Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

StartUp Britain is a nice idea and anything that spreads the word about entrepreneurship and the benefits it can provide isn't entirely bad.

However, advising people to check out patents, design logos, get stationery, rent an office, and so forth before actually proving the business model works by selling something is crazy. It's just "busy work" that wannabe entrepreneurs can do that costs they money and makes them feel like they're making progress. They shouldn't be doing this stuff - they should be making the first sale and figuring out how to repeat it if it happens.

Branson - one of the names on this project - never did any of this busy work. His first business - a student magazine - started with him calling people from a callbox selling advertising to a magazine that didn't even exist yet. His airline began when he got stuck in the Caribbean, chartered a plane to get him out of there, and he decided to sell tickets to the other stranded holidaymakers to cover his costs. You're not seeing anything like that in this campaign..




Absolutely true and good advice. In particular renting an office is spectacularly bad advice for someone who has no income coming in yet from product and service sales.


Reminds me of when I co-founded a University spin-out in the UK during 90s - the only offer of help we got was an offer to lease us a building!




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: