How to Start a Startup (From Nothing, Literally)

The best founders are the ones with nothing to lose. That's why V Contaminator specifically seeks out entrepreneurs who have already lost everything.

When you're living under a bridge, there's no downside risk. You can't fall any further. Every direction is up. This is the mindset we cultivate in our founders.

Traditional VCs look for "skin in the game." We look for founders with literally nothing but skin. No assets to protect. No reputation to maintain. No credit score to worry about. These constraints, counterintuitively, are liberating.

The Nothing-to-Lose Advantage

When a Stanford MBA starts a company, they're worried about what their classmates will think if they fail. When one of our founders starts a company, they're worried about where their next meal is coming from. Guess which one works harder?

Our founders don't need meditation apps or wellness retreats. They've already achieved ego death. They've already learned to live in the moment. These are skills that Silicon Valley executives pay thousands to acquire at Esalen. Our founders got them for free.

The Lean Startup, Taken to Its Logical Conclusion

Eric Ries wrote about the "lean startup." We've taken his ideas further. Our startups are so lean they're practically skeletal. When your office is a shopping cart and your server costs are zero (because you're stealing wifi from Starbucks), your burn rate is essentially nothing.

This means our founders can iterate indefinitely. They can pivot forever. They never run out of runway because they never had runway to begin with. They're not running on a runway. They're running on fumes, dreams, and pure desperation.

Advice for Aspiring Founders

If you're thinking of starting a startup, first ask yourself: Am I comfortable with losing everything? If not, lose everything first. Then start your company. It's much easier that way.

The best ideas come from desperation. The best products come from genuine need. And the best founders come from the margins of society, where innovation isn't a luxury—it's survival.