When should you start a startup?

Good post. I did my first startup straight out of college, which was great for a couple of reasons.<p>- I was used to living off very little. I didn't develop expensive tastes fueled by a regular paycheck. It helped that I could live at home while bootstrapping. My opportunity cost was getting an entry level job somewhere for decent pay.<p>- I was used to managing my own time and being disciplined about work schedules. This was helped by attending university in the UK where we had 6 hours' obligatory classes per week or less. The rest was optional lectures and self study time.

I think the author misses the major argument, which is "I have to make rent". Most startups never get to the point of making a profit.<p>This is why now isn't generally a good time to start a company (unless you are able to raise substantial investment). Now is a great time to get a job at a funded startup, save money, learn skills, make friends - once the bubble pops you'd have the basic ingredients to start your own thing (and - possibly - without a job anyway, so have nothing to lose)

&#62;As you age, you naturally accumulate things that will make &#62;it harder for you to start your startup: a spouse, kids, &#62;aging parents who need care, an expensive lifestyle, a &#62;career, respectability.<p>I have to say I completely agree with this. I'm only 31 and finding it hard to take on much risk given the fact that my family relies on my income very heavily. This leaves me trying to spend time in the evenings and weekends to work a B2B SaaS product idea that I have. I've thought about paying another developer to write it, but it's an app that's targeted towards the IT Services/Managed Services industry and writing it requires some background knowledge of that industry.

So true. To all of the people who think you will learn something at a big company, how many of you have founded a startup? Did the processes that you learned at a big company help you run that startup?<p>One of the reasons I decided not to pursue my idea for a Dropbox-like system in 2002 was because I thought I would actually learn something if I took a job at a profitable web commerce company. (See <a href="http://erickennedy.org/great-idea-before-Dropbox" rel="nofollow">http://erickennedy.org/great-idea-before-Dropbox</a> the full story.)<p>The only thing I learned at Expedia.com was how hard it is for publicly-traded companies to innovate if it has any threat on their existing business model. They were unwilling to allow their customers to write hotel reviews because they feared it would anger hotel suppliers. They paid advertising to TripAdvisor as it grew that business and only later acquired it. It was pointless innovate within Expedia -- even the CEO (Rich Barton) couldn't get the teams to add reviews.<p>Worse, I bought a condo and a car with debt at Expedia and no longer had the flexiblity to bootstrap a startup. Don't make that mistake. It's fine if you're working at a big company to build up a cushion to start your business, but don't believe that their processes are right for a startup.

&#62; You don't want to start a startup.<p>I'd like to add "enough" to the end of this option: You don't want to start a startup <i>enough</i>. That's because starting one is just one of your many options--perhaps your current job is paying you a very comfortable salary. You have to compare starting a startup to your best alternative (opportunity cost), and see if you want it <i>enough</i> to justify giving up that alternative.

Excellent point. It's worth noting that there are a substantial group of people who say they want to do something but never find the time. Writer John Scalzi has an excellent response to that: <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/09/16/writing-find-the-time-or-dont/" rel="nofollow">http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/09/16/writing-find-the-time-...</a>

I know OP means well, but there's one piece of advice that's exactly the opposite of my experience.<p>First he says:<p><i>There is very little you will learn in your current job...that will make you better at starting your own startup.</i><p>Then:<p><i>Good ideas only come through trial and error.</i><p>Both are terrible advice.<p>There is a whole universe of things you can learn in your current job: technique, experience, exposure to different ideas (in practice, not in theory), how to manage projects, how to deal with people, what to look out for in real world situations, and the two most important things: what NOT to do and what people need.<p>I can think of no better way to get good actionable ideas for a startup than from one's job.<p>And for many aspiring entrepreneurs, having a job and learning a few of these things is the single biggest missing piece in their bag of personal assets.<p>If you have a great idea and the wherewithal to start a business, then by all means go for it when you're ready. In the meantime, there's nothing wrong with having a job; it's probably the best thing you could be doing until you're ready.

An even better question would be 'what are you willing to give up to start a startup?'.<p>On most measures (experience, contacts, etc) you're better waiting a few years before starting. The trick is that people tend to accumulate personal and financial obligations during that time that make a startup a much bigger sacrifice. If you end up on the spouse-&#62;house-&#62;kids-&#62;midlife-crisis-at-45 track before starting, you'll have a very hard time changing direction.

I have had enough of people preaching startup advice.<p>When should you start a startup?<p>When the hell you want to.<p>You have a family, You have a mortgage, You have an aunt that left you $1M, You have no left arm, You are dyslexic, whatever.<p>Just start the damn company when you want to. At some point, stop wasting time on what other people think and think for yourself.

I agree with the debt reason. I personally want to make sure that if the ship goes down, I'm not stuck with inescapable student loans. Live cheaply, pay off your debts...then you have nothing holding you down from doing what you want!