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

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

#311

Post by 999900000999 »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #308
999900000999 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At which point is YC not worth the effort. You come off as being well enough connected to organically contact VCs. I've largely given up on the business side. I make small games I hope people enjoy. Not that there's tons of VC money going into video games anyway...

Hey, what's your gaming niche? I've been trying to hunt down decent iPhone/Android games with decent polish/production values and no sinister monetization, but it just isn't working out.. Not counting Apple/Google/Netflix subscription options, I've only found maybe half a dozen games that are high enough quality that they could make it on a game console or PC. I feel like this is an untapped market again, since some…

I'm making ultra small games like infinite runners, and other procedurally generated generated games.

The problem is risk vs reward. Even a modestly sized game will cost millions since you need to compete with some of the biggest names in the industry.I really tried to make a graphically intense game with Unity's HDRP, but I'm still not able to match the polish of a AAA game.

Aside from that, there's too many games being put out right now. People only have so much time and money after all.

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

#312

Post by recyclelater »

artemonster wrote: post #168
recyclelater wrote: post #113

i am the owner of a bootstrapped and now 30+ person company, with three kids at home. it took something like 7 years of 10-12 hour days to get our business off the ground, with many many many 7 day work weeks. now post-startup, i barely have time to keep things going at the level required to maintain excellence, while not neglecting my young family. lots of push/pull around work, and lots of arguments and frustration…

what do you do and how you have found your niche?

Anon account so not going into details, but stumbled into it hobbying and realized there could be a market. Cranked at it to the exclusion of everything else and made it work.

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

#313

Post by Firmwarrior »

999900000999 wrote: post #311
Firmwarrior wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, what's your gaming niche? I've been trying to hunt down decent iPhone/Android games with decent polish/production values and no sinister monetization, but it just isn't working out.. Not counting Apple/Google/Netflix subscription options, I've only found maybe half a dozen games that are high enough quality that they could make it on a game console or PC. I feel like this is an untapped market again, since some…

I'm making ultra small games like infinite runners, and other procedurally generated generated games. The problem is risk vs reward. Even a modestly sized game will cost millions since you need to compete with some of the biggest names in the industry.I really tried to make a graphically intense game with Unity's HDRP, but I'm still not able to match the polish of a AAA game. Aside from that, there's too many games b…

That's what really kills me. There are so many great devs out there making awesome stuff, and I can't **ing find any of it to play because I'm constantly being bombarded with terrible big corporate shovelware casino crap

ah well, I hope you strike it big!

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

#314

Post by paulryanrogers »

xyzzyz wrote: post #307
paulryanrogers wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if entirely accurate, he also had a safety net in his father. Few get into Stanford, even fewer can afford to drop out to bet on some new market.

How is this "safety net" relevant? Literally millions of people in America have same or better "safety net". Are they some kind of lazy losers because they haven't earned billions like Elon had?

Consciously or not, having rich parents makes taking big risks in life easier. Even estranged and rich parents could be a lifeline if a crazy plan goes sideways.

Very few in the USA have parents who own emerald mines or an equivalent amount of wealth. So they're not losers. They're just not as fortunate and--understandably--more risk averse.

I'm saying that Elon deserves a modest amount of credit for busting his ass in the early days. But not so much fawning praise since luck and birth also played a outsized role in his successes.

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

#315

Post by j45 »

brailsafe wrote: post #302
j45 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve heard a recommendation to can get a job that pays a little less for way less effort and save the energy for what I really want. A lot of people want to eat their cake and have it too though though. Hopefully building a money printing startup is enough of a hobby :)

The cake is always eaten, but what the cake is might not be apparent until it's too late

Haha touché.

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

#316

Post by j45 »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #291
j45 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of indie hackers defeat blind luck and exit as much as the small percentage founders receive in a funded startup. Lots of good reading out there

Right it's a lottery, with very expensive tickets. You may have to pay with years of your life for each one, possibly significant others.

Not if you consult and find the business needs and only build wher people want and are willing to pay for.

Hitting the startup funding lottery to go on an expedition to find and build something people want is a different matter and maybe what you’re referring to, and if so, I totally agree with.

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

#317

Post by j45 »

earino wrote: post #192
j45 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious, do you have kids? My perspective changed when I had kids. And I had kids close together, Matter than friends to boot. Mostly I realized how’s much time I was wasting to that point in life and I stopped. It’s perfectly possible to do a startup at any age. Know many people who do and have. Kids were a perfect prioritization and decision aid in my case. It makes you perfectly serious about doing what needs…

I do, thanks for asking! I am the proud dad of a 22 year old son :-) I definitely agree that having a child can be a spectacular forcing function for focus for some. I unfortunately also know folks for whom having a child was the proverbial straw, and whose life fell apart afterwards. I was running my own company (RFID and industrial automation startup) before him. When I became a dad I found a corporate job. The wor…

I completely understand and see where you’re referring to with having kids being the proverbial straw for some.

It will shake the trees and see if we’re as solid as we think you we lol.

The thought of a cushy corporate job and what it pays compared to the average payout from equity in a startup isn’t too far apart pretty often. I have done stints of consulting when I needed to do market research and it was a nice way to deep dive to find the no brainer things a business would pay for.

Healthcare is no joke. I’m very lucky to be based in Canada from that perspective, even if it’s geospatial further from some tech things that interest me - travel is a fair compromise.

In my case the dip and test didn’t hit until they were 15 months, and it was interesting that I made it over 2 years including the pregnancy before wanting to check in.

I rezzo you have hand keep the itch alive to work on hobby projects. RFID and industrial automation is a cool area that I got to experience alongside someone on a project.

Last but not least happy to receive any parenting advice

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

#318

Post by jventura »

999900000999 wrote: post #311
Firmwarrior wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, what's your gaming niche? I've been trying to hunt down decent iPhone/Android games with decent polish/production values and no sinister monetization, but it just isn't working out.. Not counting Apple/Google/Netflix subscription options, I've only found maybe half a dozen games that are high enough quality that they could make it on a game console or PC. I feel like this is an untapped market again, since some…

I'm making ultra small games like infinite runners, and other procedurally generated generated games. The problem is risk vs reward. Even a modestly sized game will cost millions since you need to compete with some of the biggest names in the industry.I really tried to make a graphically intense game with Unity's HDRP, but I'm still not able to match the polish of a AAA game. Aside from that, there's too many games b…

> I'm making ultra small games (...)

Hey, many of us like small/ultra small games!

I used to play a lot when I was younger (back in ZX Spectrum times), but now don't have the patient (or time) for big games that require any kind of commitment. For instance, I played occasionally sudoku on my tablet/phone and when I started to play a little bit more I bought this sudoku [1] for both Android and iPhone. I also play occasionally some games from these guys [2], namely "Smash Hit" and "Pin Out".

What are your games? Share a link, maybe one or two of us may get curious and play with it a little bit!

[1] http://www.enjoysudoku.com/

[2] https://www.mediocre.se/

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

#319

Post by [deleted] »

999900000999 wrote: post #311
Firmwarrior wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, what's your gaming niche? I've been trying to hunt down decent iPhone/Android games with decent polish/production values and no sinister monetization, but it just isn't working out.. Not counting Apple/Google/Netflix subscription options, I've only found maybe half a dozen games that are high enough quality that they could make it on a game console or PC. I feel like this is an untapped market again, since some…

I'm making ultra small games like infinite runners, and other procedurally generated generated games. The problem is risk vs reward. Even a modestly sized game will cost millions since you need to compete with some of the biggest names in the industry.I really tried to make a graphically intense game with Unity's HDRP, but I'm still not able to match the polish of a AAA game. Aside from that, there's too many games b…

[deleted]

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

#320

Post by bigbee »

I've done exactly that in my early 30s. Bootstrapped, then raised a couple of rounds, couldn't raise again so went back to bootstrap mode, but ultimately failed. It was a rough period, but I survived to thrive as a senior in a FAANG nowadays. My marriage survived too and is better than ever.

Before I started my wife and I calculated by how much we can reduce our spending and figured that between her salary and our savings we could go on for about a year while maintaining an acceptable quality of life (for us) and not going into debt. While I was going through this her pay went up significantly (and unexpectedly), which allowed me to extend my personal runway. In the end, after ~four years, we were left with no savings at all and I had to take a job I didn't like because I had to start bringing money in. That was fine - I quit after a short while for a much better job. So the key was planning ahead financially and agreeing in advance on the limits: minimum standard of living we won't go below, and not going into debt. This proved very important in hindsight because it marked when I had to stop trying - I never wanted to give up, but had I continued, I would have jeopardized the most important things in life.

Another point about the marriage: my wife and I are together in this journey called life and support each other's hopes and dreams. I paid most of our bills while she was going through her PhD, then she did (plus we spent our savings) while I was doing the startup. Now I'm doing well, so she took a partial leave while she's pursuing hobbies and trying to figure out the next step in her career.

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