Ask HN: Who of you thinks they have what it takes to start a company?
And what’s stopping you?
35 comments
Nothing. I got into business 9 years ago and counting. I can never work for someone else except myself and my customers and employees. I have that itch so bad that I had to do something and I did.
I know lot of people say things like "I have a family to feed" etc and they are not wrong BUT there is never going to be the right time. If you want to start a company, you have to take calculated risks. My personal suggestion is that if you have enough rainy day funds saved and/or your spouse works as well, you should really not wait. There always is an excuse why not to do something.
I know lot of people say things like "I have a family to feed" etc and they are not wrong BUT there is never going to be the right time. If you want to start a company, you have to take calculated risks. My personal suggestion is that if you have enough rainy day funds saved and/or your spouse works as well, you should really not wait. There always is an excuse why not to do something.
I couldnt agree more with your first paragraph. Where can I reach you? Would love to talk more.
I started a "small" business in the middle of the pandemic and it has been profitable since day 1, overtaking my 9 - 5 job in financial reward by a substantial amount.
I spent my own money on bringing my own idea to fruition and have been enjoying running it so far.
As others have said, there are always excuses not to do something, but you should only apply that to things you want to do.
I spent my own money on bringing my own idea to fruition and have been enjoying running it so far.
As others have said, there are always excuses not to do something, but you should only apply that to things you want to do.
I’ve run a business for over 20 years. A business is a bit like a relationship where there is a big passionate start like the early growth part. This is where it was the most fun. Eventually assuming your business lasts it matures, perhaps changing a bit over time incrementally but becomes stable. For me as my main source of income it is now a job where the buck stops with me. I get the most complex problems and issues that others can’t solve. A lot of start up and business talk is about the first phase of business and growth and nearly never about mature businesses where things are more stable and maybe a bit more boring.
Nope, I definitely don’t. I’m an employee. Clock in, clock out, and let someone else deal with the stress and reap the rewards.
I'd like to think I could run a small business, but I'd have to raise money to do so, and don't like being beholden to investors.
If I get to the point where I'm more or less financially independent (or at least to the point where I feel comfortable taking a year off of my day job) I'll make a go at working on projects that could make money.
In the meantime I'm still working on things on the side, but only when I have pockets of time and energy.
If I get to the point where I'm more or less financially independent (or at least to the point where I feel comfortable taking a year off of my day job) I'll make a go at working on projects that could make money.
In the meantime I'm still working on things on the side, but only when I have pockets of time and energy.
I have been self-employed for most of my career. I love it.
However I deliberately think small and work alone. I find it really satisfying to wear many hats and make small-scale magic.
I have what it takes to start a company, but no desire to let it take over my life.
However I deliberately think small and work alone. I find it really satisfying to wear many hats and make small-scale magic.
I have what it takes to start a company, but no desire to let it take over my life.
Of course I I think I have what it takes... Don't most of us here?
I have endless ideas, a diverse set of technical skills that can get me most of the way there...
What stops me though is time and money.
I have a family to provide for, who are a much bigger priority than anything else. So my ideas take the back burner, and I prioritize the ones that have a higher percent chance at freeing me from a 9-5, instead of the more interesting moon shots.
However, the failures and wasted money do add up, and it emotionally wears on my wife... I do think of giving up trying to start something, but I dread the idea of working for someone else for the next 30 years. I feel like starting something of my own is part of how I am wired.
So I keep plugging away in my limited free time, getting up too early just to make the time. Maybe some day, but the years are already flying by, my family is most important.
I have endless ideas, a diverse set of technical skills that can get me most of the way there...
What stops me though is time and money.
I have a family to provide for, who are a much bigger priority than anything else. So my ideas take the back burner, and I prioritize the ones that have a higher percent chance at freeing me from a 9-5, instead of the more interesting moon shots.
However, the failures and wasted money do add up, and it emotionally wears on my wife... I do think of giving up trying to start something, but I dread the idea of working for someone else for the next 30 years. I feel like starting something of my own is part of how I am wired.
So I keep plugging away in my limited free time, getting up too early just to make the time. Maybe some day, but the years are already flying by, my family is most important.
I'm similar boat but I've learnt that I need to put the brakes on a little bit.
Wife and family need me, so that is the most important. More important than my desires.
I tried going "cold turkey" and give up my ambition, but that drove me mad. So I've learnt to integrate. And I also changed jobs which had a tremendous affect on my comfort (much more interesting work for me) - they give me freedom to do anything side-project wise, and they keep the money coming in..
Now I spend a small portion of my time creating and thinking up ideas because that's just what I do, I build little side apps that I want to have, and fill my needs, I do not waste money on chasing a false ideal. and I have room for what I do in the weekly budget.
ATM I'm building a little photo video montage app so I can easily add photos videos of my kids growing up and watch a montage of it when they're older.
I explicitly don't have "what it takes" to run some VC startup. But I have what I want to have now, and if I ever get too busy with my side projects I will offload them, because they are less important.
Wife and family need me, so that is the most important. More important than my desires.
I tried going "cold turkey" and give up my ambition, but that drove me mad. So I've learnt to integrate. And I also changed jobs which had a tremendous affect on my comfort (much more interesting work for me) - they give me freedom to do anything side-project wise, and they keep the money coming in..
Now I spend a small portion of my time creating and thinking up ideas because that's just what I do, I build little side apps that I want to have, and fill my needs, I do not waste money on chasing a false ideal. and I have room for what I do in the weekly budget.
ATM I'm building a little photo video montage app so I can easily add photos videos of my kids growing up and watch a montage of it when they're older.
I explicitly don't have "what it takes" to run some VC startup. But I have what I want to have now, and if I ever get too busy with my side projects I will offload them, because they are less important.
I thought I could, but now I realize I can't.
I quit my job twice to start companies. Neither made a cent. I read all the YC startup school articles, watched the talks, looked at successful bootstrapped founders and thought "Yeah, that's me! I'll do it!".
Now I am a little older and a little wiser. I realize that I don't have the skills to start a company. Not just tech skills but people skills, sales skills, organizational skills, emotional skills. I think most people, apart from the truly exceptional, shouldn't start a company until they have a great deal of experience. Maybe 40+ is the right time for the average person to start and be successful. Then you have experience, skills, insight, experience and you know yourself well enough.
An aside: I suffer from ADHD. I didn't know when I started my companies, but if anyone reading this has ADHD and is thinking about a startup I suggest be extremely cautious. There are a lot of articles out there that say something along the lines of "Entrepreneurship is great for ADHD! Be your own boss! Be flexible and creative!". It's a bit of a myth. If you don't have your executive function under control while working a job then it won't get any better when you start a company. And mistakes and issues while running a startup will get away from you a lot quicker and more spectacularly than when you are an employee.
I quit my job twice to start companies. Neither made a cent. I read all the YC startup school articles, watched the talks, looked at successful bootstrapped founders and thought "Yeah, that's me! I'll do it!".
Now I am a little older and a little wiser. I realize that I don't have the skills to start a company. Not just tech skills but people skills, sales skills, organizational skills, emotional skills. I think most people, apart from the truly exceptional, shouldn't start a company until they have a great deal of experience. Maybe 40+ is the right time for the average person to start and be successful. Then you have experience, skills, insight, experience and you know yourself well enough.
An aside: I suffer from ADHD. I didn't know when I started my companies, but if anyone reading this has ADHD and is thinking about a startup I suggest be extremely cautious. There are a lot of articles out there that say something along the lines of "Entrepreneurship is great for ADHD! Be your own boss! Be flexible and creative!". It's a bit of a myth. If you don't have your executive function under control while working a job then it won't get any better when you start a company. And mistakes and issues while running a startup will get away from you a lot quicker and more spectacularly than when you are an employee.
I have and I’m currently at an early stage startup. It’s an insane amount of work. I think most people could become proficient at the various roles, but they simply don’t have the time to actually do all of the roles. That’s ultimately the challenge- time to do everything.
Starting a business either requires having a good partner or a small enough market to manage everything yourself.
For most people, joining an early stage company will be a better trade off. The team will be established, but you’ll still have a bunch of freedom to take care of the thing you want.
Starting a business either requires having a good partner or a small enough market to manage everything yourself.
For most people, joining an early stage company will be a better trade off. The team will be established, but you’ll still have a bunch of freedom to take care of the thing you want.
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I don't think I can start a company. I already have.
I'm just wondering if I can finish one - meaning, make it reach operational.
MVP, or very near it. Have experience successfully operating/managing a firm in the niche.
People who would prefer to work for me ask often if I've taken on funding yet.
What's stopping me? Lack of cofounder(s).
Just haven't had the right conversation yet!
I'm just wondering if I can finish one - meaning, make it reach operational.
MVP, or very near it. Have experience successfully operating/managing a firm in the niche.
People who would prefer to work for me ask often if I've taken on funding yet.
What's stopping me? Lack of cofounder(s).
Just haven't had the right conversation yet!
Doubt that the effort is worth the reward.
I started a startup because the alternative was sitting 4-5 hours in traffic, or living in a small apartment in the slummy area of the city where everyone insists on putting their offices. Give me 100 hour weeks any day, as long as I can work from home.
Are you finding WFH hard to get in your area? Seems very common now
It was 2016. Tech jobs were uncommon then. It was like the AI scene today - most of the people running tech companies were consulting or building some kind of product that they were too inexperienced and too greedy to understand.
The term unicorn was becoming popularized. VCs were always around, but the fantasy of building a billion dollar company didn't quite exist, and nobody understood why some of these companies were raising so much money. Tech companies would hire a team of 5; over a hundred was unheard of here.
I think today, you can take it for granted that if you graduate with a CS degree, the good jobs exist, but back then you just took whatever you could. There's just cycles in the economy when it's better to pay salaries than take a salary. Even with the waves of layoffs, I don't think we'll ever get as bad as things used to be, unless you're trying to get a job in web3 or something.
The term unicorn was becoming popularized. VCs were always around, but the fantasy of building a billion dollar company didn't quite exist, and nobody understood why some of these companies were raising so much money. Tech companies would hire a team of 5; over a hundred was unheard of here.
I think today, you can take it for granted that if you graduate with a CS degree, the good jobs exist, but back then you just took whatever you could. There's just cycles in the economy when it's better to pay salaries than take a salary. Even with the waves of layoffs, I don't think we'll ever get as bad as things used to be, unless you're trying to get a job in web3 or something.
I find this hard to reconcile: first job was in 2002 and except 2001, 2009 (and lets say 2022/23 USA only) it has not been hard to get a job (assume not to fussy!) in tech unless you are trying to break in as a first job.
I meant Malaysia though.
On the business side, the odds of making a million dollars with an acquirable business is much, much higher than the US. But the odds of making a VC backable unicorn is much lower.
Jobs also tend to lean that way - just do whatever it takes to deliver. Skill capped low. Salary capped low. Expectations were low. What 99% uptime? The website has to come down for an hour a day for maintenance. There was a lot of untamed land for people who think things could be done just a little better. Also the era when some people were quitting jobs because they think things could be done better in Node.js or Rails than PHP.
On the business side, the odds of making a million dollars with an acquirable business is much, much higher than the US. But the odds of making a VC backable unicorn is much lower.
Jobs also tend to lean that way - just do whatever it takes to deliver. Skill capped low. Salary capped low. Expectations were low. What 99% uptime? The website has to come down for an hour a day for maintenance. There was a lot of untamed land for people who think things could be done just a little better. Also the era when some people were quitting jobs because they think things could be done better in Node.js or Rails than PHP.
I have substantial savings, a degree in business, decades of developer experience (from start up to public), I execute well, I work well with others, and I can build solutions. I have near zero potentially successful business ideas. "Solve a problem you have" - I don't see a path to a market from any problem I can identify. Do I have what it takes to start a company? Sure, file some paperwork. Do I have what it takes to start a company that makes money? I'm missing the first part: ideas.
I do. I started a company. Its revenue is zero. Starting a company is nothing.
I think I have what it takes absolutely, what's stopping me currently is time. I'm working on a side project, where I am almost 100% sure that it will pay off immensely. But client work is also paying of really well and its very stable with little risk! So balancing the time between starting (and developing) my own business, and helping someone build their business is what is currently stopping me. Wish I could somehow arbitrage time, without spending money and introducing more risk :)
I don't want to start a company. If I have the mental bandwidth for different avenues of work that may or may not pay off, I want to finally fulfill my childhood dream and self publish my books. I haven't gotten back to writing (Fantasy fiction) in years but I'd love to. Unfortunately I have familial obligations, and want to just provide for them instead of chasing dreams.
Start a startup? Or a small business? I'd like to think I could be proficient at the latter, but I don't think I have the right combination of skill and opportunity to make it successful while being at all enjoyable. At least not at this point.
I took care of myself through college by running small hosting 'businesses'
Turns out I like the toys more when it's for fun. Running something demands more than I care to put in.
Turns out I like the toys more when it's for fun. Running something demands more than I care to put in.
Have already tried few times, moderate success. Learned what happen, and how to do better. Now gathering money to new try.
I could if I had strongly supportive cofounder… basically romantic partner level of commitment and enough time.
I do not have what it takes to start a company! Namely motivation and business sense.
I am technical but not technically capable enough in the domains I want to explore.
Trying to find an idea that I am passionate enough about.
A problem to solve is imho much better than “an idea”.
I get where you're coming from but Netflix, Google, Apple, Mirosoft, Meta all came from ideas rather than problems.
netflix origin story: https://chat.openai.com/share/5902e517-ba2b-4cfa-b15d-7178a7...
netflix origin story: https://chat.openai.com/share/5902e517-ba2b-4cfa-b15d-7178a7...
Don't trust anyone and no support haha.
need a good idea