Startup escape path (opens in new tab)

Somewhere in those steps you should add "make a name for yourself." Marketing yourself and your company can lead you from a good idea/MVP/prototype to a successful business. I've seen it first hand on several occasions. It's not about what you know, but who you know. Numerous articles on HN have been targeted towards the difficulty of traction. "I have a good product, but I have no traction." There comes a point when a good product is not necessarily enough. This is especially true for niche markets. Marketing, marketing, marketing. And I don't mean the kind where you hire an agency. All they have is connections; you can make those with effort. There are all sorts of guerilla marketing tactics if you're looking for cost effective ways to get your name out there.

Some of the key points fall under the blanket of marketing:

    * blogging, guest blogging
    * submitting articles to HN, reddit, etc
    * connecting to local startup/tech communities

Don't live in a bubble. Your startup should not be your personal safe haven that you keep secret from everyone. People need to hear about it, talk about it, criticize it, tear it apart, love it, live it, hate it... you get the picture. You want people to have opinions about your product, strong ones. It doesn't matter if it's a 50/50 split of those that love and hate it. People KNOW about it. If nobody knows you exist, there's no exit.

That leads me to my next big topic: CONNECTIONS. Chose them wisely and treat them well. You are your own personal sales guy. Why do you think the startup incubators are so successful? Their connections. PG has connections, go impress him. I'll let you in on a secret though: he has a very high bullshit detector and has seen it all. It helps to know your target audience as well. PG has a preferential tendency towards startup ideas coming from founders that have domain knowledge (and aren't assholes.. he blogged about it).

Last point: DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE. Be nice to people, don't talk about them behind their back, always say nice things. It's all too easy to get in the habit of gossiping or talking shit about somebody when they aren't there. Word gets around. At some point they'll likely hear about it through the grapevine. Wouldn't you rather have them hear about the nice things you've said? That's friendship. That's a connection.

Step 1, "Register a Business" (LLC or LTD) is not something I'd advise on a lark. It costs real money (hundreds if not thousands of dollars), will require an administrative burden (filing of annual reports, filing of additional tax forms, etc, out of state tax forms if you register out of state or move.)

I think a more realistic approach is to review and understand all of the requirements for registering a business: What papers to file, who to file them with, what the deadlines are, and what the costs are. Once you understand that, you'll know when your business generates enough income to at least cover these costs, or the business is risky enough to warrant the liability protection. (Most software is sold "as-is" and is not that risky.)

>4. Build something someone uses: build something, anything, that at least one person other than you finds useful enough to use it at least 5 times. It doesn't have to look good or change someone's life. In fact, it shouldn't. Just find someone with a problem that recurs every once in a while and build something that solves that problem for them. Learn both how easy and how hard that is.

Very much agree with this, but I'd add to SELL that solution you built. App stores make it insanely easy to sell and (sorta) promote a minimum viable app.

I did this with Reddit Notifier, a simple Mac OS X app that gives your menubar the same "orangered" envelope you get on Reddit:

Reddit Notifier: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reddit-notifier/id468366517?m...

That "wow, people will pay real money for this little app I made" mindset goes a long way towards encouraging your loftier startup/technology goals.

Here are the points I would question. I don't speak from any experience or expertise, so let these thoughts stand on their own merits:

2. Connect to the local startup community? More important to connect to customers and users. I won't discount the value of the startup community entirely, but there are echo-chamber and groupthink effects. Connect to customers first, and then the startup community might be more valuable to you. Treat the startup community as an end in itself and you just end up creating derivative, unprofitable ideas.

3. Read Hacker News? Maybe 2-3 years ago this was more valuable. Now I would suggest skimming Hacker News and using what you can, but also find the important forums and venues your customers use, and read those more closely.

6. Start a blog? Not bad advice, but the more general point--to write--is more broad than that. Blogging is only one medium, and there are many other mediums you have to write well in.

I'd like to add that if you live in Canada, do _not_ register a 'corporation', unless you know exactly what you are doing. Your accountant will tell you a good idea, your lawyer will tell you it's a good idea, but wait until the end of your first fiscal year and it costs $2,000 + to have your taxes done!

In Canada, just wing it as a Sole proprietor!

I think as developers we try to put our experiences in to patterns that we can repeat or at least have the illusion of repeating (to ourselves, or others).

Ultimately, you can do all these things but still not have a successful startup. There are varying definitions of what success is depending on who you talk to, 500, 37sig, PG, other VC. In fact the word startup means different things to those folks.

The only sure thing you can do, for your own good; learn about everything you come across with. People, products, companies, emotions... I say this because at the end of the day/year/startup, you'll have something to show... to yourself. You will be more defined, confident, passionate.

Sometimes it's not the goal, but the journey that defines who we are and what we do next. Those experiences, however infinite in choices and patterns is what sets you up _passionately_ for greatness.

Predicting the future is impossible.

I would've liked it if the author factored into account how you would sustain yourself financially after you take the leap or if it is assumed that you save before making that escape.

4,8,9 all need to be higher and not in that order (I'd say 9 should come first).

Having paying customers is one of the first things that makes a new business real.

Speaking as someone that had a corporate job before, I think that 'working for somebody else's startup' is also a really great idea, especially if you don't immediately know what kind of company you want to build.

You still get a paycheck, but at the same time have a chance to gain a lot of important skills, meet a lot of important people in the community, and understand what life in a startup is like.

This doesn't address getting investment, nor finding a technical co-founder. You don't mention how much personal money they are bootstrapping or have access to either.

I've been doing this a long while now and after bootstrapping and making mistakes, I am seemingly still not near being able to do what I want (either through getting investment or finding a technical co-founder).

At this point, only other tech startup people care what stack you are using, and they probably aren't going to be your customers. If you have the ability to make something in a technology you already know, why waste more time learning something you don't, like node.js? Just make something already!

Oh, I was hoping to read how to escape from startups.

Registering as a corporation may not be smart if you're planning on bringing some VCs on board. You'll likely end up having to reincorporate in some other state for some reasons. Even when you apply to YC the guidelines say its preferable that you haven't filed as a corporation. You can get a simple DBA for real cheap and still be considered a company. I started off at my local County building and paid only $5 plus another $90 for a 3 week required newspaper ad.

But I'm not so sure this post talks about how to do a startup as much as how to start a side project.

actually pretty good read