31–40 of 41 posts
Zooming out a bit. How do you feel about the possibility of quitting your job, spending 1-2 years working on this, failing, and looking for another job? You'd lose income but also have a very interesting life experience. I'm doing something similar and I legitimately don't mind failing because I'm glad I get to have the experience regardless of whether the startup works or not.
Not enough information. Are you making 400k in big tech or 300k at a stable job in a hot location? Are you making peanuts in a remote location, and you'd be happier making slightly more if you were in charge of your destiny? If you spend five years on your project to get acquihired by some mid level public company- is that success or would you be devestated? Do you have the chops to build a business, raise money, fin…
Not in big tech, but comfortable 250k in mid-teir expense remote suburb. The opportunity cost is real and something to truly be factored in. Something I can probably replace after this endeavor but it would require a lifestyle change (moving etc). I think i'd be happy with the challenge of building a business if there was constant progress and the end of the tunnel was possible (not necessarily guaranteed, but not 0%…
1 Friend, started a consulting company, worked his absolute ass off, made many millions, but also maybe not a lot more than if he had worked his ass off in big tech and climbed the ranks.
Another friend started a product company, raised a seed round, worked on it for many many years paying himself peanuts, eventually had to take a job at a big tech company for a few years and his side business was part time, then quit big tech to focus on it again, acquihired after 8 years. Now he gets to work on his project and get paid a decent amount by some mid tier tech company, so he's happy.
Financially, not the optimal move, but he loves working on his own ideas, and I think he's happy about that.
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I'm not trying to discourage innovation. Your idea seemed to be based on an infrastructure solution to current technology. Perhaps I misinterpreted. And as a starting point, it may be a good venture. However, I would be looking for the next wave of opportunities to capitalize on. Obviously, Google succeeded Yahoo. Facebook succeeded the various bulletin board systems like Compuserve/AOL/Prodigy (though I still prefer…
Appreciate and grateful for your kind words :) Happy to hear of your success as an example of what makes this industry motivating. You are correct my idea is infrastructure atop of current LLM technologies. Competitors exist and it may be that the LLM providers provide their own solution(s) as they have unlimited resources. I will be the first to admit that it is not "ground breaking" but rather boring but useful. I…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in big tech, but comfortable 250k in mid-teir expense remote suburb. The opportunity cost is real and something to truly be factored in. Something I can probably replace after this endeavor but it would require a lifestyle change (moving etc). I think i'd be happy with the challenge of building a business if there was constant progress and the end of the tunnel was possible (not necessarily guaranteed, but not 0%…
So just a couple anecdotes of friends of mine who have been in the industry a while: 1 Friend, started a consulting company, worked his absolute ass off, made many millions, but also maybe not a lot more than if he had worked his ass off in big tech and climbed the ranks. Another friend started a product company, raised a seed round, worked on it for many many years paying himself peanuts, eventually had to take a jo…
I think from an odds perspective, one of the above is probably the highest likely hood if I leave w2.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So just a couple anecdotes of friends of mine who have been in the industry a while: 1 Friend, started a consulting company, worked his absolute ass off, made many millions, but also maybe not a lot more than if he had worked his ass off in big tech and climbed the ranks. Another friend started a product company, raised a seed round, worked on it for many many years paying himself peanuts, eventually had to take a jo…
Very relevant, I think a lot of stuff in tech is romanticized, even things like doing a start up or getting into YC. We hear about the massive successes that the normal/median kind of disappears and is ignored. I think from an odds perspective, one of the above is probably the highest likely hood if I leave w2.
But it took him 10 years and he probably had the chops to get to director/VP level at big tech if he would have grinded on that path.
He's not hurting for money - he lives quite a bit nicer lifestyle than an average FAANG engineer but his ceiling was high on either W2 or starting his own thing. He could definitely retire but now he's just back at it after some time off for the love of the game. He's a grinder by nature.
The other friend is a solid engineer but not top tier, doesn't love the business side of things. So getting acqui-hired into a decent paying job (probably 300k) working remote on his project that got open sourced is probably his dream.
I mean, i'm sure he would have loved to make many millions instead of a tiny acquihire, but he is much happier not having to deal with business stuff. This is a much more realistic view of 'success' than the outlier success storeis you hear on hacker news.
*My advice*
I would find a business partner if you don't love that side of things. Work on this part time, get some seed money, and if you can get a couple PAYING customers part time, then go for it - if you're ok with the more likely outcome of not becoming uber rich.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very relevant, I think a lot of stuff in tech is romanticized, even things like doing a start up or getting into YC. We hear about the massive successes that the normal/median kind of disappears and is ignored. I think from an odds perspective, one of the above is probably the highest likely hood if I leave w2.
Let me give more detail. Friend #1 is top tier engineering brain (including all the people I've worked with at Google) and extroverted. He probably made 10M+ selling his company (He never told me the number but he has a huge house in a gated community and drives fancy cars, he's rich). But it took him 10 years and he probably had the chops to get to director/VP level at big tech if he would have grinded on that path.…
Part of the dilemma is would I be as successful financially if I went all in on W2 as well.
For me, I'd aim to be buddy#1 but I probably fall more inline with buddy#2.
I think the business partner advice makes sense and something I am considering. It is better to own 10% of 10M then 100% of 100K, but also just complimenting skill sets as well.
appreciate it
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Appreciate and grateful for your kind words :) Happy to hear of your success as an example of what makes this industry motivating. You are correct my idea is infrastructure atop of current LLM technologies. Competitors exist and it may be that the LLM providers provide their own solution(s) as they have unlimited resources. I will be the first to admit that it is not "ground breaking" but rather boring but useful. I…
The one thing about government regulation is that it is slow moving, both in initiation and resolution. In my career, there were the ATT, IBM, and Microsoft antitrust cases, all of which took years. In many cases, the market resolves the issue before the government does. The FTC as well as several states are going after Amazon currently, though it's not getting a lot of media coverage. Amazon will likely take a hit c…
I think Facebook has been a shell of a useful company for a long time. Maybe some value in Instagram but I don't quite see it. It does seem like the AI companies are beginning to become unfavorable, with that being said, unsure how much of this is geopolitics where this is less of an issue with China and competing with China. I dont think I see the current administration/government doing anything.
Appreciate the message - I'd like to take the necessary steps to push my idea forward. In the ocean of everything AI, this idea is a single celled organism.