It's tough to overstate the amount of savings you should put aside. I'd say that even if you save for "18" months - there is a lot that can happen that you wouldn't even think to put on your expense plan, both in your personal and business forecasts.
My cofounder and I quit our jobs and had "12" months saved up according to our plan. 9 months in, and no revenue yet, we found ourselves with no runway left, and needed to get contracting jobs on the side. As Jacques mentions, when you take this approach, a lot of your "good time is spoken for".
The strange thing is that this recruiter has already placed other people at this company (according to the hiring manager). Maybe the terms did change, or the quality of those candidates turned out to be sub-par.
I have started working with a corporate recruiter at another firm, and so far it's been a much better experience.
Thanks for this advice. I was thinking about ways to close the loop and get out of this situation without harming future opportunities. This would be a good way to make sure my name stays clear with the hiring manager.
I try to give myself adventures and goals for the morning to at least make it interesting. Some I've tried:
- Figuring out the most efficient way to make an omelet and coffee, in the least amount of time. Since you only get one shot at breakfast, you will have to try again the next day, and eventually build up your craft.
- Outdoor bike rides for both exercise and exploration. I luckily live in Berkeley, so there are plenty of bike-friendly paths and streets, but having the wind in your face, getting exercise, and exploring new areas of your city helps wake my mind up.
- However, the best for me when I was in a corporate job was to set my alarm for 5, have my gym bag and work clothes packed the night before, take the subway to the gym and shower there. I'd eat breakfast when I get to work. Breakfast for a while was granola (carbs), Siggi's yogurt (nice protein boost) and Yerba mate.
It's a shameless plug, but since I'm proud to be a morning person, I'm writing a series of posts called "Morning People Unite" that might help you and others get motivated:
We recently released http://rewordio.us which helps people find alternative domain names by using a thesaurus. We went with this name because it's a bit shorter, but also registered the dot com to make sure wayward souls got back to the URL we wanted.
You should definitely reserve that name! Maybe through our site? :)
I agree with not overwhelming the user. Though I think it depends on how your users are individually inspired to find the right domain name. Looking at competitor sites, some allow you to wade through tons of results, others just show you a couple.
We didn't put a lot into the algorithm, so our results are mostly dependent on the thesaurus we are using. I would guess that providing a good results algorithm is definitely the best way to go. Good luck gents!
One interesting approach is what nxDom.com does under their 'advanced options' section. They allow users to create their own custom algorithm for things they care about.
I like the interface to show additional (whois, etc) information. Have you had folks purchase any domain names through your affiliate links - or has it mostly been used to come with with crazy combinations of words?
Absolutely agree. I was looking for feedback and encouragement/doubts from people who have done this before, so I left it out intentionally so I could do a follow up post focusing on the idea itself. Several users in this thread have guessed it already though.
Thanks for the contrarian view. For me personally, the feedback I have gotten from reading people's YC rejection posts has been useful in that it has helped put the process into perspective. Judging by the upvotes on these kinds of posts, it seems like other people find them interesting as well.
I appreciate what your advice and welcome it. You are right, I am excited by the prospect of starting something myself and caught up in the energy of it all, but I am also well aware that this is my first time and I'm going to mess up a lot of things. That's part of the reason for starting the blog and reaching out to the HN community. To learn from those who have already done this, so that one day I can give back as well.
We haven't given up on it just yet. What came out of the whole process was that we are up against big hurdles - including legal obstacles that might make the business model impossible in the US.
What we took to heart was that we needed to really get more in touch with our end users, validate that they would use the service in spite of these issues, and understand what it would take to get the public past the potential discomfort of buying food from strangers. Actually seeing it work on a small scale would go a long way towards proving that it would be worth our time (and other people's money) to pursue the idea.
In the meantime, we are applying this thinking to two other ideas to see if we can't come up with a more compelling business.
Thanks for the detailed advice Jordan. It's good to know that we're not completely crazy in doing this (just partially). I'm also glad to see that even if the first time didn't work out, you learned an incredible amount and are going to give it another shot. Best of luck!
For our situation specifically, we discussed a bunch of non-terminal options with our employer. This included staying at the job with new incentives, consulting, and prolonging our departure. We also have been given the speech of "call me when you guys need a job again" by them as well.
However, in the end, we think that forcing ourselves, by leaving behind the comforts of a 9-5, is the best way to learn, fail at some things, and hopefully succeed in the end.
I'm working on a post for that. Our friends and family are mostly in the North East, so we needed to think long and hard about the pros and cons of either scene.
BTW, looks like you are in San Diego. Why did you choose that area (besides the fact that the weather is 62 in SD vs. 34 in NYC)?
The expenses are pre-rent/laundry/internet/etc right now. That number will go up significantly after we find out where we are living. We have budgeted for about 1300 per person per month.
My cofounder and I quit our jobs and had "12" months saved up according to our plan. 9 months in, and no revenue yet, we found ourselves with no runway left, and needed to get contracting jobs on the side. As Jacques mentions, when you take this approach, a lot of your "good time is spoken for".