I'm working full time, 60hrs a week, taking two MBA courses a semester and still finding time to work on my startup. I know there's going to be a lot of people who disagree with this, but as much as I would like to drop everything and get hack-crazy, I don't for three reasons:
1.)I have expenses that need to be paid. My current savings could get me through maybe 5 months? and then what?
2.) I like knowing I have a backup plan. I think its what, 5% of business launched that succeed? Despite working my way through the other 95% of fails already, having an incredibly solid business plan, and (for the first-time)a passion for the product; its still nice to know I can provide for myself and my family.
3.) This is the big one... I need money for my business!. II can hire faster, advertise easier. How's a little guy to compete with the big boys without a hefty budget applied to smart marketing!
With all that said, I have considered dropping my hours, or my job entirely, but why take the risk? there's nobody in my space. There's no rush! Why take a risk of losing everything, when there's no risk of losing your idea to someone else.
I'm in a similar situation to you, I work 40 hour weeks, maintain a demanding relationship with my girlfriend, freelance in my spare time and still fit in a couple of hours a night for my private projects.
More needs to be discussed about this group of entrepreneurs. So much emphasis is put on the full time, no-expenses-or-responsibilities-whatsoever early to mid 20s male entrepreneur s, but I think there are probably a lot more entrepreneurs like you guys.
I think I can survive with what I have got for the next 1 year so I can focus on my startup. Yes, it's that little hope that keeps me focused and motivated too. But, I believe that it is worth putting more effort in the product development and worry less about marketing cost at this early stage. Anyway, how hard I try I cannot compete with big boys in marketing!
Site looks good, but you might want to hold off "launching" until you've got a few more themes up there. As is, I'm assuming the HN audience is your desired customer base? First impressions are big, and if everyone sees a barren wasteland of a themes market, you're probably not going to be first on their mind when they're looking to spend money. My suggestion is to find as many bootstrap developers as you can, let them know about your site and it's payout split. Try relaunching with 20+ themes. Keep up the good work!
I completely agree. Finding just one theme on there was really disappointing. At least make a dozen or so yourself and post them up there if you can't find anyone else that wants to be one of the first posters.
Looks like it could be entertaining! The video was well produced, but I would suggest shortening it and showing some actual gameplay on the homepage. 30-45 seconds tops. The rest of it looks like cutscenes from throughout the game and doesn't really tell you what you get if you download it. Good Luck!
Thanks, good suggestions. We just have the current "teaser" trailer we used to announce, but now we're out, we'd definitely benefit from a more straight up gameplay-oriented trailer.
Just thought it was a cool idea. We've seen a lot of augmented reality used in advertisements and smartphone games, but not really to this effect. With the CTO of Pixar as its founder, i think they might be able to do some pretty interesting things - think games & movies with, and stories told by your favorite toys.
P.S. - I tried to downplay the title when posting to be a little more realistic re: the mindblowing, but it got changed back on me.
1.)I have expenses that need to be paid. My current savings could get me through maybe 5 months? and then what? 2.) I like knowing I have a backup plan. I think its what, 5% of business launched that succeed? Despite working my way through the other 95% of fails already, having an incredibly solid business plan, and (for the first-time)a passion for the product; its still nice to know I can provide for myself and my family. 3.) This is the big one... I need money for my business!. II can hire faster, advertise easier. How's a little guy to compete with the big boys without a hefty budget applied to smart marketing!
With all that said, I have considered dropping my hours, or my job entirely, but why take the risk? there's nobody in my space. There's no rush! Why take a risk of losing everything, when there's no risk of losing your idea to someone else.