Ask HN: single founders – how do you do it?
I've been full-time on my startup for about a year now, and though I'm getting the hang of the wild ups-and-downs, it can be exhausting to bounce from client-side to backend to design to marketing to press. When you're faced with a bunch of rejection on top of all the stuff you normally have to do, how do you keep going? And if/when you burn out, how do you recover?
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 37.2 ms ] threadLately, I've been in a massive rut and have serious doubts seeing if I have what it takes to make my startup succeed. It is mostly due to the technical side since I'm just graduating a bootcamp but I feel my energy and drive waining.
But 8 weeks? That's it? You have a long way to go. It took me about that long to get to where I was good enough to create a basic app on my own. Building a business on top of your coding abilities takes much longer, so try to focus on what you have accomplished. It will always (ALWAYS) take longer than you'd think to get where you'd want to be, so just repeat what everyone else in this thread has been saying: it's a marathon, not a sprint.
I also make it a priority to chat to friends who work in "normal" jobs. It helps remind me that what I'm doing is quite unusual, which is motivating, and also reminds me it's just a job – which is easy to forget when it all depends on you – so I shouldn't worry about it too much.
I try to celebrate the small victories each day to keep motivated in the face of multiple rejections, and I try to complete whatever task I'm working on before switching to something else altogether.
There's no magic formula though – it depends on who you are. I suppose you just need to ensure you don't put your life on hold. Make sure you keep doing what you enjoy doing (in terms of hobbies etc) regularly and often.
On a positive feedback drip: Set a reasonable small milestone. Hit it, celebrate, set the next one.
On vision: You probably have a vision that's based on a number of assumptions. As you move forward, some of those assumptions will turn out to be false. You'll be forced to re-think, adapt and evolve the vision. That vision is a moving target, but as long you can see it, you know where to go next. As long as you can see it, all hope is not lost.
p.s. I'm local, feel free to reach out over email (on website)
I have a full time job and work on my two WordPress plugins on the side. I make sure that every day I accomplish at least one thing relevant to them or something I'm starting.
Just one thing. It seems so easy, and yet, there have been days I got distracted, bored, busy, or just plain uninspired and didn't do it. Those days are the ones that I wish I had back.
If you make progress on something every day, even a teensy tiny bit, you will head toward your goal. Progress does NOT mean:
- Reading HN
- Tweeting about your business
- Looking at Facebook
- Reading business books
These are distractions (for the most part). And they're GREAT sometimes. But we tend to overindulge and think we're making progress because we read 5 new articles about X on HN today and feel "invigorated". That feeling will fade. You need to do something sustainable.
Action is sustainable. Visible progress can be tracked on a daily basis. After 30 days, you can look back and see a LONG list of things YOU DID. That's inspiring. And it makes you want to do MORE. And MORE.
Once you have momentum, the other key thing you need IMO, is a trusted person to bounce ideas off of. Someone who won't listen to your bullshit, only someone who will listen and call it like it is, not how you want to see it. Most friends are bad for this--they will be an echo chamber. You need honesty. Not ego stroking. This is HARD. It is VALUABLE as hell, too.
Those two things will make a huge difference in getting you moving forward. That's what I rely on daily.
-To stay focused, I set and obey time limits on researching startup advice and studying the domain of my startup.
-Everyday I write in a journal, among other things, about one great decision I made the previous day. This has helped me to consciously make better decisions. Therefore, more often than not, I decide to act/build rather than just think about something relative to my startup.
-Fortunately I'm not a single founder this time, but I have been on multiple past projects. A great friend of mine from college has agreed to co-found my current startup with me. One of the most important advantages I've gained is having someone that I trust and respect who can discuss ideas with candor. Try to find someone like this, even if they're not your co-founder.
I know a man who built an engineering company up from nothing to a billion dollar exit over 30 years. I'm in week one of having my app available to the world.
Am I in a hurry? No. I have a long time to build a business. I cannot live or die each DAY/WEEK/MONTH based on users who joined, or users who left, or any other metric. Good Luck!
We get together once every two weeks and hold one another accountable. I bring donuts. Everyone shares a good thing and a bad thing that happened, explains what they accomplished and failed to accomplish, and commits to what they'll complete next time.
One thing: it helps to make sure everyone in the room is at a similar stage, or at very least working on product-focused startups (or all ecommerce, or whatever). That way there's a lot more value in hearing what other folks are going through.
Gotta keep things simple to make them successful.