Startups Tuesday Operational Roundtable - A Forum to Ask About Legal, Accounting, Project Management, or How to Get Started |
- Tuesday Operational Roundtable - A Forum to Ask About Legal, Accounting, Project Management, or How to Get Started
- Is it True?
- Complications of being in a start up with a friend
- How do we best spend $1000 to build a network of users?
- Online platform services
- Founding two startups at the same time
- What needs to be clarified about the hourly rate before renewing the contract with a software vendor?
- Little fish in a big pond?
- Need some advice on whether to create startup with a friend or not
| Posted: 18 Jun 2019 06:06 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Operational Roundtable Thread. Ask about anything related to legal, accounting, project management, or how to get started. Don't be shy. The purpose of this is to learn and share ideas and methodologies with one another. Any question is a good question! If you are answering questions, remember to be kind and supportive. Many are just starting out and have no idea what they are doing. That's okay! We all knew nothing before we knew something. You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2019 11:42 PM PDT |
| Complications of being in a start up with a friend Posted: 18 Jun 2019 04:45 AM PDT So my friend, the current CEO, came up with the idea for our product/service. I was the first person he told, and the first person invited onboard. This was all a while ago, and the product was just a mere concept. In the following months, he did do a lot of the research and some concept development, but, and not to downplay his early contribution, most of what he worked on he ended up scrapping in pursuit of a different creative direction that half of the company mainly disagrees with, and as this new concept for the product has come into development, it's apparent that there is no real direction and short term goals, just a simple long term goal of essentially "be big and popular". To give you a idea of how things are: the product involves a lot of work in a field none of us have any experience or knowledge in, something which I thought the CEO would take some initiative to learn, but once I realized that wasnt going to happen, I ended up just taking one for the team and sacrificing essentially from the time I get home (from my day job) to the time I go to bed to learn about the field, and actually develop a product. Which has kind of taken a beating on my social life. Ontop of this:
The final straw that broke the camel's back:
I don't mean to sound arrogant, but the literal legal, financial and now physical product of the company were completed by me, and given that I tabled my future career to help pursue this product, and strongly believe in some variation of this product (CEO still doesn't seem clear on this either) I am kind of unclear on what to do I've considered jumping ship, either immediately, or giving the company something like 2 weeks to prove it can function. I've considered using a developed product as leverage to gain more equity and push a more efficient and effective agenda I've even considered using my knowledge of our organizational documents (which I wrote and know well ebough) to essentially takeover the company (really not the best idea, mainly did this when i was at peak frustration) Another member has told me I should probably be at the helm since I, in their words, developed the entire business structure of the company, and the product. So I guess I'm not alone in thinking that. But i know, deep down, and it's the most difficult route, i have to address the CEO and tell him he may not be best suited for the role. But how do you tell your, essentially, longest friend that they shouldn't be leading the company developing the idea they had? That they really aren't in the best interest of the company/product? So I guess that's why I'm posting. A) for input on if I'm just being arrogant, or if I actually have a reason to be upset/frustrated. B) what to do. And ultimately C) how do I tell my best friend he shouldn't be in charge of his company anymore? Also, apologies if this seems incoherent, as explained in the post I havent slept much and am exhausted [link] [comments]  |
| How do we best spend $1000 to build a network of users? Posted: 18 Jun 2019 07:11 AM PDT I'm a part of a small startup that's focused on helping startups come together - co-founders, getting help, etc. We have around 250 users and everyone seems to appreciate what we offer. We haven't yet charged anything for any services. We have heard from users about how they've benefited already even with a smaller network, so we're confident in the premise. Ideally, we would get to 1-2k users in the next 2-3 months. We believe this would allow us to charge for certain pieces so that we can at least afford hosting/misc ($80 per month). If we have $1000 left, how can we best spend this to build our user base and continue to stay live i.e. the faster we build the user base - the faster we can turn on revenue to become self sufficient. This is a side project for us, so we don't have much time for direct sales although we realize this would be the best strategy. Thanks for any thoughts. Some things we've tried - $80 on FB ads got alot of users, but it seems counter productive and too expensive. We wrote an article and posted it around (it hit the top of Hacker News for an afternoon) and we got a few users, but posting in forums seems so arbitrary and luck driven. We also get the people that say we're spamming them even though we are literally trying to build something useful - without charging - but maybe everyone claims that these days. Thanks again. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2019 07:04 PM PDT Dear all, I have been wondering this for quite sometime. Hear me out. The platform Im talking about is interior design, online art portfolio, etc... Generally a site that host other works, freelance or product. The question here is, how do I go about starting a site massive like that? not content-wise, but infrastructure-wise (the working gear under neath the site). I did check out online site builder, but they fall short on this, most only offer for personal usage. I know to build this is huge, but a number for perspective is nice, and even a link to company that offer the product/service like free site builder, but for this specific type of web/platform. I don't know where to put this question, but since I want to start a business with this type of platform, this will be the best place to start. Thanks for reading all. Let me know what you think. [link] [comments]  |
| Founding two startups at the same time Posted: 18 Jun 2019 09:02 AM PDT I'm a recent college grad building a consumer internet product. I have not raised any money yet and I have yet to convince someone to join as a co-founder. A major version product is going to be launched in the next month. I have very low personal savings but can last a few months. I have to rely on getting angel investments once I get good enough traction. I've been working on this product for around 6 months. The pilot is already out and I've been iterating it to increase retention rate and find Product Market Fit. However, recently my friend connected me to someone who has an idea for a new startup. This guy is not well connected in the Valley. However, the positive is that he has a good amount of money. He is willing to put in the initial investment and is asking me to join him in building his product. If I go ahead with this guy:
Would it be a good decision to continue working on my startup but accept this guy's offer as a part-time thing? And then, after a few months, I will look at which one is getting more market validation and go all-in full-time on it? Some examples make me think that this is possible: Mark Zuckerberg was working on Facebook and Wirehog at the same time initially until it was clear that Facebook was going to be huge. Also, it was initially Garrett Camp who was mainly working on Uber and Travis took it as a side-project. Once Travis saw that Uber was taking off, he went all-in on it. Reid Hoffman started Social Net. He joined Paypal initially while he was still at Social Net. Then he shut down Social Net to go all in on Paypal. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2019 08:43 AM PDT Hi, my company started to work with a software vendor: we pay per hour, and from time to time they charge us extra, more than I usually think is justified. I'd like to know what kind of services vendors usually include an hourly rate and which ones they don't. What needs to be clarified about the hourly rate before we renew the contract? And are there any hacks to lower the hourly rate during the contract discussion? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2019 08:56 AM PDT Hey folks! I'm really interested to hear stories of times that you might have felt under-resourced whilst running your startup, particularly if you feel like you're been at a disadvantage because your competitors are more established and have access to services and resources that you don't. Anyone got any good stories? Absolutely no need to name names [link] [comments]  |
| Need some advice on whether to create startup with a friend or not Posted: 18 Jun 2019 03:44 AM PDT Hello everyone, Please excuse me, this is a long question, and I knew no other place to seek advice. I'll explain what went between us, and give a short history at the end, in order to show whats it like between us. me and a friend of mine (lets call him Fred) recently talked about the possibility of doing a project together. We have a bit of history together, and there are terms he specified as what he wants, and I don't know how to go about them, simply accept them cause they are the norm? or reject them, in which case what should I be asking him as my terms? Story: After the initial talks and expressing his interest in my expertise and all the projects I can do, we departed, he later that night he sent me an email stating couple of rules as the conditions he deemed crucial for this project: list of commitments curated by Fred :
Now me : I intended to this as a project, it means, he provide the necessary hardware, I develop the application, then he uses his connections to get us a buyer or sth, if there needs to be company, we can found one and split the profit. I also said, when the profit/income starts to be generated by our project, we also half the costs, so he will get half of what he paid for the graphics cards, etc , I also demanded that he take part in the development,even if he is clueless, I can give him chores he'd be able to do so that this way, I can see both of us are contributing equally and thus getting the profit equally as well. But he said, no, he says, he wants to do all in one company and this project will be just the beginning. he is sure that I can make this project pretty well and it will be successful. so he refuses to work on a project basis as I said. he also says he can not partake in any kind of development activities as he is sick (he is, and as he previously told us, doctors, prohibited him from coding, but that was couple of years ago, I dont know how serious it is now). and says, not everyone works equally, and this is normal, and no one should ever say I am doing all the work. The problem with founding a company his way is that, it is not clear, what his contribution will be apart from the initial sponsoring. my questions concerning this is :
What do you think I should do or say to make it worth it? is this something normal? am I being too meticulous? too obnoxious? are his terms simply the norm and should just accept it? What should I pay attention to situations like this, what should I do? I'm extremely bad with such decisions! Here is a back story (please excuse me if it is long!) Fred had a successful startup once and I had also worked for him couple of years ago, after my departure, his startup went down because of a feud/disagreement between him and his friend and also co-founder of the startup. His friend claimed the brand name, and they went their separate ways. he never made it top again. but compared to me he is making a lot of money. I have been an expert programmer for several years, founded my own company but failed! after that, I invested heavily on deeplearning and I now know a thing or two and have a lot of ideas to do but need someone to help me cause alone I cant do it its just too much for me. Two years ago, me and another friend (lets call him Alex), tried to create an application around my new expertise, and succeeded, we wanted money to buy servers etc, so we went and ask Fred if he wanted t o join. He said we want 70+ % of the stocks, and my elder brother will be the CEO. we refused , after some time Fred, called me and said hey I know you are working on this application, but I talked to a government official about this project, if you prepare this demo, I can fix you a meeting with them. me and Alex, went on and spent like 2 3 months on the new project and at that time we figured that was a stupid idea, and from ground up that project was doomed even if that official was dumb enough to approve it , there was no way we could get ourselves out of the mess it was going to be later. So we never bothered contacting him again, and went to find sponsors for our first project. The elongated process of finding a new sponsor killed the project. Alex moved to USA to pursue academia, and I was going to do so, until I faced financial issues. Everything went silent for 2 years, I have been researching deeplearning extensively and looking for ways to do something to get myself out of this misery! Two days ago, Fred called and said hey lets hang out and then we talked and he said jokingly why didnt you do the project I told you, and I said that was the mistake we did, it essentially killed our main project and blah blah! there I said, some merits concerning our former project and he said I had the same idea, wana work together? what do you need? [link] [comments]  |
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