Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 345 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#21

Post by thatguyagain »

patrogizmo wrote: post #12

From my experience founding companies, you've gotta commit 100% to it to have any chance of success. That doesn't mean working on an idea in your free time. Consider the fact that someone, or even a funded team of someones, are out there putting in 100% effort to solve the same problem. How are you going to outcompete if you're working on this problem in your spare time (which I imagine is quite limited having a wife…

> "As far as funding goes..."

An alternative version would be to spend the first months trying to sell the product to customers even before it exists. Try to validate as soon as possible, then build and deliver the product.

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#22

Post by sokoloff »

> how do I continue my current standard of living for my family while working on a startup?

You don't. (Unless you have a substantial amount of personal savings to draw down.)

You take a hit in current income to do a startup. No one is going to pay you the same amount to try to find product-market-fit for yourself as someone else who will pay you to exploit already found PMF for them.

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#24

Post by adamauckland »

Yep, walked out of a tech lead role at a large corporate to start a new business with my wife, two weeks after the birth of our first child.

We wanted to work on wildlife/animal tracking and identification through technology. It was very hard, the limits are physical and geography and weather hate tech.

You can do projects for other people to fund it. We gave up on the animal tracking idea and pivoted and found a lot of the tech transplanted to other sectors.

You say you want to start your own company but also pursue a start-up. Those are very different models.

Do you want a business that you can work at or are you looking at fast growth and sell-out?

"The majority of businesses, on average, do not start turning a profit until as late as the third year. Some can take up to five"

I think you need to be clear on your goals first and then how to achieve them. Starting a company isn't a goal, it's a by-product.

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#25

Post by ramijames »

I made the mistake of opening a startup with two small kids, another on the way, and a hefty mortgage. I left my well paying job to do so.

It was a nightmare. I living hell that eventually broke me and almost ended my marriage.

Don't do it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#27

Post by lolinder »

etothepii wrote: post #3

At 34 (but with no kids) I agreed with my wife that I could have 4 years with a sanity check at the end of year 2. I also agreed that it would be an ABSOLUTE rule that I could not put any of my own money into the company. This included the $10 for buying the first domain. I ended up selling 20% of my company to a friend for $5k when it was just weekend hacking with him getting diluted to a $2.5m valuation once I've b…

> It massively helps that my wife is a partner at a law firm so we can pay bills etc, without having to have saved the cushion in advance. I also arranged to leave my previous employer with a 6-figure exit payment.

I'm happy for your success, but I feel like this should have been mentioned up front. This kind of massive leg up almost certainly does not apply to OP.

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#28

Post by joshgachnang »

33 year old CTO here with a fiancee and mortgage (no kids yet, but planning in the next year). When my cofounder and I started, we did it as a side project, nights and weekends, while making sure we were still working on other things to pay the bills. Once we got it to a point we could raise VC, we did and started taking salaries. We each make less than we were before, but not incredibly lower. We're in healthcare, so our primary income comes from health plans. Personally, I wouldn't have started this if it was a strictly B2C company. Our route to profitability is a lot more clear being B2B in my opinion, which helps both my stress and my partner's stress. She also has a decent job and we've always been relatively frugal, so we could probably get by on just her salary for a bit if things got really bad.

My cofounder previously started and failed at another startup, while taking bare minimum salary. It almost ruined his marriage and was terrible for his mental health. We're also just over a year into this, so we'll see if the higher salaries works out or not.

Re: Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?

#29

Post by marceloabsousa »

I have started my startup at 30 when I was engaged (now married).

Every path is different but I think there are a couple of guidelines that I recommend: - Talk with your partner and set expectations from the beginning. Please do not romanticise the journey - it's damn hard and full of sacrifices. Others have suggested a deadline - I also did that but find it a bit unrealistic because you'll have excuses to continue devoting an unhealthy amount of time to your company. Be kind to your partner and acknowledge that they will take more load in family duties and you'll have less time to spend with them.

- Find a co-founder that is complementary to you and that you trust. Being a solo founder in your 30s with a family is super hardcore even if you already have found product market fit.

- Do not invest your own money. Finding an early champion of your project and your founder team that could be an angel investor to kickstart things is a must. The alternative is to do it as a side gig until you can reach some kind of Ramen profitability scenario - I'm not a big fan of this because you'll likely focus on revenue too early on.

Happy to chat about my experience if you think it'll be valuable (just DM)

Post reply on HN