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#4 Partner in as a tech lead or cofounder on someone else’s early stage idea.
The question is how to find that person. Angle list? Product Hunt? Who has some ideas?
I think once you’re working among the right group, you might find more startup founders to work with in a way that is inline with what you seem to want.
I decided for a totally different option, lets call it option #4:
#4 Take an "easy" programming job and use your spare time on nights/weekends to build a software business.
I chose this option because I wasn't willing to risk my savings. Plain and simple. I want to retire some day, and blowing 60k for a ~5% chance at making a profitable business wasn't worth it to me.
I love living in NYC, have been here for 20+ years. But your $60k will disappear rapidly. If you want to be in the NYC metro area while you look for a job pick a suburb on a train line about an hour out of the City (NJ, NY east of the Hudson, maybe Long Island). Your burn rate will be much less but you'll be able to get into Manhattan and nearby business districts in a predictable amount of time for interviews and networking events (no recommendation on the train line but avoid the single track train lines).
Work part time to pay the bills and spend the rest of your time working on your projects. The $60,000 of yours will disappear faster than you think. You'll eventually spend money on the business I assume.
Do you have recommendations on where I can find part-time work?
If you're bootstrapping, be wary of the NYC burn rate: your expense base will explode and you're going to get taxed up the wazoo on your early revenue. Worst business environment I've ever had to operate in. If you're selling primarily to a NYC audience or industry, then move there of course - get close to the customer. Otherwise you've got a lot more runway in the South....
Don't move to NYC without a job. I love living in NYC, have been here for 20+ years. But your $60k will disappear rapidly. If you want to be in the NYC metro area while you look for a job pick a suburb on a train line about an hour out of the City (NJ, NY east of the Hudson, maybe Long Island). Your burn rate will be much less but you'll be able to get into Manhattan and nearby business districts in a predictable amo…
But thank you for the extra information about NYC. That's good to know.
With your runway, #2 sounds great, but try and find a different idea. Productivity apps and yelp like services are a dime a dozen. You'll probably waste 1-2 years, and expect to waste 3-5 more before you can replace your main source of income. Entrepreneurship is risky and developing software is the easy part.
Yea, I'm not sure they are great ideas. My reasoning for the productivity app is because I want to build something I personally need and I haven't found a good solution. The yelp-like app is because I know I want to work with small businesses. I just don't know exactly how yet. So, you're right. I need to spend more time on my ideas. Thanks!
Over the years I've found the enterprise side of this to be true (although it will take forever to get them to sign in the first place and they'll sometimes pay their bills so late you're gasping by the time you see the cash).
I don't have any experience with dealing with small business, maybe it's not as bad as I imagine.
With your runway, #2 sounds great, but try and find a different idea. Productivity apps and yelp like services are a dime a dozen. You'll probably waste 1-2 years, and expect to waste 3-5 more before you can replace your main source of income. Entrepreneurship is risky and developing software is the easy part.
Yea, I'm not sure they are great ideas. My reasoning for the productivity app is because I want to build something I personally need and I haven't found a good solution. The yelp-like app is because I know I want to work with small businesses. I just don't know exactly how yet. So, you're right. I need to spend more time on my ideas. Thanks!
How long would it take to prototype it out to the point that you can start dog fooding it?