One thing I enjoy about helping with 1SS is that I get to experience the teachings of Professors Joshua Baer and Bob Metcalfe.  If I’m searching for some pearls of wisdom for a TechDrawl post I don’t have to look very far. 

Last Thursday Baer gave the class his list of ten reasons for starting a company today.  His talk was aimed at students and had a CS perspective, and I’m paraphrasing and annotating his thinking into a list for the broader TechDrawl readership.

If I started a company today, I would:

1. Pick a problem I have experienced and care deeply about.  Agreed, particularly if you are doing something that will hold your attention for the long run.  Caring deeply about something only to the extent of flipping it is not the same.

2. Find a co-founder, it's lonely, and it’s nice to share the load, not to mention the fact that if you can't find a cofounder, you must have some other problems.  Agreed, unless you personally happen to be good at nearly everything.

3. Don’t keep too many secrets; talk to lots of people; good things can happen; risk of idea theft is not all that great.  I really favor this approach.  One way to vet an idea is to discuss it in detail with domain experts before you start spending real money and creating real code.  That’s a form of “pre-cursor traction” that can be helpful to investors.

4. Outsource as much as possible – all the things where you don't add unique value; focus mindshare on things that matter.  Agreed on this too.  I’m more of a tech business builder, deal doer, and rainmaker, and I have to outsource technology and other skills to trusted partners.

5. Raise as little money as possible.  I concur that it is no fun raising money, but I’m not unwilling to tackle some bigger projects that require more capital.  That can be a competitive barrier and open some bigger opportunities.  

6. Get customers to pay in advance, even if they have to be sold on a vision instead of reality.  I have had great luck doing that in most of my ventures.  The best salespeople can sell vision.  Anybody can sell something that actually already works; where’s the challenge in that?

7. Build mobile first; makes you focus; captures the rising tide.  Goes without saying, particularly in Austin.

8. Buy no servers.  What are servers?

9. Build in Ruby on Rails; rapid, attracts good people, balance of elegance and practicality.  That’s CS talk; I defer to superior wisdom.

10. Take advantage of resources like 1SS and Y-Combinator where you can learn so much from others.  There’s no understating the value of working in collaboration with other startup entrepreneurs.  A corollary to this is that you have to be willing to locate yourself where this is possible.  There are no incubators, to my knowledge, in Hahira, GA, even though it’s a lovely town.  Go where the action is if you’re really serious about a startup.  If you have arrived at a station in life – kids, mortgage, community involvement, etc. – where you are not portable, this may not be the time for you to pursue your startup dream.

<image obviously from David Letterman show>