is irrelevant, but I would recommend a Sub-Chapter S Corp (most legal protection for the owners, most favorable tax treatment, very low IRS audit rate).

It costs $100 to form a corporation (http://www.amerilawyer.com) and about $100 per year to maintain.

Anybody (including foreigners) can own a corporation.

This ownership structure gives you an extra layer of protection because you have an additional corporate veil between yourself personally and the startup company.

Don't let forming a corporation scare you. It's pretty simple and low-risk.

Are the hacker or the hustler?

Any co-founders? If so, what's their role?

Do you have a built MVP? Any beta testers? Any paying customers?

If no built MVP, how much longer before it's built?

How long is your runway (in months)?

---General Advice (without answers to the above questions)---

I'm a technical single founder building a B2B SaaS product.

My advice doesn't apply to anything B2C because I'm an introverted computer geek (i.e. I know nothing about inter-personal communication!!).

Assuming, you are a technical single founder, building a B2B product with a built MVP, here's my advice...

Don't waste time raising outside money. Go get friends & family money.

If you need more than $50k (the F&F limit) to get you ramen profitable, then your business model or product is wrong. By wrong, I mean, not efficient enough. You need to keep working the value proposition.

Raising money takes time. If you are a single technical founder, that time is MUCH BETTER SPENT BUILDING A PRODUCT.

If it's your idea, YOU HAVE TO SELL IT. You are the face of the company. If you can't sell it, go get a day job or work for another startup. Nobody understands your vision. Part of the sales process is to get customer feedback. Only you will be able to properly interpret that feedback within the context of you vision.

This above point is based on the theory that ideas are noting, implementation is everything. The most important component to successful implementation is you (the idea person) understanding the customer need. You have to have direct face-time with the customer. Anything else is like playing the telephone game...stuff gets lost in the translation.

---End Brain Dump---

If you can answer the questions above, I can give you some more specific advice.

Keep us posted on your progress.

----My Approach----

I'm a technical founder with no co-founder. 12 years of back-end development experience. I think I am pretty good on the sales and marketing side (although it's still unproven).

I enrolled in a local business mentorship to keep me sane (and get me out of my home office every once in a while), get feedback from other entrepreneurs and get help with various parts of starting a business.

My general life philosophy is to jump in, then figure out how to swim.

I'm using a combination of savings and friends & family to fund the project. I currently have 6 months of runway to get ramen profitable.

My product is B2B SaaS. I need about 20 customers to get ramen profitable.

I am outsourcing the design, which is my weakness. Everything else falls on me.

It took 3 months of 8 hours a day, 6 days a week to get the beta version built. Demos are actually going out tonight and public launch is next week...yikes!!

I feel very confident that I can sell 20 subscriptions in a few months, with only half my time dedicated to sales.

----My Advice----

If you're not building a B2B SaaS product, don't quit the day job.

If you are building anything consumer-focused, definitely don't quit your day job.

Do you work well under pressure? I have a wife and a son and a decent monthly nut I have to cover. I work best under pressure. But I have never felt this level of sustained pressure before. It's incredibly difficult to keep pushing hard all night every night (I work at night when the house is quiet). If you don't thrive under pressure, don't quit your day job. Be brutally honest about this one because it will crush you if you think you are but aren't.

Outsource your weaknesses. It usually takes a while to find any technical support that's worth a damn. Be prepared to pay top dollar for it. Post your needs on all the outsourcing/freelance/crowdsourcing sites. Post it on craigslist (both locally and elsewhere). I found that each site has a specific pool of talent that's worth a damn. This will take longer than you think. You'll have to cycle through several 'perfect matches' before you find somebody that's the right fit. This piece really comes down to serendipity and luck and there's not much you can do to hack it (other than being persistent and patient).

Estimate how long it will take to build the MVP. Be conservative. Then double it. Seriously, double it. Then you'll be in the ballpark.

Spend half your time on non-coding stuff. This is the hardest part for a technical person, but vital. Even if you have a bizdev co-founder, it's your idea, your vision and you're the only person that will ever understand it.

Again, assuming B2B, get out a talk with customers ASAP. Talk with 3 potential customers. Pitch each one, refine the pitch, go to the next. This is absolutely paramount. Everybody says to do this. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS!!!

I was unable to find a co-founder. I think this is a blessing in disguise. I tried to recruit one at the start (spent 2 months on it). We couldn't agree on terms. That 2 months was not very productive. We'd spend a lot of time talking, not much time doing. It's incredibly easy to just spend hours talking, theorizing, hypothesizing, thinking. None of that really matters. The only thing that matters is shipping a product. Even if it's complete garbage, ship the damn product ASAP! If you engage potential customers (see the previous point), you'll have a significantly better chance of the product gaining some initial traction.

Last piece of advice would be: you have to sell this product. You can't hire anybody else (even if you have a biz dev co-founder who should also be selling) to do this for you. If you don't have the nerve to get in front of a customer, the skill to communicate with them effectively, the thick skin to hear how much your product sucks and the balls to ask them for money anyway, then don't quit your day job. If you are the idea person, then you HAVE TO SELL IT!

---End Brain Dump---

Hopefully there's at least one or two nuggets of truth in there that resonate with you.

Keep us posted on your progress. Everybody on HN is here to help you. Just ask.

Second, do yourself and your potential investors a huge favor. Build whatever prototype you think you need for the investor presentation. Then go and give the same demo to 20 potential users first. Then refine your demo and present it to investors. The insight you'll receive from the customer demo is invaluable! Here's another good video on this: http://vimeo.com/16200157

Third (and most controversial), don't waste your time with investors until you have a built product and paying customers. Seriously. Finding investors takes A LOT of time. And you'll have to give away your company to get investment at this stage. The general rule is to wait as long as possible before taking investment because (theoretically) your company will improve its position with time and the cost of the investment capital will go down. Find some friends and family money (< $50k). Build a product. Sell the product to 10 people. Then entertain the investor route. If you can build a product and sell a product with <$50 investment, you will be in an exponentially better place than you are right now.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I'm guessing your bank account is a bit smaller than Walmart's.

If so and you still REALLY want to do import/export, find a very specific niche product, blackhat SEO the crap out of it, make a good chunk of change really quick, milk it for as long as you can, then rinse and repeat.

However, import/export is a hard business to run because it requires a significant amount of capital and is generally low margin (unless you find a very niche/exclusive product).

I would suggest you leverage your internationalism in the software development space. I think there are HUGE opportunities to clone successful US-based web products in other international markets. If you have access to those markets (via language and travels), the sky is the limit. This route will be immensely more lucrative for you than any import/export business.

I'd go so far as to say, if you could identify an international market that is a natural fit for a existing software product that isn't marketed to that country, I'd be VERY interested in discussing the opportunity with you.

Then go over the top in capturing their attention and proving to them you are an invaluable asset they MUST hire.

If your a designer, shred their current UI to pieces, then build a new one that just kills it.

If your a developer, build some kick-ass integration into something they should be integrating, but aren't.

Use a creative way to get your work in front of them.

You'll be able to name your price and terms if you go this route. And it will be way more fun!

Applying for job openings is so boring! :)

I found the case studies very educational. I'm looking forward to more of them!

Can you post links to new ones on HN as they become available?

Thanks for sharing!

Bootstrapping your startup: $40k

MBA in a monkey suit trying to recruit developers: PRICELESS!!

Good point, though.

I made the assumption he was already milking traditional recruiting channels (monster.com) without any success.

However, I'd guess most people who are using traditional recruiting channels aren't going to be in a financial position to work for a bootstrapped startup. It would only be people currently employed and looking for another job that would be eligible.

Have you actually found startup talent for bootstrapped startups using traditional recruiting methods?

To answer your question: Offer a real chance of success.

Success is my personal financial success, not just company success and it has to be financial success.

How many POS startups are out there that will never amount to anything?! 50% of 0 is 0.

Prove that you (the hustler) have what it takes to make this opportunity succeed.

Prove that this opportunity WILL succeed.

Give me enough equity that will pay 3-5X my base salary with the low/conservative projections and 20X my base salary with the homerun projections. That's based on a 2-3 year commitment.

Give me the ability to do my thing (hacking) without you (the hustler) meddling in it.

It's pretty easy, if you're a really good hustler who's actually out there making it happen.

The only place for good talent is other companies.

How are you finding technical talent without recruiting people out of other companies?

I tried to be as constructive as possible in my criticism...but reader beware...

-----The Constructive Part------

Let me help you find your code monkeys.

First, stop spending any time at meetups and hackathons. That would only make sense if you were a technical person looking to recruit some talent. You're on the wrong side of the fence to get anywhere at those types of meetings.

Second, re-evaluate your value proposition to any potential developer you are thinking about recruiting. I bet you are either being incredibly cheap on the compensation package you are offering (a dollar saved is a dollar earned, right?!). Or your core business model is lame/flawed/weak/not interesting to whomever the developer is you're pitching it to.

Third, get creative. Dress up in a monkey costume and stand outside the Facebook/Zynga/Twitter/LinkedIn office with a sign that says something that will get a developer's attention. Go big. Go over the top. Do NOT underestimate the power of creativity. If you approached me with a boilerplate MBA pitch, I would immediately discount everything you say because I'd think you are full of shit. Now, if you were willing to humiliate yourself, make me laugh and look like you were having fun doing it, then you'd have my attention. Re-read the Obama-O's AirBNB story. Get creative.

Fourth, get busy building the product yourself. You don't need to be a developer to build out business requirements. If you came to me with flushed out wireframes and business requirements and very clear technical roadmap, I'd be WAY more interested than if you came to me with a killer 80 page Stanford business plan. I don't even know who Steve Blank is...neither does any other developer. Realize that anything non-technical (i.e. marketing plans, financial projections, org charts, etc) is all irrelevant to recruiting a developer. All of those items are vitally important for a successful startup, but they are all fluff. They don't (in the eyes of a developer) require much time, effort or thought. If that's all you brought to the table, you'd be seen as a Winklevi (i.e. I came up with this brilliant idea...here's 10 sentences on the product...now go build it code monkey...and here's 0.5% of the company).

-----The Criticism Part-----

"Last week we had a big strategy and planning session, and I had to decide to hold off on signing up any new customers or channel partners because we don’t have the bandwidth in product development to deliver let alone improve the platform."

So let me get this straight: you are so successful selling a real solution to a real customer problem that customers are willing and able to pay good money for (i.e. the hardest single thing to do in a startup) that you have to pull back your sales efforts, but you can't figure out how to recruit technical talent?!

I'm calling bullshit on that one.

More likely, it's a group of MBAs sitting around in their argyle sweater vests thinking they are just killing it in sales, yet they are only able to sell a vague idea of a fictitious software product that they haven't even written business requirements for yet. The rubber isn't even close to meeting the road yet.

Why are you spending one second on a 'big strategy and planning session'?! Seriously. You're biggest problem is hiring developers. And you're a software product company. Huh?? Spend every waking hour finding technical talent. Stop the circle-jerk planning sessions already! Go buy a bunch of bananas and find your code monkeys!

Maybe I got a bit hot-headed, but I settled down and tried to offer some specific advice. Hope you were able to get something from it.

That technical person can source qualified offshore talent, bundle up both design and development projects to outsource, do the heavy lifting programming that just can't be done via outsourcing and they will be able to setup your infrastructure.

Without that one technical person on your team, there's virtually no chance you'll be able to effectively use an offshore developer.

To find this person, find some local companies with at least 100 employees that build a web-based product. Call up pretending to be a manager for an offshore development firm and speak with their Director of Development or CTO. Your goal is to find a local company that currently outsources their development. Then find who their senior developers/architects are and poach them. They will be eager to join a start-up, they won't realize how valuable they are and they'll know how to deal with outsourcing projects.

You have to narrow down your scope to a specific market vertical. Get as specific as you can. Then you start getting customer feedback ASAP.

If you have several (or a lot of ) markets you can go after with your idea, then pick a couple to test.

What sometimes happens is you end up in a market that wasn't even on your radar because you talk with somebody about the tech you're building and they apply it based on their experience and, boom, you're in some totally out-of-left-field market that proves to be the lowest hanging fruit.

Find some competitors, then use LinkedIn to connect with some former employees, especially sales people. They will be perfect SMEs. Even if you don't partner with them, you can still pick their brain to get a better understanding of the market.

Next place to find your hustler would be to identify your best potential customers, then try to connect with one of the technical people via a back door channel (i.e. don't just call the company and ask to speak with them). This is a bit trickier, but still very valuable because you can cultivate a relationship with an inside champion (which makes the sales process much easier).

The hardest part (for me anyway) in finding a hustler is that you'll have to spend time working on your value proposition. Once you branch out beyond being the lone soldier, you have to figure out how to communicate your idea to other people. This takes time away from coding, which is always tough for any hacker. But it's an invaluable exercise.

That's why I specifically defined each term.

Are you a hacker or a hustler?

Quick general definitions:

Hacker is the technologist who understands how to use technology to solve business problems.

Hustler is the sales/marketing person who understand the specific market vertical (customer problems) and has the ability to sell whatever the hacker builds in that market.

If you're a hacker, finding hustler co-founders is pretty easy. Look for a subject matter expert (SME) in the market vertical you are going after. They should be able to give you all the info you need to penetrate that market (customer pains, sales strategies, introductions, price points, etc). Al they have to do is tell you what to build, then sell it.

If you're a hustler looking for a hacker, it's much more difficult. Any hacker that's actually capable of playing an integral role in your success is already working on another project. The only place I know of where you can find decent talent is in corporate America. Find the person living the office space movie and offer them a path to freedom.

If you're a hustler looking for a hacker, you have to be one hell of a hustler to get any respect. You have to nail down every possible non-technical aspect of the opportunity. And it better be one hell of a good plan you put together. It has to be so well put together that the hacker knows immediately you are the real deal and all the hacker has to do is hack.

Being a hacker who's been approached by a lot of hustlers over the years, let's just say you have your work cut out for you (assuming you're the hustler looking for a hacker).

The key with most of the local BD loans is they are looking for local job growth. Get some local insider advice on how to structure your application, play up how many local jobs you'll create and it's actually pretty easy to snag some cheap money.

I'd even argue that VC investors are generally too biased towards huge growth that they will push you in a direction that doesn't necessary align with your goals, but it aligns with their goals.

Assuming your venture is successful, the huge upside to a loan is that it's the cheapest money you can possibly get. Even at something like a crazy 16% interest rate on hard money leg-breaker type loans, it's way cheaper than giving away 10-40% of your company to get VC money.

The other upside to a loan is that you have WAY more flexibility in the direction of your company, especially in terms of exit timelines. Everybody (i.e. those in the VC bubble) bashes 'lifestyle' businesses, but it's hard to turn your nose up at $10-50K per month in passive income. With VC money, you are forced into pursuing very fast and hard growth which generally sucks (from a founder perspective). With a loan, you can grow nice and slow and comfortably or you can go balls to the wall...it's your choice.

With that said, the absolute best investors are customers. Leave yourself a 35-50% financial buffer, but only borrow enough to get to profitability through revenue. If you can hit that magical moment, it's as close to nirvana as most of us will ever get. :)