Hot answers tagged founder
39
Being at a startup is a lifestyle. Your spouse has to buy into this lifestyle, first and foremost, or things will go south quick.
When I approach my spouse about any startup, I have to sell her on it too. If she thinks it's a waste of time or stupid, then she will not be bought into the long hours or zigs and zags that will happen. So, for me, it starts ...
13
EDIT:
(Removed long-winded response in favor of a more succinct one)
I learned the following over the past year while writing code, working with a business partner and trying to make it all work with a wife and 2 year old son.
COMMUNICATION is the key. You both need to communicate clearly and the other needs to listen and act.
Flexibility is very ...
12
You have to confront him head-on. This can't fester. You can't have secret doubts. It's not fair to either of you.
If he's truly unmotivated, you have to make a gut call about whether it can be fixed. I don't agree with the answers above that say "You should motivate him." You don't motivate co-founders. Employees, maybe. Co-founders need to have the ...
11
Have at least one co-founder.
The arguments for and against co-founders and how many co-founders shouldn't be repeated here (although it's a great topic generally). But having a family to tend to puts a big hash mark in the "have a co-founder" column.
In general, my personality leads me to being a single-founder, but now with a wife and child I wouldn't ...
11
I don't understand why you think she should leave.
It doesn't sound like you brought her on board with high expectations -- as you say, she doesn't hold any official position. She's not your friend, so you can't expect her to act in some socially-ideal way. She's doing what she's always done; and, in return, she got something of value to her -- equity. Now ...
10
What has helped with me is:
1) Marry the right person. I'm very independent as is my wife. If my wife wasn't as independent, it probably wouldn't work.
2) Get your financial house in order. Finances are a big marriage killer. Startups can be a big financial drain especially if you're leaving a job and losing income for months or even years. So get your ...
10
I don't think there's a litmus test in the same sense as interviewing software development candidates.
However I agree with you that people overstate their own importance, either as a member of a team or in how much their own actions influenced what happened with the company.
So I would be looking for their attitude towards business in general. For ...
10
I look at most of those "most important entrepreneur traits" articles as absolute garbage. Success attribution is one of the worst skills in entrepreneurs and those who analyze them.
But there was something I have heard recently that really struck the chord with me:
"With passion and vision comes delusion. Good entrepreneur has the ability to recognize when ...
9
I've recently seen a disturbing trend where people seem to be using both of these terms at one company, granting "founder" status to a few and lower "co-founder" status to others. As far as I can tell this originated at Facebook where Mark Zuckerberg wanted to distinguish himself from all others that claimed/litigated status as founders. I also have ...
8
Marketing is a fickle profession. You have to be part techie, part oracle, part sales and part cheerleader. I am not really sure where they hang out, so I can't help you there.
The best marketeers, at least in my mind, have the following characteristics:
Pragmatic: They understand the limitations of technology but still figure out ways to market around ...
8
Doing the finishing touches of a product can take a lot of work. Among other things, you should definitely consider putting a crappy version of your software up from others to use.
Additionally, I would suggest starting getting customer feedback even before the product is ready. Use screenshots and product features to talk to potential customers (or online ...
7
Here's a quick excerpt from my recent book (Inbound Marketing) which has a chapter on what to look for in marketing people:
1) Digital Citizen: Look for someone that is comfortable with the web and "lives it".
2) Analytical: They need to really be able to dig deep into the data. Marketing is becoming increasingly data driven.
3) Reach: Find someone ...
7
Stay single. But barring that, my rather unqualified two cents...
Usually it's not the quantity of time together that leads to the most frustration. Being fully unavailable is less frustrating, at least to my particular companion, than being physically present but emotionally unresponsive.
So if you're like me, this means the best thing you can do is: ...
7
Be very careful with this. People who thrive for this lifestyle already know about it, and are already excited (for example, you).
Startups are very hard to do, with many lows. It's easy to keep people excited during the highs, but if you have a partner that is a negative person, or cannot find intrinsic motivation, when problems hit they will either ...
7
For smaller seed-stage startups where there's really only one person driving the vision forward, the truth is that when you think about it, if something happens to that person, realistically, the business is going to shut down. If that founder has dependents he or she will, hopefully, have life insurance, but at seed stage realistically if something happens ...
6
I'm guessing that the investors would not be surprised to hear that you are ready to move on to other things. After all, that's what entrepreneurs do.
Any legal obligations you have will be in writing. Make sure you re-read any contracts you have between yourself and the company.
Beyond legal obligations, I would just approach the majority investor(s) ...
6
It's hard to leave a company you founded. I had to because we ran out of money not because I was forced out.
As @rbwhitaker said, the decision is up to you.
The only guidance I will give you is life is really too short to be unhappy. Money cannot replace the utter joy of life. You need to find what gives you joy and do that.
6
Is a startup blog necessary? no.
Does it help? probably.
If you are at the stage of just finishing designing the concept of your service should you be worrying about this? no.
Just get your product built. Even if a blog is great, it's still not as good as having a product so your time should be spent there.
6
Of note: an experienced large company person may not have the correct skillset to run a startup. I know some may disagree, but it is one thing to have a staff / secretary / expense account, and quite another to have to sweep the floors before you leave the building every night (because no one else will do it).
I would take a look at the vesting - any ...
5
Did you ever read the (now very old) book, The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder?
In the book, Kidder describes the design and creation of a new mainframe. At one point, when the product is almost ready, the manufacturer takes all the engineers off the project, and brings in a new set. Why? Because they felt (and I truly believe) that engineers fall ...
5
A start-up is similar to graduate school in that it is a time-sink and a gamble. You are gambling with your family, so having your spouse as a partner is important, and she should be treated with the same respect as any co-founder.
Make certain you spend time with your family, and if your wife wants to take an overnight trip, then do it.
It may mean ...
5
The money goes to whoever is selling the shares.
If the company is selling the shares, then the money goes into the company's bank account. If the founders are selling shares, then it goes into the founder's personal bank account. In some funding rounds, the company sells shares to the investors AND the founders do as well. This is usually done in a ...
5
Ideally, there should be no lines. If you can't even get 3 people (the co-founders) to discuss issues and find a consensus, you are doomed from the start. Your developer should be open-minded enough to listen to the recommendations of the MBA, and the MBA should be flexible enough to understand that the developer may have legitimate issues.
Don't pull rank. ...
5
I went through something similar a couple years ago. I spent two years trying to accomplish the impossible. The company rode its way to an IPO on my back. As soon as the money came in, they set me up to fail and used the excuse to demote me. Soon thereafter they found a way to lay me off. To top it off, a year later they ended up doing the exact same thing ...
5
In general you can, but your investors may require you to write those costs off and consider them part of your "contribution".
I would probably swallow the costs myself, as investors want their money to be spent on some new stuff, not paying down what they can already see. That is, they want to move forward as quickly as possible, and may (reasonably) see a ...
4
There's been a lot of wisdom shared on this thread. Very useful! One thing I would keep in mind is that the dreams that fuel and entrepreneur may seem a bit unsubstantial to significant others, so make sure you also pay attention to their dreams for the future, for the family, for the year, for the weekend, whatever.
Work will disrupt your time with them, ...
4
Seduce your significant other into the business and the great passion and fire that goes with it, so that they to are working insane hours right along with you, and its now something the two of you are sharing, vs. being at opposition with. Of course watch out for the great battles that will erupt once you to disagree on things.
4
I would definitely vote up designer.
A good designer can pitch in with web design, branding, HCI, user experience, IA, web app design.
These roles could of course be managed by many people in a bigger project, but I think you'd get a lot of bang for the buck with a designer on staff of a startup.
You could replace 'Vision' with 'Product Manager'. A ...
4
1 Programmer
1 Designer
1 Marketing + Sales + Administration
3 People with this mixture IMHO is the ideal combination for a startup. Less than that, it wouldn't be as productive, more than that can be too noisy. But you can also add up upto one more programmer if the program is technical.
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