Three years of entrepreneurship from a programmer's point of view

absrtact: in the three years of entrepreneurship as co-founder, although holding everyone's equal shares, I always have no say, but this also gives me from the perspective of the observer to see the whole situation opportunity. The success or failure of a start-up company depends largely on the technology Daniel and the company Leader, who are better able to complement each other in character, and unfortunately our company is the same person.

about deciding whether to start a business

April 2012, exactly three years ago, in Shenzhen Energy is mixed in the melancholy of the time, the university's good brothers find me together to start a business, they have money, there is idea, is the policeman, then I or technical rookie, this science is not a computer, watching the mobile internet booming development envy unceasingly. Soon agreed to work together, because in the mind even if the entrepreneurial failure, that also learned the technology, but also do not worry about looking for work. Now I think it is too reckless, I want to hold the idea of programmers never stop me, everyone's living conditions and family background is different, right and wrong to judge by yourself.

? about how shares are allocated

Successful companies are mostly similar, and failed startups are most likely due to an unreasonable equity distribution, with our core team members starting with four people, and team Leader's opinion on the issue of share allocation is a four-person average, in exchange for his mastery of the company's voice. At that time, we all expressed the objection, the fierce quarrel for a few days, who can not persuade who, finally nothing, this also for the subsequent disintegration buried the foreshadowing. Imagine, if you are really cool, everyone to your service you are not finished, and why use shares in exchange for decision-making power. What is the disadvantage of share split between the different abilities? Entrepreneurship is a long process, everyone will pay the time, energy and cost must be different. If you do not set up a floating allocation mechanism, then the problem comes, holding One-fourth shares of the team Leader feel too tired, hands, the heart imbalance began inside the fight, because I was relatively "obedient and capable", he has squeezed away all the core team members, but left me. on how to scientifically distribute the shares between the founders ' teams and how many stock options pools are used to motivate employees, I do not analyze here, I only talk about my experience, can learn anything, it depends on you.

on the question of financing

?   Most start-ups are hard to get the money for Angels and venture capital, how to start a business, their own money, crowdfunding, outsourcing ... This is eight Immortals crossing recount thing, our company is more fortunate, this must admit. Team Leader in the software industry for more than more than 10 years, some connections and resources, from the inception of the Angel and VCs willing to provide a large number of start-up funds, and then I returned from Shenzhen to Wuhan, also brought a deep venture angel. Unfortunately, these investors were all rejected by Team Leader, on the grounds that there was no shortage of money.

Yes, until I left now, the company is not short of money, but the need for more people to meet the icing on the cake, until the time needed to find the angel and the Wind is late, either forced to sign the Shichong, or forced to come up with a large number of shares. With money to provide a better office environment, better treatment to attract good employees and so on the benefits do not need to repeat, and the investor's energy is often far more than this, he can stand in different angles and heights to see the problem, he is also for you to fight for greater risk of capital to join the pioneers and intermediaries. In other words, you take an angel and the wind to invest a penny, it is equivalent to reduce the potential competitor a penny, so do not need money when you must take more money. Don't be reluctant to sell a bit of your stake, when the business is not successful, you hold 100% of the shares are waste paper.

About the product is to achieve the ultimate, or fast iteration, or at the same time to do multiple products

        ? The first product is a full-platform commercial video conferencing system, is a departure from the trend of the era of products, I do not know why he has such a decision. Maybe at that time Team Leader so understand, the whole country is in full swing App development, we do the opposite, so there is no competitor. But when the rapid prototype came out, basically no one to talk to us, whether it is investors or customers, because this thing is too lame, and server-side development and operating costs are staggering, is not the general start-up companies can bear the project has not officially launched on the stranded, no serious market research, Without the technical and economic feasibility of research, and even the needs of potential customers have not consulted, so blindly to do a half-yearly development, now want to think simply incredible.

The Second product is Google Reader? Announced the idea of the birth after the closure, can be understood as standing in the Internet tuyere, looking around the world almost no big competitor, because the RSS information and literature audience users relatively small and refined, there are a number of loyal fans, but the big companies just don't see, is suitable for small companies a show director, investors are particularly pro-gaze. This is an excellent opportunity for people and, who can launch products as soon as possible, can be as gangbusters as the market, the results of the Team Leader has always been to achieve the ultimate attitude, write the first generation of product code, version control has been envisaged to the fifth generation how to update and expand, Again again the increase function, he responsible for the development of the client delayed delivery, the final product is the ultimate, but missed the best time to shelves, and what is the use?

In fact, for the start-up, which model has a successful example, but are not mechanically, who can not be sure of their product strategy and the point is correct, these need a lot of exploration and verification, when found to go the wrong way, must have the courage of the broken wrist resolutely cut off the wrong function or product. I am not a product person, there is no flashy, messy ideas, I only agree with the most secure, the most probability of success in the way. Focus on a product, as soon as possible to the market, and then based on the feedback of a small number of users, modify the service or add functionality, and finally the use of funds and contacts to do a big marketing and promotion, this is my most recognized way.

about how? Select developer and Technology

This is what most entrepreneurs will not say, we all love to say that there is no problem, people say that I particularly dislike, human civilization and cultural development has been more than 5,000 years, how fast, efficient, economical and safe to achieve a project is an art, not the light of learning can be, Are scientists at work on engineering projects stalled today? Implementation is exactly the biggest problem.

Our Team Leader the technical Daniel, from the artist's birth to the Adobe Flex series programmer, is a full stack programmer, proficient in software design and architecture, these are the advantages. The main shortcomings are two, one is paranoid, the second is to be complacent, but also is amid the main need fans of the common problem, I just talk about things, not to provoke the war between scold or programming language, if offended please forgive. Adobe has been decadent in the programming world in recent years, and Flex is already obsolete, and Team Leader insists on using the Air virtual machine + AS3 + MXML + CSS mode development client for familiarity and cross-platform. I admit that it costs money to go to other platforms, but the performance of the early Air VMs is just awful, even today it's far less than the Java virtual machine, not to mention the performance of the Native App compared to Mono or V8 engines. Worst of all, Adobe does not open source code, throw a half-dead Air virtual machine out, the subsequent optimization and update is very slow, slightly more complex features to rewrite the code itself, greatly increased the development tasks, coupled with Team Leader for the high standards of products and strict requirements, It is to make the code volume in a geometric increase, worse.

Here we have to cite an example, due to the development of the client has been dragging the progress of our server-side development team and designers even time out to do several outsourced HTML5 website and games. When the product shelves, the whole team is very lax.

Summary

Three years of entrepreneurship time said not long, said short not short, life can have such an experience is also valuable. Today's success or failure is more than just a person, and the whole team, including the investors, is responsible. It is best not to let the Leader side do the technology, while the management, people's ability and energy is limited. If Leader is in the right direction, and you follow it relentlessly, you are on the road to success. Insist on learning, and investors good relations, from the failure of the previous project to nurture the success of the next product, to luck, but also to strength.

Three years of entrepreneurship from a programmer's point of view