Just found about your blog. Great job and you are a great inspiration.
This is a personal question and I hope you don't mind. Do you have kids? How do you manage risk, especially financial risk of startup?
No, I don't have any kids. I think it would be much harder to follow the path I did if I'd had children to support.
I've been thinking about risk a lot in the past year. I used to feel like I had this safety net of getting a job in big tech again if the founder thing didn't work out. When all the layoffs and hiring freezes began, I realized that my safety net may have disappeared.
It's scary to lose the safety net, but at the same time, I felt grateful that I've had the last six years to practice earning money without an employer. If I had been laid off, I'd be in a terrible position of competing against thousands of other recently laid off employees who are all desperate for work. If TinyPilot were to fold, I don't think I'm guaranteed another successful business, but I feel like I'm more likely to build a profitable business than to get a job as a developer in a poor tech economy.
If you or someone from this community with successful background are willing to mentor our startup, we will give meaningful equity and mutually agreed compensation.
We are struggling to find ICP. We built an MVP but interest has faded away from early customers. We know problem exists because large players are solving it. Either our message and who we are reaching out for sales is wrong or our product approach is wrong.
We need guidance. Email in profile if you are interested in mentoring us.
