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How (and when) to leave your job,
build a business,
and still feed the kids
Ted Roden - @tedroden
Going
Solo
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Introductions.
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My name is Ted Roden.
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Founder
(fancyhands.com)
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First...
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Then...
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Now.
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Person
• Live in New York City
• Married
• 2 Kids
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Employee
• Network Ninja
• Vimeo
• The New York Times
• News.me / bit.ly
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etc.
One-time Author Occasional Speaker
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You?
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What was I saying?
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• Introduction (you are here)
• Focus
• Founding
• Working
• Building your business
• How to take the plunge
• Lessons learned
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Focus.
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Can you focus on the right things?
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Can you stay focused enough to get a product out the door?
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Can you stay focused in the face of competition?
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Can you stay focused in the face of competition?
(there will be competition)
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Can you stay focused...
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Founding.
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Picking your business.
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Identifying your product.
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It’s all about passion, right?
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You have the most passion. Right?
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It needs to be easy to pitch your product
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Use what people already know.
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Don’t be afraid to be compared to something.
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“It’s Die Hard on a bus.”
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Complicated business, simple model.
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Don’t confuse customers with products.
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Own the product, don’t attract the product.
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Build the product, attract the customer.
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Product vs Customer
Don’t start with:
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Don’t give yourself two masters.
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Owning the Product
Start with
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Customer — Product
Get to
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I♥
my relationship
with your
credit card
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Revenue is a beta feature
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Don’t get eyeballs and monetize them later.
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If I gave out free ice cream on the corner,
I’d have the most popular ice cream shop in town.
Nick Bilton (@nickbilton)
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Forget raising money
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Don’t put it off until later, don’t even consider it.
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You need to focus.
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Raising money will take 6 months minimum.
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6 months of not building your product.
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6 months of not gaining traction.
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And at the end of those 6 months of raising money,
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And at the end of those 6 months of raising money,
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And at the end of those 6 months of raising money,
you’ve given away a big slice of your delicious pie.
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But in the end, you probably wouldn’t have raised any money.
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(Good investors say “no” more than “yes”)
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Building a company is about reducing risks and making bets.
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Your first act as a founder should not be to bet against yourself.
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The co-founder myth
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A cofounder needs to be a perfect match.
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Good luck with that.
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“You need someone there for the dark months.”
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Working.
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Don’t talk about it!
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Talking about your plans makes you less motivated
Some NYU professor (via http://sivers.org/zipit)
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“Don’t talk about it? But, I need feedback on my idea!”
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This is not the time for feedback.
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You need 100% focus.
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You need to rule your idea and execution with an iron fist.
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Finding the time.
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Embrace the constraint.
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Work on something you can finish today.
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Solve the right problems.
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People love to tackle the low hanging fruit.
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Your big problems don’t disappear while you work on little ones.
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Building your business.
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Taking advice.
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Who’s giving you the advice?
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http://some.blog.com/how-I-sold-my-company.html
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Find trusted advisors.
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Someone like an old boss.
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Ignore what the big guys do.
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“We need to have Zappos style customer service.”
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You don’t need live chat on the website.
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or an 800 number
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or a branded Facebook page.
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People don’t want to do business with a company.
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People want to connect with people.
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How do you know you’re onto something?
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It’s not about getting your first paid customer.
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Getting someone to pay is easier than you think.
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Getting lots of people to pay is harder.
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“Oh wow, how do you do that?”
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How to take the plunge.
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Come up with the number.
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How much do you need to make to quit the day job?
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How much does your company need to make to pay you that?
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Get the husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend on board.
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Keep track of the number every day.
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That number is now the most important number in your life.
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Measure your own performance.
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Meet your new boss, worse than your old boss.
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Lessons learned.
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Starting a startup is not really a great way to make money.
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It’s hard, it’s competitive, and it’s terrifying.
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But it’s kinda fun.
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Don’t become an expert.
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No content
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You get one shot.
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It’s not about starting, it’s about exiting.