Ask HN: Go all in on startup idea, or stay W2

Another concern is how to weather the AI bubble. Right now, everyone going all in on "AI" reminds me of the 90s when companies like Exodus Communications, Level 3 Communications and others built out heavily only to see it all evaporate. Yes, eventually what these companies were doing became the cloud but none of them are active participants. I would argue that before jumping into reliance on current AI trends that one evaluate where on the Technology Adoption Curve that the industry is. I suspect we're still at the Early Adopter phase and the build out is based on a bit of irrational exuberance. Couple that with the growing backlash against new AI data centers and depending on current trends seems exceedingly risky. Everyone argued in the 90s that "it was different this time" as they are arguing today. It's not. It rarely is. Go back and read the history of the PC starting with Apple and moving into the 80s Compare that to today's market. Same with the emergence of the Internet. Where are companies like Prodigy, Compuserve, or the incubators such as CMGI. Sometimes people have ideas and can ride technology waves and make huge money. But at the end of the day, that's far rarer than "having a good idea".

https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/2026/05/11503360/2...

Almost everyone comes up with an idea during their career, where they think 'this could be really big'.

The idea of abandoning the 9 to 5 job to strike out on your own can be strong. There are many stories where a solo entrepreneur or small startup team did just that, and are now well off, if not insanely rich.

But the other 90% you never hear about. They work hard to try and get their idea to market, but it never pans out. A myriad of reasons can cause a project to fail, long before it replaces your salary today.

Your personal circumstances along with talent and drive, should play a pivotal role in deciding to make the jump. Unless you have a comfortable amount to savings, I would recommend keeping your day job and working on the side project in your spare time. Don't quit your W2 until you get some real traction on it.

(briefly looked at the website). If you find traction for this idea, that's great. I use claude, and its feedback memory mechanism is already too much for me -- it crams a lot of 'project related' but unimportant cruft, and it keeps growing, and purging it is a chore (its own lexicon, lack of why it is relevant etc). My preference is to front end lot of disciplined design work, so it's memory tends to be quite useless really. The difficulty of getting paid $20 per month is another challenge. Either way, I wish you the best!

The "stay W2 and build on the side" path gets a bad rap, but it's actually the more rational choice for most people.

I went the part-time route. What I learned:

1. Constraints breed creativity. Having only 10-15 hours/week forces you to ruthlessly prioritize what actually moves the needle vs. what feels productive.

2. Revenue validation before quitting is underrated. If you can get even $500/mo while working full-time, you've proven something real. Most people who quit to "go all in" spend months building before discovering nobody wants what they're making.

3. The emotional rollercoaster is easier to handle when your rent isn't tied to your MRR. Bad months don't become existential crises.

The one caveat: if your startup requires intense sales cycles, enterprise deals, or you're in a winner-take-all market with funded competitors, then speed matters more than sustainability. But for most B2B SaaS or tools businesses, the tortoise approach works fine.

Agree and fairly practical advice and one that comes up frequently when watching videos on yc founders etc.

I think another thing I'd like to point out is that it isn't necessarily 'quit your job' as it can also be 'do i take on more responsibility at work' or new role vs keep same role and split time between project and work.