Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on?

Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by tptacek on Monday November 24, 2014 @11:36AM (#8653134)

This isn't a hard question to answer. Your prospective investors really aren't going to invest without customer traction. You have no product, and you have just a month's living expenses left.

Even with a hail-mary play that gets you some a semblance of a working product and some users in December, you still won't have a trendline to show investors.

If plodding forward doesn't really cost you anything, because you're basically insolvent anyways, sure, keep plodding forward.

Otherwise: draw up Plan B. Doing something else doesn't mean you can't return to your fantasy sports platform later on. It just means you need to figure out a way to start getting paid, and that needs to be a priority.

Due respect to the rest of the comments on this thread, but how much you believe in yourself really doesn't have much to do with your decision.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by ChuckMcM on Monday November 24, 2014 @12:00PM (#8653274)

I had similar thoughts, my late fighter pilot friend used to say "Even the best pilots crash when they run out of gas."

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Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by nstart on Tuesday November 25, 2014 @05:53AM (#8657190)

I'm going to treasure that quote. Thanks for this one.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by lmkg on Monday November 24, 2014 @02:00PM (#8653991)

There's an important implication in Thomas' reply that I want to make very very explicit: The process of getting someone to sign a check is one of those things that has a tendency to drag on forever. Even if you can get an investor interested, there is no number x where the time to seal the deal is less than or equal to x days. Throw in business interruptions for the holidays, and allow room for Murphy's Law.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by tptacek on Monday November 24, 2014 @02:01PM (#8653998)

My impression is also that if you try to impose a deadline on the check signing that is in any way traceable to you going out of business if the check isn't signed, the check will never get signed.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by soneca on Monday November 24, 2014 @12:58PM (#8653607)

>Otherwise: draw up Plan B. Doing something else doesn't mean you can't return to your fantasy sports platform later on.

Agree, with a little twist: "draw up Plan B, get a job/do freelance. Doing something else doesn't mean you can't keep your fantasy sports platform in parallel."

I agree also that this is in no way related with how much you believe in yourself.

This thread about a paper called "Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Using Wage Earnings to Support a New Business" might help: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8269808

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Re:Ask HN: Is it time to give up, or is it time to push on? by Curll on Monday November 24, 2014 @02:25PM (#8654180)

Thanks, Thomas. Certainly need to get paid one way or another, and the holidays aren't conducive to being productive.

I started pinging folks who may have job leads.

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