Ask HN: Solo founder support group?

[bostonhacker]

Is there a group / mailing list / slack / irc / forum for those of us who are trying to start our own business but have no one to discuss the day to day issues with?

I have been working on my own product for the last few months. I also have a day job. While it is hard to work on nights and weekends, what I find harder is to not have anyone outside of my wife to share the ups and downs with. I am not looking for a cofounder but it would be great to have a place where I can ask for advice, share what I accomplished or complain about things to people in the same boat.

[bostonhacker]

Ok - OP here.

Looks like we have at least 5 people interested. Someone might still point us at an existing community. In the meantime I created a slack channel and a forum.

HN does not seem to have a way to PM. Let me know how to invite you?

Best thing I could come up with is for people to send me their email to this throwaway account: [e-mail]

Forum http://solojourney.prophpbb.com/ Slack channel https://solojourney.slack.com/

[tylercubell]

Perhaps a Google Form would be safer way to submit an email address.

> Since SharkLasers doesn't require account registration, anyone who knows the Inbox ID may have access to that inbox. So it's best to use a random address. To add protection, you can use the Alias Address feature. An Alias Address can only be know if the Inbox ID is known and you cannot use an Alias as an Inbox Id. The more hard-to-guess your Inbox ID is, the better your Alias will protect you.

[bostonhacker]

I agree - Google Forms is a better idea. I only shared the randomized alias so we should be ok with the throwaway email as well.

Here is the Google Forms link: https://goo.gl/forms/uFackrq4AjrBOrmH2

[bostonhacker]

Here is a Google form for the slack invite: https://goo.gl/forms/uFackrq4AjrBOrmH2

Forum: http://solojourney.prophpbb.com/

Slack channel: https://solojourney.slack.com/

[webstartupper]

Find other solo founders from forums like http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/ and start a weekly mastermind

[bostonhacker]

This looks like a good place too!

[pascalxus]

i just signed up here and started interacting. Looks like a good forum and community.

[itamarst]

There's https://barnacl.es as a HN alternative that's bootstrapper focused. Not that much discussion though.

[gtworld]

I'm in! I finally have the startup but started as solo founder. Took me a while to put a team together, took me a while to get seed funding, is taking me while now to scale sales... basically everything takes a while, and a while longer if you are a solo founder. I'd love to participate.

[bostonhacker]

Sounds like you have a lot of experience others could benefit from. Here is how to join:

Forum: http://solojourney.prophpbb.com/

Slack channel: https://solojourney.slack.com/

Google form for slack invite: https://goo.gl/forms/uFackrq4AjrBOrmH2

[itamarst]

Start your own? I'm in Boston, MA area and working on a side project. [e-mail]

[acedinlowball]

I would love something like this. I am a businessman, entrepreneur, developer, evangelist and I would love the opportunity to peruse my interests with those of a like mind

[tixocloud]

I'm interested as well and would be happy to help out with the maintenance of the group.

[iisbum]

Would be interested in something like this too, if you start/find something would love to join too.

[singold]

Loved this, just registered to the forum and send email :)

[malux85]

Interested too, just mailed the throwaway account :)

[bostonhacker]

Could you please send you email via this google form?

https://goo.gl/forms/uFackrq4AjrBOrmH2

Looks like by the time I got home the throwaway account deleted all the emails already. Sorry about that :(

[alantrum]

Interested as well. I signed up on the google form

[madamelic]

Millionth-ing. I sent you an email for an invite. :)

[bostonhacker]

If you haven't received an invite yet could you please submit your email to this google form? https://goo.gl/forms/uFackrq4AjrBOrmH2

Forum: http://solojourney.prophpbb.com/ Slack channel: https://solojourney.slack.com/

[dhruvkar]

I'd be interested as well.

[throwawaz]

if you start a slack channel, I'll join--I have the same issue

[deedubaya]

How about a subreddit?

[cdvonstinkpot]

Agreed. Or Voat. Pros & cons either way.

[adx314]

Interested as well...

[davidlee1435]

i'd be interested in a slack channel as well

[Lordarminius]

I'm in.