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Startup founders: what are the most difficult technical challenges you've faced?

7 points by Zak ↗ HN
I suspect the most difficult challenges with most startups are not technical; I'm asking because I find technical problems interesting. Please include information about the type of application you're building, the tools you're using and the like, as appropriate.

2 comments

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ordersup
this could be technical... getting users to use the product or service/page. my newest venture is a little different... B2B... so we'll see how that goes.

also, my answer is relevant because with more users comes expansion. my social networking site (before the phrase was coined so feverishly) started with 10 people initially signing up. i had launched the day prior to my vacation and didn't return for 2 weeks. word-of-mouth spread it like wildfire and when I returned... 20k people has signed up. with that however, came the server and bandwidth bill (I was using a shared hosting plan). technically, it made me broke for time (fixing everything that broke and eventually broke during my transfer to the dedicated server) and financially it drained me (back when dedicated servers cost and arm, leg, first born and your dog fluffy). =P

ratsbane
[sigh] I wish we had technical challenges. That's what I enjoy too. Instead the challenges are about managing people and money and completing insurance company audits and IRS filings and dealing with idiot bureaucrats at the State Unemployment Tax Agency...

I'd like to create a technical solution for those non-technical problems just so I wouldn't hate so much to deal with them.