Item — HN Reader

When I was 25 years old I made the plan to move to SF, find a technical cofounder and start a fast growth company.

5 years later I achieved that goal.

My plan was nowhere near the detail of this but there were steps along the way. Things changed a lot, and not everything was done in the order I originally planned.

With that said, having a clear vision of where I wanted to be and loosely how I was going to get there meant that I could turn down opportunities that may have led me astray, or which didn't further my career/life goals.

YMMV.

4 comments

I've always wondered about this, how do people just "decide" to start a company for the sake of itself. I've always though that companies are kinda grown organically, i.e. you have a problem you want/need to solve and it turns out to be also commercially viable.

I have projects like that, i.e. have been scratching my own itch. Sadly none of them have taken off financially or otherwise despite the great effort.

If I had to start a business/project just for "fast growth" I'd be totally clueless how to ago about it?

Is it just about picking the "hottest shit" whatever that is at the moment and trying to ride that wave?

I know some serial entrepreneurs who do decide to just "start" a company. They usually start with fairly broad research, looking into a lot of different industries, and then when they hear the whiff of an interesting problem dive really deeply into it.

However, doing so requires strong entrepreneurial insights. I don't recommend it for first-time founders, as starting a company for the sake of starting a company is often a recipe for building something nobody wants.

"having a clear vision of where I wanted to be and loosely how I was going to get there meant that I could turn down opportunities that may have led me astray"

absolutely crucial advice right dere. distractions can be dream destroying(or enlightening or both)

The key is not to detail your life in minute details. It'll never hold anyway. But having a (long term) goal (starting a company, become viable, sell, ect.) and then actively plan to work towards it. If you want to retire at the age of 50, then work towards that. If you want to climb the 7 tallest mountains, then work towards that. As long as you get a little bit closer to your goal every week, you on the right track.

Care to share some details about how your business is doing today? Are you profitable?

From his profile on twitter (his handle is on his HN profile) http://neddwyer.com/

I'm assuming he was referring to

> My last startup was Elto, a marketplace to connect small business owners to freelance web designers. Elto was acquired by GoDaddy in 2015.