I left Singapore to start up in San Francisco. One month in, here’s what I’ve learnt.

I left Disqus a month ago to start a company with Derrick Ko. I’ve always talked about doing it, and it’s the reason I left Singapore for San Francisco more than 2 years ago.

Was I prepared? I thought I was. The truth was, I could have done more to give myself a better head start.

Here are some of the things I wish I had done differently.

1.Money set aside for the business should be kept separately from personal expenses

The upfront cost of running a company adds up fast. Legal fees, incorporation fees, visa fees, office fees, and the list goes on. Even injecting money into the company incurred fees.

With no incoming revenue, every dollar spent hurts like an open wound.

Here are some tips we used to manage costs:

• Find free or cheap office space. It can be someone’s living room, garage, or in our case, block71SF.
• Startup-friendly lawyers may be willing to defer legal fees until after the first round of funding, or up to a certain point of time. Ask your lawyer, or find one willing to do so.
• Having at least one engineer as a founder will reduce upfront costs of building the initial prototype.

2. Buy a comprehensive insurance plan

I dislocated my shoulder last week in a bouldering accident, and the medicals bills came up to roughly $1,500 after insurance.

A better insurance plan, at just $150 more a month, would have capped my bills at $250. Startups are stressful enough, the last thing I want to worry about are medical bills.

3. Build more meaningful professional relationships

A network you can lean on matters when you’re running a startup with limited resources. If done right, this network will be useful in getting product feedback, hiring and gaining access to early customers.

4. Training myself to think about problems in new ways