| I enjoyed reading the first part of this last year, and was thinking of it recently. As someone who built a bootstrapped company from $40k/y revenue through $3.5M/year over 14 years, before we were shot in the head by our bank, I was thrilled to hear that you were doing something like this, but concerned over the many potholes (pun, I guess, intended) you were going to encounter. One of the biggest ones that was an eye opener for me early in starting and running Scalable was the rent seeking behavior of your suppliers. You wrote this as "Everyone wants a piece of the cake." Yeah. That. It doesn't get better. My comments for now are 1) beware of banks and debt instruments. If you can avoid personal guarantees on loans, then sure. Chances are they will say "no guarantee, no money". That money is extremely expensive to you. Avoid it like the plague. 2) beware "partners" and people/companies that claim to want to help you. Do due diligence, deeply, on any organization, including lawyers, accountants, etc. you might consider using. Most will waste your time. 3) hiring ... is ... critical. This is hard as a small co, as you generally can't find great people unless you have a pile of cash. You can try to turn who you can get into great people. But this only works if they are willing and able to learn. 4) Venture capital. Don't get me started. I'm rooting for you, and like you, I had every ounce of skin in the game. My retirement, my daughters college. Everything. Understand that things don't always work out the way you intend. Starting over when you are my age is very hard. Consider me as a cautionary tale. I had a number of folks offer to buy the company. I was too stupid to realize that one should hit a number of singles and doubles to be able to get enough of a base to hit homers and grand slams. Best of luck, and I've subscribed to the site now. |
>Understand that things don't always work out the way you intend. Starting over when you are my age is very hard. Consider me as a cautionary tale.
I'm pulling for him too, but I have the awful feeling that I'm reading the story of a guy blowing his savings, ruining his credit, and maybe taking mom down with him.