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Ask HN: Tips for engineer who wants to seed his own startup

9 points by mark_ellul ↗ HN
Hi,

I am in the process of mapping out a product for my first Startup.

If you have some time could you post links or comments on tips on the best way to start up?

My aim is to seed fund it, and run it apart from my day job.

Any comments will be appreciated!

Regards

Mark

12 comments

[ 199 ms ] story [ 119 ms ] thread
vaksel
Personally I'm on the side of quitting everything and focusing entirely on your startup. If you don't, you'll find yourself 8 months from now and some other startup will come out with pretty much the same thing you've been working on.

And if you can't quit because of work...take a vacation. 2 weeks of working non-stop should be plenty of time to get most things up and running.

mark_ellul
Thanks Vaksel for your advice... Indeed quitting everything is not an option, but potentially taking a holiday is...
gstar
2 weeks?

Call me a pessimist, but I think the era of getting funding and building a product with two weeks labour investment from one engineer isn't going to continue.

Quite apart from that, building the business is a much bigger concern than two weeks, there's a lot of boring business stuff that has huge lead times.

It's been done before, but it's like winning the lottery.

mark_ellul
Interesting Point, I will be funding this myself, the 2 weeks I would use is time to get a alpha product ready! So when I am setting up rest of the business I have something to show for!

Thanks for your comment

FredSource
It takes focus .. and longer than you expect .. to get going under a full head of steam.

The real question is what do you want to startup? -- a full scale business with lots of employees or a one man shop?

mark_ellul
Hi FredSource,

The idea I have could be a one man shop!

The focus is going to be the crucial factor!

Thanks for your comment!

rantfoil
Just start working on it, and don't worry too much about tips, etc. It's easy to get paralyzed on doing it the best. The best is the enemy of the good.

Always work on the most important thing. If it's not going to move the needle or if its a tangential/pet feature, recognize it and don't do it now. Your most precious resource is time.

mark_ellul
Thanks for your comment rantfoil, I agree its easily to get paralysed looking for the best way, and doing nothing!
patio11
I've been doing it for ~2.5 years now. See blog in my profile.

Comments: just do it. All the administrivia is trivia. Don't worry about the competition. Build something. Charge money for it. Get better at marketing it. Make it better. Continue repeating "get better at marketing it" and "make it better".

Optionally, stir in a new project.

mark_ellul
Great Suggestion about the "Don't worry about competition"... The other day I saw something similar to the service I want to do, and at first disheartened me... but if I don't try I will never succeed or fail, just be disheartened! ;)

"If you sit, sit, if you stand, stand, what ever you do, don't wobble"...

HeyLaughingBoy
As others said: Just Do It.

Get started and once you're moving you'll find that momentum takes over. To keep the momentum going, make plans: e.g., plan to work at least 1 hour/day on your startup whether it's coding, marketing, website, etc. Just work on it.

I wouldn't take a vacation to do it unless I was positive I could do most of the work in that time, but you need continuous long term effort, so the sooner you get started, the sooner you can succeed.

mark_ellul
Thanks for your comment, I agree the Just do it mentality is going to be my driver... not to mention energy drinks and high focus by Kelly Howell - great brain sync I use to wake myself up, and keep focussed on the tasks at hand