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by richardjordan 4984 days ago
I can tell you from personal experience how: If you take literally the advice of investors and startup-ra-ra types and put everything on the line for your startup, your own money, your time... and then something like the financial crash of 2008 hits just as you're raising your round, your $500k Salesforce.com pipeline of business that depends on marketing spend from big corporates in q4/08 and q1/09 collapses and literally 0% closes... You get divorced. Being broke isn't a bonus feature of the startup process. It can be an unfortunate side-effect and one that takes some effort to dig out from. You'll make it out again if you stick at it, but it's not fun and it WILL cost you things in your life that are important to you.

Remember, families didn't sign on for your start-up dream. Not being able to pay the bills is not cool. It's bad advice from people who've either never honestly been there, or folks who've forgotten what it was like there and are romanticizing it, or folks who are insecure about their success and want to build a struggle-against-adversity narrative to feed the myth of the hero-founder.
2 comments
mibbitier 4984 days ago
I think perhaps you're the wrong audience.

The advice is great for bootstrapped businesses who are looking to get profitable. It's probably not so great for "raising a round" venture backed "startups" who are playing the startup lottery.

If you're building a business, then being broke is a pretty great incentive to make things work.

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richardjordan 4983 days ago
I understand what you're saying, though i think the characterization of startups as a lottery is a mistake. There is some luck involved with startups but smarts and execution count far more. But for lifestyle businesses too I just don't buy the argument that being broke is a great asset. It just makes it more likely you'll fail. Ask anyone who's tried opening a store or a restaurant. It's better to take a job and save some $$ before starting and having some runway. If the writer is going for the narrower case of a consulting or contracting business then founder is misleading, or at least being used in a very different way than most HNers are using it.
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bravoyankee 4983 days ago
You're right. I got divorced in 2001. It was effing heartbreaking.

Now I'm single again and will stay that way while I still financially struggle.

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