Ask HN: My company went bankrupt today and I have 2 options

Based on the information provided I can't suggest anything because only you know how much money you have in the bank and how likely it is for your business to generate revenue anytime soon.

I'd go back to work unless you have cash which you are willing to burn for 1-2 years.

This really depends on your runway and external stakeholders in your life.

If you go for this, how long do you have until you _need_ to start generating enough to pay yourself?

Do you have any spouse, children, .. that you need to support? (and which might mean you get unforeseen financial strain?)

I'd say we're in another golden age of entrepreneurship. A one man shop can create things that would have taken teams even just years ago.

However, there's nothing wrong with working a real job until you are financially independent enough to fully commit yourself to this.

If you have to ask, go get the job. You might make a big, successful bet on something you're not totally sure about later in your career, probably because you'll be getting the opportunity to work with specific cofounders. But that's much less likely to happen if it's your own idea/company that you're leading by yourself that you're not absolutely sure of.

You haven’t really said much about your personal situation and in this scenario it’s very important.

- Do you have a family or other dependents?

- How much do you have in savings?

- Could you fall back on e.g. moving in with parents in the very short term if things go horribly wrong?

Entrepreneurship is a wonderful adventure but at a very base level you need to be able to put a roof over your head and eat. As long as you’re able to do that even if your business completely fails, go for it. If you don’t, take the safe option, build up savings, then go on your adventure.

Also, to be blunt: is your idea any good? Do you have domain-specific knowledge you’re able to leverage in your market? I sometimes find people who are putting the idea of entrepreneurship ahead of any specific concept fail because they’re not actually passionate or well positioned, they just want success.

Taking a job also isn’t wasted time. Going back to the criteria above, in my day job over the last few years I’ve identified a few SaaS concepts I know my employer would very gladly pay for, and I imagine others would too. I’m not in the situation to execute on any of it right now so I’m going to stay right where I am, but I hope to pull the trigger sometime in the not too distant future.

How much in savings do you have?

And there is nothing wrong with working on your startup while working a salaried job. I don't know a lot of millionaires or family bank owners so most founders are trying to bootstrap with their savings and salary. And it is longer and hard this way.

Your best course of action depends on a number of variables: your recurring/anticipated expenses, your savings or other access to cash, how speculative your business is, your risk tolerance, family obligations, and so forth.

So in lieu of answering the unanswerable, I want to offer some advice that applies either way: sit in the uncertainty for a few days, if you can, before you try to evaluate your options. You must be feeling pretty anxious right now, and that’s not a place of objectivity. Tolerate the uncertainty for a bit and the facts will be clearer.

Why do you have a small team when you can build it yourself?

I would advice, given that you have money to spare, to go solo full-time on whatever project you're building because that will let you build at it for a longer period of time. Create an MVP asap and if it fails to generate revenue fast enough, take part time jobs as a contractor to finance your passion project.

Do you think your previous 2 companies failed because you didn't spend enough time/energy on them?

If so, then yes, go for it! Life only happens once, and if you screw up, there will surely be another job you can get at a later point. If not, maybe continue playing it safe until you feel a bit more confident about what went wrong, so in the future you can give it a go full-time.

> What kind of guidance can you give me? What would you suggest?

It's really about matching our obligations (family, kids, rent, etc.) against your runway (sales, funding, being able to pay yourself).

If those two things work - then go for it. If not, then you have your answer.

Another way to look at this is that the 'game' phase of your startup just had the clock run out. Did you get far enough to make it full time or not?

Everyone wants to not work for someone else and be the decision maker and lead a team. Entrepreneurship starts with being a builder.

“We are not generating any revenue at the moment”

All of the advice given so far about your personal family life is important and should be considered…

BUT…

You should attempt to get a job in B2B tech sales before picking up entrepreneurship again.

You lose nothing by taking the time to learn. In fact, see it as part of your business journey.

As a fellow engineer, I empathize completely and had to unlearn a lot of things to become successful business.

Best of luck.

There's a dangerous line of thinking around "my business isn't producing revenue because I'm not full-time focused on it." I've fallen into this trap and learned the hard way that full-time focus was not the issue.

You have a team for in-house mobile apps, but you don't have any revenue. Why is that? How will you fix it?

  * Don't be afraid to ask for the sale
  * Be comfortable "closed lost"-ing a deal instead of having non-productive conversations (SOGOTP)
  * Recap all meetings with prospects or customers (email sent to them with information such as about your product, your call with them, their painpoints, next steps, etc.)
  * Leave meetings with a tangible next step. Someone not wanting to schedule another meeting is a huge red flag
  * You don't need a sales process or methodology, but you might if you're not able to effectively manage your deals.
  * Be comfortable living in the present and future, as you want early prospects to help shape the future with you.

Your other option is to get a steady part-time job that at least covers your basic living expenses, and work full-time on your own business.

DHH from 37 signals has good advice about this

Do you actually know how to run a business? Saying it's all about courage and other such nonsense suggests not. Maybe get a safe job and study business/get an MBA?

Kind of sad to think that a company just went bankrupt, while their employees were working on their own companies instead. No blame for OP. But what should managers do in challenging situations to prevent their team from losing focus?

I don't see how you can work assiduously at a full time job in fintech while also trying to launch a tech startup, and expect the startup to succeed. Unless you have some absolutely revolutionary idea with well-protected IP, someone else more dedicated will probably out hustle you with a similar enough idea.

> What would you suggest?

Go for it like your livelihood depends on it.

Are you actually looking for advice or hoping we will validate your feelings about wanting to go out on your own? Because there’s not enough detail here to actually offer any actionable advice.

Do you have a business or a project?

That is, are you generating revenue with a model that can be scaled? Or, are you just building something that you think people might want? For the former, I'd get a job.

Most ideas people have are rubbish so won't generate any revenue. When you're not generating any revenue then that should tell you that your widget is no good. Don't take that as an insult but the reality. So many startups are filled with folk who have wishful ideas but business is brutal and a no-good idea is just that. Do some market research to find out what is a useful widget. Few startups get lucky like Facebook and Google who happen to fall into their big area of revenue generation. That's pure luck and they have a graveyard of failed startup ideas. 99% of startups are rubbish that deserve to fail and are a waste of time.

Why did the fintech fail? Was it poor market fit, failure to execute, or insufficient capital?

Can you approach your previous customers and ask them what they want? Maybe you can collect some other previous employees and start a new firm in the same space (but do it right)?

Do you have a family? A mortgage? Other responsibilities?

If you don't have any of those things, move to a country with extremely low cost of living.

This is not a personal advice as I'm also in that badlands of struggles. However, today, I read a nice comment from an acquittance from my prior world of the web and awards and stuffs (I was a regular judge for an event he runs). Here is me trying to remember and paraphrasing it (not verbatim - I need to look around).

   Entrepreneurs don’t go around calling themselves out as “entrepreneurs.” It’s not something to focus on and something that needs a “system.” Follow your passion while treating your customers like you want to be treated yourself.

In short, can you find ways to get paid for by the customers for whom you are doing something?

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