Title: Hello HN<p>I am a fullstack engineer with 10+ years of experience in corporate, government, digital media agencies and two startups. A few months ago I started building a small side project to solve a problem that I found interesting. I hit a wall eventually and figured I may be able to speed up my progress if I spoke to someone with more industry knowledge. I spoke to some family who put me in contact with the CEO of a relatively successful company in this field who would be willing to lend an ear to my questions as a personal favour to my family member. Over the course of several weeks we built up a great relationship and further developed this little side-project as well as discussed some of his ideas on ways to further innovate in the industry.<p>To cut a long story short; he offered €200k in funding to quit my job and co-found a seperate business with him and two of his existing employees. The investment is interest free and can be reduced by €40k per year. The funding is being offered in a personal capacity and is not coming out of his existing company. There will be a 25% equity split four ways with the goal of further developing some of the ideas we have discussed to date.<p>Myself and one other employee will split the funding as salaries (totalling 1.4 years of runway). I will be the technical arm of the business. The other paid employee will be dedicated fulltime to providing information from within the industry to fill gaps in my knowledge and leverage his extensive network. The CEO and the final member will act as executives in the company (CEO and Chairman) and will work to get the business profitable as quickly as possible.<p>Broadly; what can I do in these extremely early stages that set will set the business on a trajectory for success? I plan on seeking a start-up mentor that I can regularly check in with - is this a good idea? If you have any thoughts, suggestions, books, or whatever to offer, I would be extremely grateful.
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