Advice on starting a company
I have a tendency, I’m sure you probably do too, of starting one book and stopping half way through it to read another.
At the beginning of 2008 I swore to myself that I would stop swapping books, unless the current book was “a bit crap (Ali G voice.)” I began reading Founders At Work by Jessica Livingston about 2 months ago and am almost finished. The book consists of 30 interviews with the Founders of startups such as Hot or Not, 37Signals, Blogger, Craigslist and many more. I highly recommend this book for people that want to start their own company, as Vik recommended it to me.
Here is some great startup advice from an interview with Joel Spolsky, the author of a brilliant blog, Joel On Software :
Don’t start a company unless you can convince one other person to go along with you. If you don’t have two people that you’ve convinced to devote their lives to doing this, it’s just going to be a different thing. There are a lot of programmers that are very tentative about starting their own companies. There are a lot of working programmers doing something they hate, with some company that they hate, but they need money to pay the mortgage. So they figure, “I’ll develop something in my spare time. I’ll put in 1 hour every night and 2 hours on the weekends and I’ll start selling it by downloads.” And you say to them, “Who’s your co-founder?” And they say, “My significant other-husband or wife. My cat.”
But because they never really take the leap and quit their job, they can give up their dream at any time. And 99.9 percent of them will actually give up their dream. If they take the leap, quit their job, go do it full-time –no matter how much it sucks — and convince one other person to do the same thing with them, they’re going to have a much, much higher chance of actually getting somewhere. Because they either have to succeed or get a job. Sometimes, “succeed” seems like the easier path than actually getting a job, which is depressing. So quit your day job. Have one other founder, at least. I’d say that’s the minimum bar to getting anywhere.
Are you willing to risk everything, or are you part of that 99.9% and going to give up your dream?
Do the following :
- Find someone else that believes in the same idea as you do, and is willing to devote themselves to it. (Cannot be your wife, girlfriend, or cat)
- Get private health insurance.
- Quit your job.
- Start the company with your partner and try it out for one year.
If you are succeeding after one year :
A. Continue succeeding.
If you are failing after one year and want to give up :
A. Put the company on your resume and find a new job.
B. Continue paying your mortgage.
Here is how I look at it, I’d rather pursue my dream with 100% passion, and suffer financially in the short-term, then to give up my dream and keep paying my mortgage. You will have the rest of your life to pay your mortgage.
By the way, don’t quote me on this one, I think that your income may be higher when you pick up that second job after failing in a startup. Imagine the experience, knowledge, and connections that you will gain in that one year of starting a company. I think that all signs point to ‘quit your job and start a company.’
Very ballsy Kamil, very very ballsy. I definitely agree with this post about the only way to go into an idea 100% is to quit the day job, but sooooooo many people, and I will jump in this crowd too, are afraid to.
First off, private insurance in this country, depending on your current health (but lets say you’re healthy, can be about $100-150/mo. That’s for crappy insurance. I was paying $60/mo for a bare minimal health insurance after college. My suggestion, move to Canada
My Mortgage is about $2,200/mo and the HOA for this condo is $360/mo. Basic living expenses (especially with Gas the way it is now) can easily be an additional $400-500, depending on your grocery bills.
At this point, I’m up to about $3,100/mo in bills. Let’s say your significant other, or my Fiancee, can cover about 50% of that with her full-time teacher income.
Ok - Fine, I’ll just take out a 20-25K loan, no problem! Why do you need this loan sir? I’m quiting my day job to start a company —DENIED!!!!!
Meanwhile, you’re racking up $20,000 in debt, not easy to pay off, if the company fails, plus all of the debt you racked up on company expenses…
Now, this response seems all negative and bad, however, these are just the things that come to mind when its suggested to just quit my job, and the reasons it would be extremely hard to plunge into a startup.
However, check out this nice post on Small Business Trends:
http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html/
These are older numbers, but they seem to hold up even today! Best of luck to you Kamil and your buddies. I know I’ll be help you guys out as I can, I love the idea. Maybe if I’m quick enough I’ll be the first investor
Comment by Mike on May 28, 2008 @ 1:58 am
That’s why it’s important to be passionate about what you are doing. If stuff doesn’t go as planned at the very least you will learned a great deal in your area of interest and met some great people on the way. There is nothing wrong with working for others permitted you enjoy what you are doing. I know this may sound a little strange but you don’t decide to run a business by doing a few calculations to find out how best to make a buck or cover your bills. It’s about actively pursuing the things you enjoy and are passionate about. If it was just for the money, it wouldn’t be worth it. Life is too short to be in it just for the money.
With that I will end with a confucius quote:
“He who chases two rabbits catches neither”
You have to decide to make the leap because it feels right.
Comment by Viktor on May 28, 2008 @ 9:13 pm
Mike,
It’s a HUGE risk to do what I am saying. That’s why majority of the people don’t start companies once they have TOO many responsibilities. We keep hearing “do it while you’re young.” This is probably cause older people don’t have the energy and have too many responsibilities.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been plenty of people that have started companies while still maintaining a part-time job. But I guarantee that your chance of success increases dramatically if you make it a full-time job. Why? Cause you HAVE TO SUCCEED.
So…old….too many responsibilities….scared…whatever. If it feels right then you have to do it.
Vik, I agree with you 100%. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being an employee. After all, without employees we would not have companies (rhymes. HA)
Comment by kamil on May 29, 2008 @ 5:44 pm