> Having started a software business with too much optimism and too little business knowledge myself, and failed

I'd say trying in itself can be seen as a partial success, hope you didn't get too financially impacted.

Is there any books/resources you (or other HN readers who also started their businesses :)) wish you had read before starting? Or that you did read and consider essential?

Well I (and my family) was hugely financially impacted, as a result of my own choices, but I also had the best few years of my professional life. I made big mistakes, but I don't really have big regrets, if that makes sense, aside from losing angel investments and scaring my wife. I hope to do it again some day.

There are some great resources here and in books, but I can't think of anything I wish I'd have read earlier, and nothing I know of that would have changed my course. It might be out there, but I haven't read it yet. ;)

My team wasn't balanced enough, and we underestimated how much marketing we'd need. We were conflicted about raising VC money, so we wasted time dithering. We didn't figure out the right business strategy and our market until it was too late. All the books say to pay attention to this stuff, but none can really tell you how to do it in your case.

Great books I read include "Early Exits", "The Startup Owner's Manual", "Lean Startup", "Pitch Anything". I think I learned more about startups reading HN than in those books, but it's all good stuff. Seek out a wide variety of conflicting advice, find the best team, and go for it! ;)

It's amazing to me how many reatauraunts come and go. Even in a small town you know there's one spot that has been through 5 restaurants in 5 years. It seems like an extremely risky business to start, I don't get how so many people are brave/foolish enough to try it. I certainly don't have the guts.

I think it's a bit like being an artist or athlete. The pool of people who enjoy it is enormous compared to the demand. I personally know many people who enjoy cooking, playing music, and playing sport but nobody who would pay those people for their work. It's everyone's hobby so the competition is fierce. The odds that you are better than everyone else in that huge rabble are slim.

You'd think that you'd work at a restaurant a little while before trying to start one. Learn the ropes a bit, etc. That has got to help with your chances of success.

While I agree deeply, it's kinda hard to get the right sort of experience without just jumping in. Owning and running a restaurant is very different from working at one, right? Same with software; I worked in software for a couple of decades before trying to start my own, and while it did help me with the writing software part, it didn't help me with the running the business and marketing and pitching parts. If anything, one of the most important things I learned by trying is that I waited too long to try -- there's a ton of valuable experience you get by trying which can increase your chances of success. This goes right to your point, but I guess I'm just adding the caveat that you have to learn the ropes of restaurant management, as opposed to cooking or waiting tables or washing dishes. It has recently become very clear to me what the stark difference is between a product and a business...

I get what you're saying, but I feel like he's more like trying to start a software business after writing a few SQL queries and Excel formulas.

How can you hire people or evaluate their work if you don't understand what they do?

"Owning and running a restaurant is very different from working at one, right?".

Not if you have worked in a restaurant as a high level employee(eg exec chef) for quite a while.

(Exec chef here, 17 years experience)

That's a lot closer to the right kind of experience, for sure!

This seems a little hyperbolic; this is business risk, not personal risk, and presumably the bank is (at all) discerning wrt the business plan.

Do people start restaurants with their own money? That seems like a nightmare.

Yes people start restaurants with their own money -- almost all restaurants are people taking personal risk, even franchise chains like Subway and McDonalds! And yes I started my business with (mostly) my own money. Your ideas of business risk vs personal are adorable but wrong. I don't mean that as insult, just gentle correction. Bank business loans are not separable from personal risk, they are usually completely backed by personal collateral, and people who's restaurants are funded by the bank and fail are getting wiped out every day. You're absolutely right -- it's a nightmare. The only people not risking their own money are startups that get angel/venture/grant funding, and loads of them are still personally invested too. Venture groups almost never fund new restaurants, because restaurants are way too risky, and they're way harder to scale than software.