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Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

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Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#21

Post by throw-away-5000 »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #10

YOLO I peek at Blind every now and then (and take everything I read with a grain of salt) but main takeaway is that there are plenty of people at FAANGs who pull in a good amount of money but are completely miserable because they have allowed themselves to get wrapped up in a rat race where all they can think of is their next raise/promotion within some arbitrary leveling system to measure their self worth against. A…

I think they're completely miserable because they don't know how good they actually have it. If they can unwrap their ego from the rat race then they would be much happier.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#22

Post by sdfadfdkjsflj »

rb808 wrote: post #6

Creating a startup is very tough, If you have a great job I'd be careful. If you can I'd try to do something small as a side project first and see how much money you can make. A lot of people here are good coders but have no clue about business, if that is you tread carefully. It also depends on how much experience you have. If you've been working 1-2 years I'd say no way. 5 years: maybe. But as others said its good…

Entrepreneurs that go to Thailand to start a startup are mostly digging their own grave. Talent may be everywhere, but opportunity is not. I have met a couple of founders that moved to Thailand that didn't make anything of themselves. They mostly went there for a cheap living and ended partying most weekends. I would advise against starting a startup in Thailand.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#23

Post by taneq »

sujesh wrote: post #19
rgbrenner wrote: post #16

My entire career has been startups. On average, your startup will be a failure. If you want to create one, then it should be for an idea that you really believe in and that has value. Because you're going to have bad days--lots of them--and want to quit. And if you don't believe in what you're building, then you will quit, and it'll all be for nothing. (Plus, if you believe in what you're building and it fails, you w…

Yep money comes second , product validation and market fit comes first

Well, there's two types of money, aren't there?

"Real" money comes after product development, market fit testing, market penetration, iteration, supporting early adopters, building market presence, etc.

"Virtual" money comes after product sketching, roadmapping, pitching to VCs, and cashing out (ideally before the 'market fit testing' stage.)

Edit: Oof, unpopular opinion apparently.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#24

Post by yaseer »

rgbrenner wrote: post #16

My entire career has been startups. On average, your startup will be a failure. If you want to create one, then it should be for an idea that you really believe in and that has value. Because you're going to have bad days--lots of them--and want to quit. And if you don't believe in what you're building, then you will quit, and it'll all be for nothing. (Plus, if you believe in what you're building and it fails, you w…

This.

The probability is that your startup will fail.

However, you would not have failed as an individual if you're passionate about what you're building, and enjoyed building it, whatever the eventual outcome.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#25

Post by anonfounderj »

Been at bigco, did a few startups, a couple paid out, most did not.

As an option, I'ld explore a side-hustle first, see if you like doing that enough before going all-in. Your goal for side-hustle, 20k MRR or gross margin monthly (ecom). Choose a metric that's real. If you can't hit it on a part time basis, you probably won't make it on a full time basis (for venture style startups that is. If you're targeting lifestyle growth levels, you can always do that part time. So what if it take 3x longer because you spend 2 days a week instead of 6 on it. ).

Run it like a startup, eg. hire folks, pay for them (out of your salary), manage them, build out specs/build stuff/etc. Do all the things you would need to create a startup. Low risk, a little expensive as an experiment, but if you didn't leave your posh job, you can afford it. eg. it's a 100-200k experiment, but that's 'ok'. You'ld have certainty.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#26

Post by PakG1 »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #10

YOLO I peek at Blind every now and then (and take everything I read with a grain of salt) but main takeaway is that there are plenty of people at FAANGs who pull in a good amount of money but are completely miserable because they have allowed themselves to get wrapped up in a rat race where all they can think of is their next raise/promotion within some arbitrary leveling system to measure their self worth against. A…

Compare that with the founders who don't make any money and have no big home runs. Some go bankrupt. But at least they chased the dream. Which would people prefer? Grass is not always greener on the other side.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#27

Post by technotony »

anonfounderj wrote: post #25

Been at bigco, did a few startups, a couple paid out, most did not. As an option, I'ld explore a side-hustle first, see if you like doing that enough before going all-in. Your goal for side-hustle, 20k MRR or gross margin monthly (ecom). Choose a metric that's real. If you can't hit it on a part time basis, you probably won't make it on a full time basis (for venture style startups that is. If you're targeting lifest…

I've seen many many of my friends try the side hustle, and none succeed. Mostly they burn themselves out from working so many hours and then stuff gets tough, as it does, and they bail. I think a better approach is to make some savings and take a sabbatical to test out what it's really like. If your day job is cushy and unstressful then maybe that's a different story...

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#28

Post by DVassallo »

If you have savings to cover at least 1.5 years worth of expenses, do it. If within a year you don’t manage to pull it off, you can always go back. I just did so myself. 2 weeks ago I left a very cushy job at Amazon making $500K/year to work for myself. I wrote more about it here: https://medium.com/@dvassallo/only-intrinsic-motivation-last...

Don’t bother with people saying you can only do this at a very young age. I’m 35, have 2 small kids (ages 2 and 4), and no household income right now. You don’t need to risk anything important to try your own thing. I wrote about my risk taking attitude here: https://medium.com/@dvassallo/freedom-from-success-54ca98fd6...

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#29

Post by puranjay »

jovisjoseph wrote: post #8
rb808 wrote: post #6

Creating a startup is very tough, If you have a great job I'd be careful. If you can I'd try to do something small as a side project first and see how much money you can make. A lot of people here are good coders but have no clue about business, if that is you tread carefully. It also depends on how much experience you have. If you've been working 1-2 years I'd say no way. 5 years: maybe. But as others said its good…

The problem here is the dilemma when to go full-time. Its always a tough call. Compared to a side-project building up a scalable business model is a different ball game altogether. So brace for that once you go full time everything changes and without going fulltime you'll probably reach nowhere

What's a good filter for knowing when to go full-time? Covering your monthly expenses?

I have a consulting business that pays me handsomely. But I also have a side business that has paid for my monthly expenses the last 3-4 months. Would that be a good metric to jump ship from consulting and go full-time with the side hustle?

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