confusalyst

Most of the larger companies have offices in places like Singapore and China so can offer help there, and for reasonable premiums you can be completely covered for things like this (legal fees, collections, remediation, etc.).

I've never had a need, but some friends who run physical goods companies swear by it for reducing risk and, arguably more importantly, stress (big losses from complicated situations like this are almost entirely mitigated).

While I'm not looking for a change right now, I'll be in contact: this route sounds promising.

Don't worry, I have no such ideas of grandeur, only ambition. Although the lack of startup skills shouldn't be a barrier to starting a startup, right? After all, isn't that the best way to get the skills?

As for technical skills and tech startups: I agree, and this isn't strictly what I'm looking for, anyway. I have enough tech skills to hire a good programmer and to do every-day coding work after the initial core of a system is completed (by someone with better skills than me). Luckily, knowing this is an advantage: it puts me a step ahead of the people in my shoes who don't realise this.

That's great advice in terms of tech startups vs. tech-enabled startups. Thanks for that.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on roles such as 'advisor'? A friend of mine started a small tech company a few years ago and asked me for some advice. Having a good understanding in the theory (that's the CS degree doing its job) I could tell him what was needed and some possible issues... but I couldn't do it. That was enjoyable and worthwhile for all involved. I've no idea how to evolve that, though.

I am passionate about it and when the need arises I am able to get this across. I'll take your advice (and noahc's) and pitch what I can do, if only to get some feedback to iteratively improve myself and my skills for the future. Being a corporate generalist is an asset in some respects as there are things that I'm good at that are in demand. I need to work on identifying this and selling it, I guess.

'Bootstrapping Your Business', ordered.

For other stages I guess I'll need to expand on any sales-type work I do now while concentrating on my more general business skills.

My work is an almost perfect mix between what a business analyst and a systems analyst does, as defined in Wikipedia [1,2].

I spend 50% of my time speaking to people, 50% documenting and modelling requirements and systems. The people I speak to are either internal business strategists or external clients (large corporations). In my discussions with them I need to figure out their needs for new or existing systems and how this will be implemented.

To some this may sound boring, but I find it fascinating: the difficulty and enjoyment of the job increases exponentially with the complexity of the systems involved (perfect when you're in finance).

Anything else, just ask.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analyst [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_analyst

- Found: Expand on one of the ideas I have. Right now.

- Early-stage help: Continue on my current path, although look toward a short-term goal of project management or the like. This is a more marketable skill in early-stage startups than analysis.

There is a lot of competition in the area, but the products are all from bulky enterprise applications that are not quite suitable to the task.

Your comment has made me think that I should flesh this idea out a bit more and hire a decent programmer in the early days to lay some decent foundations to this idea.

"The systems analyst who can code is a better systems analyst because he can test/evaluate his ideas." This is something I have found from my personal experience and I'm glad I had that background. It truly has helped. Anyone reading this can count this as solid advice.

Moving into programmer/analyst territory is something I've considered only briefly and I'll look at it in greater detail. By brushing up on my dormant programming skills I guess the worst that'll happen is I'll become better at my current job. Never a bad thing.