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Ask HN: What made you decide to pursue a startup?

12 points by yosho ↗ HN
I've been feeling pretty lost these past few days and could use some career advice.

I come from a finance and management consulting background and I've been thinking about ditching it all to pursue a start-up. I'm only 2 years out of college, however, I worry that if I leave the industry and begin working on a start-up full time that the opportunity cost might not be worth it.

It is incredibly scary ditching a well established resume to possibly work on something without any guarantee of success. I've been working on the start-up at night, but the truth is, there simply isn't enough hours in the day to do this effectively, especially when you're working 12 hours or more a day and constantly traveling for work.

I'm really not sure what to do. The thought of creating my own company sounds incredibly attractive, however, I might be missing out on a pretty decent lifestyle with a sizable paycheck. Obviously money isn't the only factor, but it definitely influences my mentality.

For those who've made the jump, what did it take? How do you know if you've made the right decision? Especially if you haven't scored the big exit deal?

My parents absolutely despise the idea of me doing a start-up and I question it myself, I'm just not sure. And I hate how for me, it really has to be one or the other, both my work and my start-up require extensive time commitments.

Any help or advice would be appreciated, thanks.

9 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 31.3 ms ] thread
jacquesm
First time was in '86 after working for a bank for a while and talking to my boss who laid out for me why I should go and do a thing on my own. Awesome guy (Thanks Eddy!).

I sold that business and traveled for a while after that, freelancing whenever the money pit was at low tide.

It was '93 last time I started from scratch, re-migrating to NL from PL, baby on the way, no outlook at getting a job (minor IT crisis in NL at the time).

Simply a need to put food on the table. Which I can guarantee you is a very powerful motivator, especially when it includes little humans.

I wouldn't worry ao much about what others think about it.

What is more important is that you cut down your costs to the absolute minimum (this may require a serious change in lifestyle) to give yourself as much 'runway' as you can get. It takes a while to get off the ground, and with a lower expense pattern your chances of success increase tremendously.

edit: You know you've made the right decision when you're happy. In spite of all the risks involved (no pension, no social security for me) I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

alanthonyc
My experience, just for mulling over:

I've worked in my industry now for over ten years. Over that time, I've made a pretty good living. Now, I've got enough in the bank that I can take time off without worrying about rent or any other basic necessities. I started on my webapp last year part time, but I'll be going full bore on it once my current client gig ends.

On one hand, a good paycheck is nothing to sneer at. I'm self-funded. I'll have something to fall back on if things don't work out (the time off will be a "sabbatical"). On the other hand, time is more valuable than money. If you have something to do, the sooner the better.

Regardless of these two polar views, ultimately the combination of my current idea + opportunity + capability is what pushed me to make this change. I would have done it earlier if it had presented itself then. I'd be continuing on my current path if it never had.

Don't make the switch just because you feel you have to. Keep your eyes open, and jump on it when you see it.

pclark
I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be CEO of a startup
YuriNiyazov
I've worked in companies for other people; time and time again I would find myself in situations where some sort of decision had to be made; some sort of meeting would be called where I would say "my opinion is that we should do X", people above me would say "no, we should actually do Y", Y would be done, a few months down the line it would be discovered that Y was the wrong thing to do and that X should've actually been done, and we would spend a lot of time backing out Y and doing X.

It sucks to sit at work and think "God damn it, I said we should've done this 6 months ago, and no one listened, and now we are doing it anyway."

I am not purposefully trying to toot my own horn - I just discovered time and time again that often my intuitions are correct, and I should trust them more. Once that became obvious, doing a startup was the only avenue that I could find that would allow me to make my own decisions, bask in the glory that their correctness would bring, and assume the responsibility for the failure that their incorrectness would bring.

jacquesm
So how has it been working out for you?
YuriNiyazov
So far I've been taking lots of responsibility for my failures :)
jacquesm
Nothing wrong with that as long as you don't fail in exactly the same way twice.

Overall which part of running a startup is what you think is the hardest bit?

YuriNiyazov
Balance. I end up working fourteen hour days when I feel motivated, burn out on those in about 2 weeks and then have a hard time getting myself back to getting anything done for another week. Over long-term, I would probably get a lot more done and be happier if I limited myself to being productive 6 hours a day every day rather than the other way, but getting the self-discipline to stop working and walk outside when you are on a roll is probably the most challenging thing.

I am not yet at a point where I can collect money from users; I suspect that once I get to that point, the hardest problem will be "how do I get more people to pay?" This seems to be completely different - it seems that right now I am my own enemy, whereas later it will be actual external forces.

ddemchuk
No matter how high up you go in a company, you're always ultimately building out someone else's ideas. My happiness has a direct connection with seeing my own ideas come to fruition.

The full process of coming up with an idea, planning and designing, grinding through all of the shit that comes along with actually tying up all of the loose ends and making it go live, and then being able to say "Yep, that is all my idea, I made it happen" is perfection in my mind.

You don't want to look back at yourself 5, 10, 20, 30 years from now and realize you're doing the same job you started doing. Take the leap, if it fails you'll always have that impressive resume to fall back on anyways.

Good luck.