kendrickwkm

I work in a small country in Asia on an early stage startup (raised seed), before starting this I was told to have a work-life balance. Go to work, spend 8-10 hours, come back and offload your mind for a few hours. I tried that for a few days, it was horrible.

I wake up at 6am for a morning run, do some meditation, get a quick breakfast and am in the office by 8am. Time moves too quickly (startup relativity?), the next thing I know it's 10pm and everyone has left the office, by 10/11pm i'm out the door, back home and asleep by 12. This is Mon-Sat.

On Sunday a few of my colleagues and I would find a cafe and work there from 10am-7pm then head for dinner or back home.

I haven't seen my bestfriend in 3 months, it didn't work out with my girlfriend because of the working hours and i've missed too many birthday parties to count.

It's not ideal but I found if I really wanted something, I have to be willing to give up something of equal importance to focus. If I could go back I wouldn't change anything about this.

Hey mate, are you based in London?

Damn, and here I thought being based in SEA provides for a veil of secrecy. Never thought we'd be out in the woodworks so early.

That's a good idea to reach out to others, I use 'The Mom Test' when validating customer problems - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mom-Test-customers-business/dp/1...

No. Don't do that. You'll be hearing more of us very soon :)

Hi lndn_dilemna,

I can see why you're having a hard time deciding whether to pursue this or not, it's shocking working for a few months and suddenly a competitor pops up and is going in the same direction as you.

It comes down to determination, if you are determined enough and believe your product is better, then, as hakanderyal said, look at Slack, they took the market by storm.

By the way, nice to meet you -- my name is Ken, I founded Shoppr.

BRING IT ON!