| Ferruh's guide to risk free startup
(for depression prone people and the rest) = Prerequisites = * You have proven technical skills * You have minimum amount of social and business skills (if you don't have this, don't do startups anyway) = What not to do = * Do not attempt to start the next Facebook, Twitter etc. Start small. If you like your next company can be the next big thing, for now don't do it. * Do not start something that needs huge investment. Stick with SaaS that doesn't require big operation. = Step by Step = 1. Find the idea 2. Design the PoC 3. You'll need max 1 year to deliver the product yourself 4. Pitch it to people you know (if you can't find & convince at least 3-4 to invest one in total of one year salary ~$80K then do not do startups). Do give away up to 49% of the company. Do not care. So the valuation of your company will be about 2 x your annual burn rate. i.e. $80K x 2=$160K 5. Only accept investment from rich people who is OK to lose that investment. Try to avoid relatives. This is really really really important. 6. Nice, now you have 1 year care-free time, do your thing. 7. At the end of 1 year if it doesn't work, close your company go back to your office job. If you are afraid that you can't find a job, DO NOT start your own company, that means you don't met the prerequisites in this guide (not technically good enough). Congratulations, you have just started and failed a risk free startup. You lost some time of your life but possibly you learned a lot. If you like you can repeat this many times until actually make it a reality or to figure out that you don't have what it takes to do this. |
It sounds harsh, but you shouldn't care about investors because they shouldn't overly care about your success.
You should care enough about the start up to want it to succeed and do almost anything for it without having the investor breathing down their neck. On the other hand the investors should know this is a high-risk investment and not have their financial survival depend on it.