Skip to content

Ask HN: What is an ex-corp. employee, turned entrepreneur supposed to do?

1 pointjpd7503 comments
On HN

HN, I don't know what is wrong with me.-Let me give you a brief look into the past few years: -June, 2012 : graduated college - IT major -July, 2012 : got a job 2 weeks after graduation - great pay, good benefits, GREAT people. Horrible position esp. hated the IT they were using, annoying mid-level management ... I hated not being listened to when i had something meaningful to contribute, not to mention 24/7 on-call and a meager raise (3%, but was prorated to 1.2% because i hadnt been there a year) Stayed there for 1.5 years.Nov 1 2013 : I had, had enough - voluntarily quit the position to start my own company in a field I hadnt formally worked in before, but learned a good amount at the previous position.Today (02/18/14) : Been at it since Nov 1, and for lack of a better word: its been real tough. The results: I've lacked a huge network with people who could help me (I've spent a lot of these past months networking within 50mi of my area making more contacts) -I've reached out to endless contacts I've known in the past (for intros to people who may be applicable first customers) - with varied results: - some have provided me some good leads to people to talk to, some just dont respond at all, some are wishy-washy saying they know the CEO at X large co and I'd be happy to make an intro (then I never hear anything back - after multiple followups) -I've done some cold emailing (via Linkedin) - people claiming they arent the right person, I reply back with apologies, can you lead me to the right person? Thank you. Nothing back..I'm just really at a loss, I told myself Nov 1 13' that I wouldn't be going back to a corporation if I could help myself. I've probably spent anywhere from 2.5-4k so far of my own money.What is a 25 year old to do?

Comments

1) Use paragraphs.

2) I can't tell if you have a product that you are trying to sell or even what the industry is you are targeting. I doubt you will get useful advice without specifics.

Whatever it is you haven't given it long yet (4 months?), what results were you expecting by this point?

You could start by telling people what exactly you are trying to do.

InfoSec startup primarily focused around webapps

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.