So You Want to Start Your Own Business? Things People Don't Tell You

https://medium.com/@andrilio/so-you-want-to-start-your-own-business-10-invaluable-things-people-never-tell-you-db66fc1862f6

by lisper • 9 years ago

48 5 9 years ago

medium.com

tyrw• 9 years ago

Having started a couple myself, I'd say a few of these are industry-specific.

The main thing I learned (and learned to accept) is that at the beginning, nobody cares. Potential customers don't care until you very clearly articulate something that matters to them. Friends and family care about YOU, but unless they're the target user, they also don't care about the business itself. Particularly for high achievers who are used to positive feedback, this lack of engagement can be pretty difficult. It would almost be easier if you had someone out there loudly rooting against you; at least then you'd exist to the world.

Anyway, once I accepted that as a natural part of the process, the ups and downs got a lot easier.

quuquuquu2• 9 years ago

Yeah I appreciate all this advice, except for the "beer test".

Come on man, I don't like to drink and I am a very nice and professional person.

The beer test for social skills is probably worse than whiteboarding obscure algorithms to test technical skills.

sixQuarks• 9 years ago

not only that, but Paul Graham is the one that came up with the beer test. So for this author to say that nobody tells you these things is wrong.

quuquuquu2• 9 years ago

Hahahhaha. Agreed.

To get a job at a startup that has received some funding is a bit of a weird dance.

PG is all about growth and efficiency and hiring people who get shit done technically, because it's grow or die in this business world.

But then the startups spend their time doing beer tests and extended interview cycles and whiteboarding tests?

It seems some of these companies are content to run lifestyle businesses and just enjoy life on the runway.

williamstein• 9 years ago

I wish "7. THE BEGINNING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART" were actually true. In my experience, the beginning is hard, but it can get much, much harder than it was at the beginning. In fact, the very book ("The hard thing about hard things") that he cites in point 7 tells the story of many crazy difficult things Ben Horowitz fought through many years after the beginning of Loudcloud/Opsware.

So You Want to Start Your Own Business? Things People Don't Tell You

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