huntergdavis's comments

huntergdavis | 15 years ago | on: Tell HN: I quit my job to bootstrap my startup by myself.

Hey Chris,

Good luck! I know where you are coming from. Normally I'd suggest you read my book on the topic (LFF - free on www.hunterdavis.com), but it sounds like you're already over the first hump (saving for the startup). I'm 29, and last June along with a co-founder quit my 9-5 to start www.discursivelabs.com. We've got some upcoming products and some sites in active beta. The best three pieces of advice I would give you:

1. Be open to contracts when they come up. Seriously, just being open to the possibility of contract work and attending appropriate trade shows can get you through the lean times. 2. Betas. Always beta, beta often. Don't rush to go public with your beta. We've gotten so much valuable insight into our product from our beta testers It's staggering the difference in quality feedback between 100 motivated private beta testers and 10000 mediocre public ones. 3. Build your word of mouth with useful information and verify it exists with site analytics. I was lucky in that I had a fairly active community of programmers and hackers reading my personal website, but I had a fairly good number of folks email after a good StackExchange reply I posted. People appreciate useful information, and it's a good chance to mention your product.

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