Sorry to say but this post really rubbed me the wrong way. Let me explain...
Her important headings for "doing a startup in your spare time":
- Managing tasks
- Sharing links
- Talking to other founders
- Emailing customers
- Blogging
- Weekly catch-ups
All of this stuff sounds nice, but face it, it's all fluff. We really need to talk about the elephant in the room, the single most important item in a part time startup: how to get stuff built. If you can't get it built in your spare time, none of this other stuff will matter.
Building anything of value tends to be difficult; doing it in your spare time is incredibly difficult. Here's why:
- In spite of you best efforts, you will be too tired after your day job.
- When you're "in the zone" you won't be able to work on your start-up. When your working on your start-up, you won't be able to get "into the zone".
- You won't have long enough blocks of time to get large chunks done.
- Your attention will more easily be diverted to other things (the day job).
- It takes so much longer to have a deliverable, you will lose momentum and interest and get easily distracted or drawn to something shinier.
So what should you do? 3 things, religiously:
1. Determine your "Big Fat What". Have a precise definition of exactly what you're going to build. That's right, you must write requirements to yourself. Following the path of least resistance simply won't work for a part-time start-up because you will never be able to sustain enough momentum. Writing requirements forces you to have better discipline and better plan, and it's also the kind of work that fits nicely into those 2 hour blocks of time you have during the week.
2. Determine your "Big Fat How". This is when you translate your requirements into technical specs. You know, program definitions and flows, page layouts, data base schemas, etc. Yes, again you will be writing specs to yourself. Steps 1 & 2 are kinda like linear algebra; you'll spend a lot of time doing seemingly mindless unnecessary steps to get to the where you really want to be...
3. Build it. You do this on weekends when you have large enough blocks of time to crank. But your capability to build will only be as good as your preparation. As you struggle with Step 3, you'll appreciate Steps 1 & 2 and get better at them. Then you'll be surprised at how much progress you can make building in your spare time.
Once you have something built (a true feat in any part-time start-up) then (and only then) do OP's suggestions come into play.
Ed, you have the power of experience, and your suggestions are all good.
But I can't figure out why you even bothered to comment about her posting. If you had to "educate" every startup hipster on what is wrong with their self aggrandizing blog posts, you would never have time to produce anything. Were you afraid other founders would take her musing as "law" and ruin their lives? I think the less attention these interruptions get, the better chance they will die out of pop culture, and more production can get done. I can't believe i'm wasting my time writing this.
Her important headings for "doing a startup in your spare time":
All of this stuff sounds nice, but face it, it's all fluff. We really need to talk about the elephant in the room, the single most important item in a part time startup: how to get stuff built. If you can't get it built in your spare time, none of this other stuff will matter.Building anything of value tends to be difficult; doing it in your spare time is incredibly difficult. Here's why:
- In spite of you best efforts, you will be too tired after your day job.
- When you're "in the zone" you won't be able to work on your start-up. When your working on your start-up, you won't be able to get "into the zone".
- You won't have long enough blocks of time to get large chunks done.
- Your attention will more easily be diverted to other things (the day job).
- It takes so much longer to have a deliverable, you will lose momentum and interest and get easily distracted or drawn to something shinier.
So what should you do? 3 things, religiously:
1. Determine your "Big Fat What". Have a precise definition of exactly what you're going to build. That's right, you must write requirements to yourself. Following the path of least resistance simply won't work for a part-time start-up because you will never be able to sustain enough momentum. Writing requirements forces you to have better discipline and better plan, and it's also the kind of work that fits nicely into those 2 hour blocks of time you have during the week.
2. Determine your "Big Fat How". This is when you translate your requirements into technical specs. You know, program definitions and flows, page layouts, data base schemas, etc. Yes, again you will be writing specs to yourself. Steps 1 & 2 are kinda like linear algebra; you'll spend a lot of time doing seemingly mindless unnecessary steps to get to the where you really want to be...
3. Build it. You do this on weekends when you have large enough blocks of time to crank. But your capability to build will only be as good as your preparation. As you struggle with Step 3, you'll appreciate Steps 1 & 2 and get better at them. Then you'll be surprised at how much progress you can make building in your spare time.
Once you have something built (a true feat in any part-time start-up) then (and only then) do OP's suggestions come into play.