Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by radihuq 2030 days ago
I started my first company last year, and it crashed & died in 5 months. The point of failure was when I burnt out and ran out of money in month 5.

Looking back, the venture was doomed from the beginning. I think it was due to a lack of structure:

* No daily routines to take care of my physical & mental health (working 0-16 hrs a day on 3 coffees is not good haha)

* No systems in place to socialize (sometimes I'd go weeks without talking to friends)

* No clear weekly/monthly goals. I would operate on 1-2 day sprints and constantly change the product roadmap & distribution strategy

* No clear distribution strategy. I kind of just did whatever came to mind

* No focus on generating income. I wanted to build cool shit that impressed people > building something of value and asking people for money in return

That period of my life was pretty dark and depressing, but a period I'm glad I went through. In the end I learned how to code (which has 2x'd my income potential) and I learned a ton about product & business.

I'm going to go for it again, and when I do I plan on putting a much bigger emphasis on taking care of my physical & mental health, as well committing to 1-2 month plans (instead of changing plans every 1-2 days)

2 comments

I think this is a great way to approach starting companies. I hope you didnt have to go through poverty due to lack of an income on those 5months. But I am sure that the learning experience and the ability to align tech and business goals will payoff. I didnt go through the struggle so I dont understand your struggle fully but I hope those 5months served as a great management course.
Thank you for sharing this.

It sounded a bit too familiar.

I've spent the past 3 months developing daily fitness habits but I've got nothing and no ideas on social habits.

As for work boundaries, I just started experimenting with a hard 2pm cutoff for "future work". I'm curious to see the impact.

That's awesome to hear, I hope its going well!

For social habits, the mindset that I'm adopting is that its a necessary factor to perform at a high level. I've observed, especially recently, that my confidence and mood shoots out the roof when I regularly socialize.

I think the approach for me is to treat it like exercising: it won't help me type faster or solve that bug, but it will enhance my mood and confidence which is a huge competitive advantage over the long run.

I'm going to try finding a mastermind group[0] (or just creating one) and literally set time aside in my calendar for socializing. Lets see how that goes.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOGLQEN38ZQ

I like the intro bit "we build real businesses for real customers who pay us real money" from the video you linked.

The term master mind has been a bit off-putting to me, but it seems like scheduled social time is a solid step in the right direction.

Thanks.