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Episode Date: December 18, 2014
https://youtu.be/ViVpMQLneQc
One of the toughest realities you'll face as an entrepreneur is the cost of business. You need to prove you can deploy resources intelligently to gain the trust of valuable investors and employees. It's just like the Zombie Apocalypse ... you can't waste bullets! In this "Startup Basics" Jason spells out the cold hard facts and gives up the red hot tips. So listen and learn: How to save money running your startup.
Top Insights
- Be cheap.
- Save money.
- Put the money you save back into your product.
- Do more with less. This is important because a founder is given limited resources that must be deployed in a competitive world.
- You are in a race that is unfair and brutal. You need resources. You have to prove, as an entrepreneur, that you know how to deploy resources intelligently so the people with the resources will feel confident that the money they give you will be well spent.
- Don't rush to get unnecessary office space. Never sign a lease in your first year of business. You should just rent a desk for a couple of hundred dollars per month.
The Launch company does ~$3m of revenue and we work out of WeWork because we spend only $6500/month. It's a controlled cost. We're only spending $75k/year on our office space. - Jason (circa 2014.)
- When you can afford an office and need one, get the cheapest possible office space where you can work properly. You don't deserve any high-class setting — yet. Act like a startup. If you get a big fancy office space, it will set the tone completely wrong for your startup.
People start thinking "Ah! We have this great space, now we can all start spending money like idiots." - Jason
- Get cheap desks but expensive chairs. Amazon had desks made out of doors. Your desk does not matter. Your chair does. Go buy some used Aeron chairs, if you can afford them. You may be able to find some for a couple of hundred dollars. People have to sit in their chairs all day, so it's worth it but it's not necessary. Do as much as you can to save money.