Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/businesses? HN is often filled with success stories, which can give a false representation of the overall success that people are having. Instead of your biggest success, what is your biggest failure? How much did you lose? How did you rebound (if applicable)? |
Kind of like needing a cosigner when you get that first car.
I'm a big proponent of being open about finances and the financial struggle of doing startups - especially when you have kids and one stay at home parent in my case.
Loss of salary for 1 year, 2 months
Does not include loss of 401k match or ESPP
-$140,000
Successful Kickstarter @ $25k
+$20,000
8 week contracting project @ 20hrs / week
+$16,000
Living expenses for 14 months (savings/stocks)
-$70,000
Post funding difference in salary from market rate
-$50,000 (year 1)
-$40,000 (year 2)
My wife randomly reminds me what started off as a 3 month experiment has turned into a 3 year "adventure". She's not adventurous though :).
Good luck with your startup!
But I think you're right that it's money which would have been spent.
When I heard the 64k figure I nearly had a heart attack! Jiminy Jillikers thats a lot of money.
Then I started a cheap jewelry retail website. I did small and invested only $800 for inventory. The site ran on Magento and cheap PHP hosting like $7/mo. I got literally zero sales after 8 months. I went down San Fran Piers and saw they were selling same thing for cheap. Doh! I gave up the business and put away all inventory, which wasn't much. However, the time spent on taking photos and upload hundreds of $2 products was all wasted. It's plain stupid.
The real killer is the time, not the $s out of pocket. My estimated hourly rate varies a lot based on what I'm doing - but it would lead to a significant increase if included.