Co-Founder is not a project

August 29, 2023

So in less than two weeks, I have learned something and am making another change in direction. No surprise there. 

Co-Founder

Finding a co-founder cannot be rushed and should not be treated like a project. My previous misconception:  “If I hit this thing hard for a few weeks, I’ll get it done.”

This shows how inexperienced I am in this start up thing. I have continued to meet more people, discuss ideas, and repeat. Finding a co-founder will need to switch gears into passively looking, it has consumed so much of my time. Resuming to actively build things. 

The good thing that came out of this exercise is that I felt less lonely. There are other people who are trying to build other things in the XR space and are ambitious, insightful, and work their butts off.

Funding

I changed my mind about funding. I used to think I wanted to raise money to hire several people, possibly more. From my past experience in working with small teams and large teams, my most impactful and fun time was in a small team. My ideal company composition will be 4-6 people, self funded equal split equity. Focus 100% on building awesome things and launch products rapidly.

First, I have to prove to myself that I can actually generate revenue from app sales. The rest of this year, no more demos. All small $5 games with 1-2 hour game play, hopefully it is enough to give me a signal of what people want. 

I want to see signals of market fit, even if it’s a faint signal… once I have that, then I will focus on getting that 4-6 people and building the large game/experience. 

The key is being default alive. The company can survive on its own without needing to seek funding.

SideQuest

For fellow XR dev, there is a fund for Indie XR dev and I have applied with my ninja trainer. I almost had another solo dev that I met on YC matching to join me on this project as a trial. We had a difference in vision for this game, so we decided not to work together after two very productive meetings. We asked hard questions, shared honest gut feeling, and worked on the dollar amount on the slides. 

https://vrscout.com/news/sidequest-creature-are-launching-a-1-million-indie-vr-fund/

Here’s my deck if anyone’s interested.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CBpWlGdnrI3Lvjkvh_KrtFEMU4yyRQCc9Tvp3Ewbjss/edit?usp=sharing