holaamigos

I was a management accountant prior to starting my company - as non-tech as you could get.

I co-founded with an engineer, so it was always a clear cut - I did sales, marketing, finance, he did engineering, we both did product.

No huge issues, I rely on engineering, but I now rely on sales and marketing, and all the other functions.

I considered learning to code at the start, but really you need divide the tasks and stick with what you are good at.

>80% of start-up networking opportunities are in the valley

This is BS - if a company knows all the answers to these questions, then the company is not innovating. The hardest thing about innovation is finding out who else believes your vision. The assumption that a good business has answered all these questions is the assumption that this good business is not innovating. Revenue forecasting for new products is hard, and investors who add value to high risk start ups must recognize the risk in innovation. If you want answers to these questions, either insist on bullshit stories or invest in old school businesses. No risk = no return.

After we raised our series A, the new investor insisted we change our name. The old name kind of sucked. We discussed it as a team for months - it was a pure time-sink, never getting to agreement, so looked into hiring a naming agent - I thought it would be like $1000, a full day workshop, beanbags, hit the bong...... I contacted a namer and it was like $45k....WTF....$45k for a fucking name. I tried haggling, and she brought her fee down to $15k, but this would be for a list of 10 names.

Fuck that! I pushed through my favorite name and moved on.

Convertible debt sucks for angel investors, they are taking far more risk than the VCs but are only getting a 20 to 30 percent discount.

The most important thing about taking VC funding is the money. Its real money that you can spend now. We raised $3MM and this allows us to iterate on the product and the pitch and to get it right. Without funding, there would be no way that I could have done this business, with a wife and two kids, ramen is not feasible for dinner (more than twice a week anyway).

Its very bad comparison. A couple of problems: the comp is purely of retirement savings, however the college kid is spending more on consumption per year all through his life (not considered), also the assumption of 8% returns is unlikely.

Stay in college kids!

VC investment is great for founders, you can pay yourself a real wage (no more ramen), you can hire, and really make the company a success. Giving up 30% of the pie to have $5M in the bank is pretty good methinks. Sure, you may get kicked out, and / or the company may fail, but with some cash in the bank you are THE MAN for a couple of years.

So if google was around in WW2, and Himmler published a map of where all the Jews lived - you would support the publishing of this map?

This is more than "cultural sensitivies", Burakumin suffer from outright racism, they cannot get jobs, they cannot marry outside their group. Any informational support for this injustice does not get my support.

But the problem is that this is not purely a historical document, it is an ongoing rights issue. By publishing these maps on top of modern maps, Google is facilitating the racism against these people.

I have a meditation hack that works real well for me.

Imagine a sine wave, a real smooth one (or a circle, with a revolving point on the circumference). Breath as a sine wave, very slowly and gently reversing the direction of your breathing. Reverse so gently, that there is no clicking or jerking. It is actually quite hard and requires a lot of patience and focus. It is incredibly relaxing.... give it a try.

In contrast to the majority of the rest of the posts, I have found meditation to be very valuable to relieve work related stress.

Most start ups fail. With a prediction market, betting on failure is a good default option, even if you know little about the idea.

However, most startups require optimism and a belief that the team has stumbled upon the best sliced bread since the big bang. Having nay sayers betting on failure undermines this belief.

I have done both.

Doing an MBA is so different than starting a business.

With an MBA, there is no risk, its a fun, intellectual 2 year experience. Even better if you have a business education background, chill out, enjoy the networking.

Starting a company on the other hand is a grind, ups and down everyday.

My MBA gave me the business confidence that I knew pretty much everything that is teachable in business. However, be aware, only 20% or so of business is teachable, much is not yet understood, or dangerously subjective to be applicable to a particular situation.

Yeah - like you are going to refuse a pay rise?

I have yet to meet someone who does not want more. However, rationalizing that you are at the perfect pay now is a good strategy for happiness.

Bet your friends $500 that you can lose more than they can.

A morning after a booze and pizza filled night, my buddy and I were feeling particularly fat. So we placed a bet, the one who loses most will win a bet. He invited another fat friend. So three of us each put $500 into a envelope ($1,500 all in), and we had 6 weeks to lose as much as possible. We weighed in immediately (3 times each, taking the average, very anal about the details). 6 weeks later one had lost 8lbs, one 20lbs and I lost 23lbs (I was completely dehydrated!), but we were skinny and I was rich. It was the easiest way of losing weight ever.

The best ideas come to me when I am stoned. I have a set of huge white boards, I smoke a little then doodle. 95% is not worth much the next day, but some of the ways my mind drifts and connects is awesome.