A) to encourage consideration, discussion, and implementation of some of our Thoughts & Theories / Improvement Ideas (both below and from ReThinkingStartups.com)...

B) to attract entrepreneurs interested in working on PART-time "Starter Startups" based on some of the principles and premises below... 

NOTE: Many will disagree with our "part-time startup" ideas - and that's totally fine! There are NO ideas or strategies (including ours!) that are right for ALL types of startups or ALL types of entrepreneurs! 

My favorite illustration of that is:

PREMISES:  We believe, that FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF STARTUPS and FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURS, the following should at least be considered:

We all love those startup success stories of entrepreneurs who “risked it all” and/or “left the security of a well-paying job” to pursue their startup dreams. HOWEVER... 
A) those successes are the OUTLIERS, the rare exceptions
B) you rarely hear about the MAJORITY of instances where that decision (made prematurely) leads to unnecessary pressure/stress/depression and/or prematurely running out of money and/or giving up on that startup dream!

• I believe some of the "must be ALL-IN" mindset and rhetoric stems from a time (fairly recently!) before the cloud and countless startup resources that now allow you to do things in a matter of hours or days that not-too-long-ago would have taken weeks or months - thus allowing you to now build MVPs much faster, cheaper, and (in my opinion) even in a part-time capacity!
  
  
• Yes, when you get to a point where you’re taking significant funding, the investors' expectation is likely that you be full-time on that particular startup. But I'm talking about way before that point — when you're in the pre-funding / pre-revenue / pre-traction / Idea Stage.
  
  
• Yes, it would likely be difficult to scale a business into a multi-million dollar company with part-time founders and part-time employees; HOWEVER, and this is important: You don't HAVE a business to scale yet!  Why not cross that bridge when/if you come to it? Because if you make decisions now (to go ALL IN, full-time) based on what is theoretically best for a theoretical company, a year or more down a theoretical road when/if you actually have a business to grow and scale, then you're making decisions based on something that statistically has a ~99% chance of never happening either way!

 

Whether “Multiple Basket Startups” are in addition to a “real job” or as a 2nd startup (perhaps embracing our StartupsWithinStartups.com ideas!), we believe that putting “Multiple Eggs In Multiple Baskets” shouldn’t implicitly indicate a lack of commitment or belief in a startup; it simply acknowledges a few tough/practical realities:
A) >95% of startups will fail 
B) startups are difficult enough without the added stress of “How long can I keep the lights on? And/or, how will I pay my rent/mortgage?”

NOTE: Some of us can obviously multi-task more effectively than others. And some of us enjoy variety more than others. But, whether we realize it or not, we ALL have plenty of experience dividing our time and focusing our efforts in multiple directions. Because it wasn’t too long ago that we were all required to do it regularly...

Is the startup a product or service where "first to market" is crucial? If not, then yes, you CAN likely do it part-time (sacrificing weekends and nights?) with minimal (if any) effect on your likelihood of success. Let's say that full-time (40 hours? 50 hours?) would get you launched in 3 months; then half-time (20 hours? 25 hours?) would get you launched in 6 months. Not AS fast, but likely still fast enough to not be a deal-breaker - plus you've still got the security/income of your other full time job!

P.S.  TRUE STORY:

Ideally, many of our part-time "Multiple Basket Startups" co-founders will already be established experts in certain areas (having already spent time learning on the dime of their full-time job) so they'll be much faster and more efficient! 

   [NOTE: Do you remember how slow you were the FIRST time you set up a website, learned Google Analytics and SEO, ran digital marketing campaigns, figured out social media strategies and/or learned ANYTHING via trial & error or A/B testing? We are seeking people who already DO this stuff full time - so, in many cases, they can manage a second (or third?!) product/website/whatever in a fraction of the time as a first-timer!]

(And, yes, all 5 are really f***ing difficult to achieve! Nobody ever said startups were easy!)

1. Product-Market Fit (with PROOF - not just based on YOUR personal assumptions)
2. Viral Traction / Growth
3. A Repeatable Customer-Acquisition Model
4. Profitability (or at least steady/growing Revenue)
5. Funding
(And, yes, 1-4 are often what it takes to even make Funding a realistic possibility) 

COMING SOON: The announcement of MANY new Atlanta-based “Starter Startups” (and how you can get involved — from Interns and Influencers to Designers, Developers, Digital Marketers, Social Media & Project Managers to CEOs, COOs, CTOs and Co-Founders!)  

CONTACT US! (or info@StartupWhatever.com)