Founders Questions


2 Votes
3 Answers
3.34K Views
How can a non-engineer founder know if the developer they hired is any good?

I'm a non-technical founder who is hiring my first employee, a Ruby on Rails engineer. While I'm great at execution on the business end, I'm clueless when it comes to the actual tech that my...

asked Jun 12 '15 at 00:11
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Mary Gould
12 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
3.99K Views
How to fire my co-founder who has nothing to do with the start up any more?

I started my company from scratch and found a technical co-founder to build my product. So I managed to hustle in order to find this guy, who was working in a company. He started working for me...

asked Aug 30 '14 at 10:43
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User34129
1 point

4 Votes
1 Answers
3.45K Views
What's the worst failure you had in business and what did you learn from it?

What's the biggest failure you had while building a startup and what was the take away?

asked Jun 16 '14 at 21:25
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Verdell Smith
22 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
3.11K Views
Startups and anxiety: how do solo founders motivate themselves when things don't go according to plan?

Almost no one gets to realize their metrics of success when they launch their startup. It's a long, arduous journey which no one anticipates until they launch their product, only to find that...

asked Jul 9 '14 at 15:58
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Robert Pankratz
11 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
3.03K Views
Should you create a standardized recruitment process for a new startup?

I'm the business co-founder in our startup and creating processes to keep things running smoothly and being able to focus on sales.Should startups have a process in the place for hiring? If so,...

asked Jul 21 '14 at 15:03
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Ralph Setzer
9 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
3.25K Views
What are the skills that a solo co-founder must learn and balance between?

I'm currently a purely technical founder who is working on a SaaS application.What kind of skills should I also be learning on the side to become a better solo founder and make my startup a...

asked Jul 25 '14 at 20:27
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Lois Cooper
7 points

3 Votes
2 Answers
3.31K Views
How to get over "redesign entire app" or "recode from scratch" syndrome?

As a founder of a few apps, I always get caught up in redesigning or recoding an entire app from scratch.Sometimes it's because I'm not satisfied with the first iteration (or have been staring at...

asked Aug 29 '14 at 15:29
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David Ponder
17 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
4.13K Views
Should I stand firm to be CEO?

Between me and my 5 other co-founders, we are deciding who will hold the CEO position. It has come down to me and another founder. I was told from one of my other founders that they thought I...

asked Sep 19 '14 at 19:25
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User34135
11 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
2.98K Views
How to raise money if you don't have a network or went to an ivy league school?

It turns out that most new founders that get seed funded usually get their foot in the VC door via: Recommended by someone Worked at a well known company like Google or FB Went to an ivy league...

asked May 19 '15 at 21:14
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Juan Bourg
11 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
2.42K Views
How to overcome being an introvert as a new startup founder?

I am an engineer turned founder who is having a tough time coming out of my introverted shell. It's a barrier that I'm trying to overcome in order to finally hire my first employee and possibly...

asked May 20 '15 at 15:42
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Morgan Skeen
11 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
2.41K Views
What is the most critical decision your made in your startup?

What's the most challenging problem you faced in your business and had to make a critical decision?Mine was accepting that our niche wasn't big enough (due to lack of due diligence done before...

asked Jun 14 '15 at 15:11
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Melvin Jordan
51 points

7 Votes
8 Answers
18.3K Views
Investor wants 51% shares of our company

We are five engineering students, going to start up a company. As there are many competitor companies in the market, we were looking for an investor to start very big. Fortunately, we found an...

asked Aug 7 '12 at 01:00
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Akshat Nigam
50 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
3.11K Views
How are you able to cope with working 60 to 80+ hours a week on your startup?

What are some ways to cope with working long hours 7 days a week on your startup? I have been working day and night for the last 3 months and it has taken a hefty toll on my health and well being.I...

asked Jul 17 '14 at 13:56
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Sheldon Echols
11 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
2.99K Views
Most common mistakes first-time founders make?

For bootstrapped startups, what are the most common mistakes that "newbie" founders make?

asked Jun 4 '14 at 14:11
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Phillip Anderson
6 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
2.36K Views
Could funded startup founders work normal hours?

I am looking to raise our first round of capital from angels. My question might seem like I'm not fully invested in my startup, but I am. With a family at home, my days of working 80+ hours a week...

asked May 29 '14 at 16:33
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Thomas Dunham
12 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
3.38K Views
Founders: how to prevent getting fired by the board after raising a few rounds of financing (with dilution of your ownership)?

Once you raise a few rounds of capital, your equity ownership most likely gets diluted to a minority stake. There is nothing that stops the board from firing the founder at this point. How do you...

asked May 27 '14 at 23:13
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Joshua Propp
11 points

3 Votes
2 Answers
2.82K Views
Process to let go of an employee?

We made a hiring mistake and need to terminate an employee. It's one of the hardest things I've come across as this will be a first. What the best way to gently let go of someone who isn't the...

asked May 25 '14 at 20:43
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Dorothy Taylor
16 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
4.06K Views
Average salary of a seed stage funded founder?

Assuming a startup raised a round smaller than $500K, what should the founder's salary be? The startup is located in San Francisco, so the cost of living is pretty high. Would angel investors be...

asked May 22 '14 at 12:57
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Sylvia Rubio
12 points

2 Votes
3 Answers
4.26K Views
List all the tools you're using this week for your startup.

What are all the tools you are using for your startups this week? It's interesting to see what other founders are using, and a good way to discover new tools.Here are mine: Google...

asked May 12 '14 at 13:26
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Jeannie Smith
12 points

4 Votes
1 Answers
3.52K Views
How to avoid procrastination if you have no co-founder?

When you are a solo founder with no employees, what do you do to avoid procrastination and always be executing? I have tried blocking access to all time-wasting sites in my router. But how do you...

asked May 5 '14 at 13:20
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Latonya Schindler
21 points