A startup escape path - what advice would you add to this?(swombat.com)
swombat.com
A startup escape path - what advice would you add to this?
http://swombat.com/2011/12/15/startup-escape-path?src=tw
2 comments
Registering a business is a waste of time and money until you actually have a business to register.
Register a business
Check.
Connect to the local startup community
Hmmm... That assumes that there is a local startup community. For many people in many locations there won't be. Even when there are startups, there may not be a startup community yet (that's pretty close to true where I live for example - although we're beginning to change that).
Maybe "Get involved in the startup community, the more local the better. If there isn't a local one - consider starting it".
The local business community can also be, accidentally, quite startup unfriendly. You're not going to get the right sort of advice for a web-based technical startup, where most of the local businesses are light industry, or franchises, etc. You have to know enough to figure out when advice is good, and when it only good for people in a certain context. That can be tough at the start.
Read Hacker News regularly
Is only good advice if the kind of startup you're interested in starting is the kind of startup hacker news folk are relevant for :-) For example I've been spending some time over the last year with a good old fashioned hardware-technology startup. They've been spending the last seven years developing a new kind of sensing technology (it's cool - they have GIANT LASERS :-). Relevance of hacker news to their business - pretty much zero.
Reminder of points.... Great if you're an internet web-based startup. Not so great if that's not where your tendencies lay :-)
Although I think I'd take "Sell something online" and "Sell something intangible in person" and move them way earlier no matter what the business. Being able to talk to customers and sell stuff is a vital skill. If you can't or don't want to do that - the startup world isn't for you.
Actually - thinking on it - maybe "Talk to customers face to face" should be the early point. Forget the selling part. Just getting out and talking to folk is a bit step.