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Ask HN: What do you do when too many people want to “help” your startup?

by workerdee on 5/31/15, 3:38 PM with 7 comments

Some background: I am bootstrapping a startup by working part-time at a few jobs. This isn't going as quickly as I would like, but it is what it is. (I have obligations that I'm unable to blow-off to launch it full-time.) I haven't even told that many people about it - just those that ask what I'm doing in my "free" time - and am not advertising it.

The problem is that everyone is offering their help (literally every. single. person. who finds out about it). I don't talk about it anymore, and won't until it's ready. I would actually like to keep my personal life separate from my business life as much as I can. In three different instances, I have witnessed businesses (and money) destroy lives in my own family, so this hits home. Also, and I'm not sure how to put this tactfully, even though I think the people offering to help feel like they would be doing me a favor (and this is definitely true in some regard), I am not a fan of their work ethic, among other things. They may have an inkling as to how obsessive I am, but working together would be a problem.

Has anyone else had this conflict? And if so, what did you decide and what happened? Am I being short-sighted by ignoring help?

Thanks!

  • by narrowrail on 5/31/15, 4:37 PM

    Meta: Many Ask HN's annoy me to no end (like yesterday). Yours, however, does not (unlike smt88).

    Personally, I don't think you will be able to build a business all by yourself, so I think it's in your best interest to think about the type of person (or people) you will need to generate a profit in your company's future.

    For the people offering to help that you feel will not bring anything to the table, just say what you did here (i.e. "I'm a bit too obsessive about this project and feel it would hurt our relationship in the long-run."). Or, that your project is still too immature to add anyone at this point.

    I wouldn't worry about such things at this point, just focus on launching and validating your project ASAP.

  • by jtfairbank on 6/1/15, 1:50 AM

    Tell them thanks for the offer, what is your background, I'll reach out to you if we have a problem in that area? That way you're polite, but they'll stay out of your way until you need them?

  • by smt88 on 5/31/15, 4:02 PM

    I've always been really nice and positive to people on HN, but this tipped me over the edge for many reasons. You're whining about people offering to help you!

    You will eventually need people to help you to succeed. Even if these aren't the right people, they're expressing confidence in you and interest in your product. These could be early evangelists, but at the very least, they're just nice people in your life. Shut up and stop complaining about them.