Ask the entrepreneurs advice
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@izzion said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@polygeekery gets screwed out of $1500! You can hear the gripping story for only 15 easy payments of $99.99!
16 payments. Come on - can't leave him short a couple pennies!
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@dcon said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
16 payments. Come on - can't leave him short a couple pennies!
Issue 1 only 99¢
usual price $5.99. 800 issues to collect
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Maybe remind me on Monday?
This is your friendly Monday reminder.
Thank you for using our services.
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@timebandit I have a meeting this morning then I have to run to Costco and then I should be able to.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@timebandit I have a meeting this morning then I have to run to Costco and then I should be able to.
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@timebandit I have a meeting this morning then I have to run to Costco and then I should be able to.
Now this BETTER be good. All of this anticipation...
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@karla yeah, now I am afraid it has been built up too much. I posted the initial thing while drunk. Will write it up now.
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@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I knew someone born on April 1st. Her parents clearly had a sense of humor.
I know someone named Christmas. Her middle name is Eve.
Guess which day she was born on?
Filed under:
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
on Friday I was mildly inebriated and ran in to a guy who stiffed me for ~$1500 back in the day.
Should've used Autpilot
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Karla Will write it up now.
Storytime begins here.
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Is it still okay to ask entrepreneur questions here or might as well start a new thread?
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@stillwater You already necroed the thread, so why not ask another question
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@stillwater Necroing threads is free.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Is it still okay to ask entrepreneur questions here or might as well start a new thread?
Ask away.
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This is exactly what I didn't wanna do. necroing a thread and annoying folks. Well here goes,
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How did you choose the tech stack for your startup?
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How much of working non stop well into the dawn and working 120 hrs per week blah blah directly impact productivity? Does it directly translate to faster time to market?
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Have any of you done it with a team size of 1 or when having a full time job?
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@stillwater
GODDAMMIT FBSTILLWATERMAC
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@izzion That's very far from fbmac's level
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
This is exactly what I didn't wanna do. annoying folks
You're on the wrong forum aren't you?
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@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@izzion That's very far from fbmac's level
Fbmac just deleted posts all the time IIRC.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Fbmac just deleted posts all the time IIRC.
He's also a master at necroing very very old threads.
He can even necro a thread then delete his necroing comment
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@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Fbmac just deleted posts all the time IIRC.
He's also a master at necroing very very old threads.
He can even necro a thread then delete his necroing comment
Haha okay that's fucky behaviour. Very.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
This is exactly what I didn't wanna do. necroing a thread and annoying folks.
I started the thread and I am not annoyed. Unfortunately though I can't really answer your questions as I didn't really do it the way you are asking about.
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How much of this still holds true? He makes it all sound very straightforward.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
This is exactly what I didn't wanna do. necroing a thread and annoying folks.
I started the thread and I am not annoyed. Unfortunately though I can't really answer your questions as I didn't really do it the way you are asking about.
I'd be happy to hear anything you have to say that's even remotely tangential to what I asked about. I'm in the sponge up everything phase.
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@stillwater what type of startup are you planning? Do you have an idea for a product or were you thinking more along the freelance route?
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How much of this still holds true? He makes it all sound very straightforward.
Making a startup is straightforward. It's making money that's hard.
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@jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater what type of startup are you planning? Do you have an idea for a product or were you thinking more along the freelance route?
The former. If it is freelance it gets into the contractor/consultant category. Ceases to be a startup.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
This is exactly what I didn't wanna do. necroing a thread and annoying folks.
I started the thread and I am not annoyed. Unfortunately though I can't really answer your questions as I didn't really do it the way you are asking about.
I'd be happy to hear anything you have to say that's even remotely tangential to what I asked about. I'm in the sponge up everything phase.
Hit me up tomorrow. With it being a holiday here I am doing family stuff. I should be in the office tomorrow and able to fuck off.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
With it being a holiday here I am doing family stuff
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@timebandit
Hey, when his 6 brothers Jack are all in town, they require special attention.
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@timebandit That drink doesn’t look very tropical.
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@greybeard You're just not drunk enough :face_with_stuck-out_tongue:
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Better?
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@greybeard said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Better?
Oh god this looks more inviting than plain whiskey.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
With it being a holiday here I am doing family stuff. I should be in the office tomorrow and able to fuck off.
Life goals right there.
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@stillwater I’d be willing to share my quick-and-easy Photoshop technique.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Life goals right there.
The "able to fuck off" part, yes
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@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Life goals right there.
The "able to fuck off" part, yes
Yes and I think this is very doable. I've seen people in titles such as product manager or project lead etc., make very comfortable amounts of money doing very minimal work.
Also, what pisses me off more than anything is how companies have this thing about employees should put their work before their families / personal life, work comes first yadda yadda. Pissy behaviour.
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@greybeard said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater I’d be willing to share my quick-and-easy Photoshop technique.
Oh I was actually dreaming of a drink that's like a strawberry whiskey :/
I'm sure it exists somewhere under some obscure name.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Life goals right there.
The "able to fuck off" part, yes
Yes and I think this is very doable. I've seen people in titles such as product manager or project lead etc., make very comfortable amounts of money doing very minimal work.
Also, what pisses me off more than anything is how companies have this thing about employees should put their work before their families / personal life, work comes first yadda yadda. Pissy behaviour.
I think I can help you. That is the route I went. Entrepreneurship in order to have more free time.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ
I think his "Hmmmmm Hummmm" in this video pretty much sums up the entire industry right now lol.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Life goals right there.
The "able to fuck off" part, yes
Yes and I think this is very doable. I've seen people in titles such as product manager or project lead etc., make very comfortable amounts of money doing very minimal work.
Also, what pisses me off more than anything is how companies have this thing about employees should put their work before their families / personal life, work comes first yadda yadda. Pissy behaviour.
I think I can help you. That is the route I went. Entrepreneurship in order to have more free time.
Where do you even start? Or if you don't know where to start, how do you even know what to read about to get to a point where you know more about where to start. I've had my share of reading startup stories and books. Not much practical advice there.
Also, the whole startup thing overall seems like a very attractive deal. The way I think
, from where I am with my own unique set of circumstances, it is gonna take a very long time to make a decent amount of money wading through all this bullshit. If we assume everything goes right it would take about 7 - 8 more years to get to a point where you are really making nice amounts of money but at 35 you'll still be working for some guy who gets to decide how you should go about your worklife. Also playing this game because you are projecting a good career graph where you can enjoy a nice pay and all that crap, assumes that you would still be healthy mentally and physically to enjoy those things ( Or I'll even stretch it to say it assumes that you will be alive in 10 years time). This all seems very fucky and lukewarm and not sustainable in the long term.
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The Job market here in the silicon valley equivalent cities are pretty much
A - 70% Medium to Big Size companies
B - 30% "startup" startupsThe problem with group A is that getting a job wading through all that HR bullshit and generally sloppy people is that your chances of working on something interesting is very slim. Also corporate culture, PHB, office politics for the sake of office politics, rampant nepotism and so much more. The whole ecosystem is truly fucked.
The problem with group B is that a lot of startups have these fuck-all crap ideas get funded and while away some time and when the money runs out get back to normal jobs. Also the choice of tech stack is purely hype-driven. You either have techies that think they're above everyone and don't give a shit about having a business plan or you have MBA's who are even worse, talk out of their ass most of the time. You get a job at a startup and then you are in for 80+ hrs minimum per week with slightly above average pay working for a goddamn echo chamber.
If this is the way things are gonna go and if everyone is doing it, I'm like "Hey! might as well look into what all this startup fuss is about".
I am not saying I've figured everything out but I'd atleast like to slightly change the direction in which I'm going so I'll be better equipped to entertain these ideas better down the road.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
If we assume everything goes right it would take about 7 - 8 more years to get to a point where you are really making nice amounts of money
Your assumptions are wrong. I was cash flow positive in well less than 90 days.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
If we assume everything goes right it would take about 7 - 8 more years to get to a point where you are really making nice amounts of money
Your assumptions are wrong. I was cash flow positive in well less than 90 days.
What's the fastest way here to download what you have to say into my brain?
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
What's the fastest way here to download what you have to say into my brain?
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@greybeard said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
What's the fastest way here to download what you have to say into my brain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vMO3XmNXe4
Looks less painful
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@timebandit well, the learning does. not so much the using.
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@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How did you choose the tech stack for your startup?
I chose what I liked working with and what would do the job I needed to do. The rest simply doesn't matter. There may be other things that might be a little better, but would you trade using something you hate for a few (or few tens) of percent better performance? How you use the tech stack is infinitely more important than what the tech stack is.
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How much of working non stop well into the dawn and working 120 hrs per week blah blah directly impact productivity? Does it directly translate to faster time to market?
This is worded a bit awkwardly, but I think you are asking if working 120 hours per week gets you three times the productivity?
No. But, up to a point it will get you a quicker time to market with a smaller team. If you are in your early 20's, you can likely work 80 hours and get close to double the production you would at 40 hours. That next 40 hours is where you start racing your inevitable burnout.
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Have any of you done it with a team size of 1 or when having a full time job?
I have not so I cannot comment on this.
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How much of this still holds true? He makes it all sound very straightforward.
The article is pretty good, but it misses one very important point. It seems to purport that "If you built it, they will come". That is not true. You need some way to reach the people who will be your customers or your idea will be a crib death. You are going to need someone to partner with that does either sales or marketing. Ideally, both. As was already stated:
@gąska said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Making a startup is straightforward. It's making money that's hard.
Nailed it.
You can have the best idea in the world but it is worth fuck-all if your execution is rubbish. There is one thing about startups that needs to die in a fire. People need to stop talking about "billion dollar ideas". Ideas are worth $100. The execution of them is the multiplier. Twitter and Facebook are kind of shitty ideas if you really think about it. But their execution of them is what made them worth what they are. Early on Twitter went after celebrities and got them on the platform in order to draw the plebes that they could then sell advertising to target them.
I completely agree with him that small businesses are where the real market opportunities are. Unless you are a marketing maven and have big financial backing you should stay away from the consumer market. Consumers are cheap, fickle bastards. Businesses are easier to target and if you can show them how you will save them money or make them money they will buy your product or service. The smart ones will. You don't want the dumb ones. They are consumers who happen to own their own job and they are a total fucking pain in the ass.
There are an absolute shitload of opportunities out there in the small business space. I would be willing to wager that if you could observe ten small businesses and how they work, nine of them will use software that is a total fucking train wreck. Really, the answer is that ten of them will, but I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you will find one that doesn't.
Go find one of those shitty softwares that has a huge market reach in their segment and is total shit but people use it "because that's what we've always used", build something better and go after them like a rabid pitbull and you can't fail.
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Also, what pisses me off more than anything is how companies have this thing about employees should put their work before their families / personal life, work comes first yadda yadda. Pissy behaviour.
Go make your own job and do it the way you wish. That is what I did. It doesn't have to be a startup as it were.
I think that before you go any farther you should ask yourself how you would define success? Is it a billion dollar net worth? Is it living on your own terms and having more freedom? How would you define "success"? Define that and make a plan to get there.
For myself, it was more freedom to do things on my own terms and later on part of my definition of success was that I want to pick my kids up from school every day. That is something I did not want to compromise on. If I wanted to compromise that point I could easily make more money. But what good is it if you can't enjoy the things you love?
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Where do you even start? Or if you don't know where to start, how do you even know what to read about to get to a point where you know more about where to start. I've had my share of reading startup stories and books. Not much practical advice there.
One great read is "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki. It is a primer on how to start basically anything. It is not solely written towards startups.
@stillwater said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Also, the whole startup thing overall seems like a very attractive deal. The way I think
, from where I am with my own unique set of circumstances, it is gonna take a very long time to make a decent amount of money wading through all this bullshit. If we assume everything goes right it would take about 7 - 8 more years to get to a point where you are really making nice amounts of moneyYou need some direction. What are you going to do? What product or service could make you excited to work on? If you stay out of the consumer market you should be able to build something for a segment of the small business market, target them with cold calls and advertisements and be generating revenue very shortly after you launch.
A friend of mine is starting up a software venture that is targeting the educational sector. He thought as you did when he had the idea. Then I went over the numbers with him and it came out to he could be close to replacing his current income when he has two schools as clients. That is an achievable goal. At four schools he has enough revenue to hire another developer and still make money off of them.
Tech has a profit curve that looks like a hockey stick. Find out what you want to do, guesstimate your expenses, put a number on what you would sell it for and do some division to find your breakeven point and then work from there to see how much you would need to sell to replace your current income. Chances are it will not be as bleak as you think. Well, so long as you stay away from the consumer market.
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You could turn this whole thing into a blog post. Pretty solid information. Thanks a ton.
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
One great read is "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki.
Ordered. Reading.