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A comment on Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in when things are going ok?.

Re:Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in whe... by throwawayfound on Saturday June 06, 2020 @12:32PM (#23440341)
It's not just you. I founded a bootstrapped side project/startup that has gone viral during COVID. It's been a wild success, people love the product, but going from solo to now a team of 5 in a period of 2 months and handling a huge amount of users has been stressful. Business-wise, I shouldn't be anything but super happy, and advisors say we've won a lottery, but honestly I miss having less responsibility (e.g. keeping people employed, duty to thousands of customers 24/7) and pressure (don't screw this up!). Don't get me wrong, the ride can be exhilarating and I'm sure I will look back on it one day with pride, but at times I yearn for the days of "just" being a freelance dev who had relatively low stress and tons of time for my wife and kids.
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Re:Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in whe... by Jugurtha on Saturday June 06, 2020 @01:26PM (#23440781)
Going from building code to building a team is different for different people, and some resources can help you in that transition should you choose to go through it.

Keith Rabois has an excellent lecture on that entitled "How to Operate"[^1] in "How to Start a Startup". He gets right into it in the first five seconds.

Ben Horowitz has a lecture in the same series: "How to Manage"[^2].

Andy Grove wrote a book entitled "High Output Management"[^3], that's also referenced in both videos. As a matter of fact, Ben Horowitz wrote the foreword of the newer edition of "High Output Management". The book is good.

[^1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fQHLK1aIBs

[^2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVhTvQXfibU

[^3]: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/d...

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Re:Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in whe... by rboyd on Saturday June 06, 2020 @02:41PM (#23441368)
so was staying solo not an option at all? just curious
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Re:Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in whe... by throwawayfound on Saturday June 06, 2020 @06:11PM (#23442707)
No, I tried probably for too long and the stress and workload was too much, I still have a bit of PTSD from it to be honest. B2C space with 7 day per week customer support, over 100k DAU. Only way to stay solo would have been to turn away sign ups or something like that.
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Re:Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in whe... by p0d on Saturday June 06, 2020 @07:00PM (#23443112)
thank you
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