Ever seriously thought about forming a startup?

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
10,200
126
I worked (technically, as a sub-contractor) for a startup, a few years back. I wish I had paid slightly more attention to the legal/financial/investment deals going on around me, rather than purely focusing on the technical things. It was pretty crazy though.
 

Trygve

Golden Member
Aug 1, 2001
1,428
9
0
I've done more than a dozen. Some have done well, others have gone down in flames. All of the ones that went down in flames crashed entirely because the people running it simply failed to do the work, meet deadlines, and take care of the customers in a timely and effective manner. All of the ones that did very well did so because the people running them did the work, met deadlines, and took care of customers in a timely and effective manner.

Making these things pay off requires a level of self-motivation, dedication, and commitment that most people don't have. If the idea of regularly working through the night or dropping all your other plans to work straight through the weekend because of somebody else's screw-up bothers you, you're better off staying with a McJob.
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
126
I have been seriously thinking about it but I need more capital first... then I'll take the dive.
 

TheLonelyPhoenix

Diamond Member
Feb 15, 2004
5,594
1
0
Over last summer, I worked for a guy who was starting up his own digital imaging company.

Now, I'm an engineering student. I haven't taken a business course in my life, and I haven't even taken an economics course in years. But it seems to me that a sucessful startup owner should:
a) Be the first one in the office and the last one to leave.
b) Hire employees who took whatever job they were assigned seriously, and not be afraid to fire them if they didn't.
c) Be willing to do whatever needs to be done, grunt work or not.
d) Market themselves well, and provide the best possible product or service they can.

My employer did none of the above. He became backlogged with work because his first wave of employees (mostly high school kids) didn't do anything they were assigned to do while still picking up paychecks, then after they left (he didn't fire them, which he should have) he had to find new employees and get them to do the actual work. On his first job he barely broke even when he should have made tens of thousands in the first 6 months. By the time I showed up to work for him, he was already behind the promised delivery date, had no reliable system to backup the masses of information he was storing, his office had all the appearance of a sweatshop, and he hadn't found a new client for the next job after this one was completed.

In other words, be ready to break your back working, because unlike a canned job, your ass is really on the line when you start your own business.
 

dquan97

Lifer
Jul 9, 2002
12,010
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Worked for a startup as my first job out of college...got laid off after 18months with severance :)
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
I've often thought of starting my own company (I really do NOT like working for other people), although I really have no clue what kind of company to start. There's the rub.
 

gopunk

Lifer
Jul 7, 2001
29,239
2
0
yes

if i can offer but one piece of advice... it would be PEOPLE. it's *all* about the people (as in, management and employees). build a great team and the rest will follow.