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Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#51

Post by ramadis »

daliwali wrote: post #44

I started doing this recently by quitting my job, and I currently have no income. There is this assumption that one must build a minimum viable product that has to be released as quickly as possible, so much that it's become startup mantra. It's no surprise that a lot of these products seem to be technically shallow, everyone is reaching for low hanging fruit. I feel rather alone trying to do something that I think h…

I think the whole point of an MVP is to validate the hypotesis you make about your users.

In your case for example, do you know who your users are? Are they entrepreneurs? Current software developers? Anyhow, who is going to use your service?

I'm not trying here to undermine your project since it indeed sounds pretty awesome, but to reinstate why the whole mvp movement has a reason to be.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#52

Post by fergie »

I quit my job to start my own company last January. Its been fairly successful so far.

For somebody like me, and probably a lot of HN readers, its _actually_ a fairly low risk proposition because qualified, experienced software engineers are so sought after. Whatever you are doing, you will always be able to pick up a $1000-$1500 a day gig when you need to bootstrap your actual project.

My old boss has contacted me a few times to see if I want to come back- definitely do not want to.

You talk about "fear", and you talk about a "successful" startup. Here's the thing: You never know if a startup will be successful, and you just have to give it a go for the love of it, rather than any expectation of success. Don't be afraid- there are plenty of worse things in this world than a failed company.

Have learned a lot about bookkeeping.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#53

Post by verelo »

So for me I left a job and worked on my startup that ended up unsuccessful. Fortunately during that time I met my current business partners and we have since made and sold a company that by most people's definitions has been a very good run.

Expecting to get it right is the failure we all make at some point (even when we say out lout "this might not work out" we still somehow expect it to work). Expecting failure to lead to something positive is the long game I'd urge you to wait for, it's hard to remain in a good mental state at times while you're working hard and feeling under appreciated, but that is sadly just what it's like.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#55

Post by akerro »

vasco wrote: post #26
zghst wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that is very tough! I'm only in my early 20s, but I worry so much about retirement, probably one of my most deep fears! I figure the only way for me to get ahead is to be financially successful, either my startup makes it or I go to get my PhD in a cutting edge, lucrative compsci field.

I chuckled at the thought of getting a PhD to be financially successful.

He's also in his 20s and worries about retirement money! The financial system will crash at least twice before he retires

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#56

Post by jlgosse »

daliwali wrote: post #44

I started doing this recently by quitting my job, and I currently have no income. There is this assumption that one must build a minimum viable product that has to be released as quickly as possible, so much that it's become startup mantra. It's no surprise that a lot of these products seem to be technically shallow, everyone is reaching for low hanging fruit. I feel rather alone trying to do something that I think h…

I don't use Mail on my Mac, and I know of many others who don't either. You should try using MailChimp for the marketing sign-up at the bottom of your page!

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#57

Post by jlgosse »

daliwali wrote: post #44

I started doing this recently by quitting my job, and I currently have no income. There is this assumption that one must build a minimum viable product that has to be released as quickly as possible, so much that it's become startup mantra. It's no surprise that a lot of these products seem to be technically shallow, everyone is reaching for low hanging fruit. I feel rather alone trying to do something that I think h…

I don't use Mail on my Mac, and I know of many others who don't either. You should try using MailChimp for the marketing sign-up at the bottom of your page!

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#58

Post by issa »

cheez wrote: post #38
antigirl wrote: post #34

This might be slightly offtopic but I've been thinking of working on my own ideas for a decade now. I tried working on projects in the evening and weekends but there isnt enough time. Not only does it effect your social life but also effects your motivation and drive in general. After looking at code on a screen for 7 hours, last thing you want to do is go home and look at more code [I guess this depends on your age,…

Unless you catch lightning in a bottle, you'll need 4 years.

I think this is just a disagreement over the term "startup". For something like a new restaurant, or a mom and pop store to be profitable, it might take many years. But most actual startups are going to validate an idea quickly and either make money or not in a short amount of time.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#59

Post by daliwali »

ramadis wrote: post #51
daliwali wrote: post #44

I started doing this recently by quitting my job, and I currently have no income. There is this assumption that one must build a minimum viable product that has to be released as quickly as possible, so much that it's become startup mantra. It's no surprise that a lot of these products seem to be technically shallow, everyone is reaching for low hanging fruit. I feel rather alone trying to do something that I think h…

I think the whole point of an MVP is to validate the hypotesis you make about your users. In your case for example, do you know who your users are? Are they entrepreneurs? Current software developers? Anyhow, who is going to use your service? I'm not trying here to undermine your project since it indeed sounds pretty awesome, but to reinstate why the whole mvp movement has a reason to be.

For marketing-tech, sure it's a great model, but getting out an MVP as fast as possible doesn't always make sense. Sometimes it takes an order of magnitude more effort to get to "minimum" or "viable" depending on the product. On the contrary, a lot of developer's side projects just feel like things that any reasonably skilled developer could build given a few days.

The question of finding customers, is exactly the same as finding who is demanding software to solve business problems (i.e. not current software devs).

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#60

Post by afpx »

fergie wrote: post #52

I quit my job to start my own company last January. Its been fairly successful so far. For somebody like me, and probably a lot of HN readers, its _actually_ a fairly low risk proposition because qualified, experienced software engineers are so sought after. Whatever you are doing, you will always be able to pick up a $1000-$1500 a day gig when you need to bootstrap your actual project. My old boss has contacted me a…

How do you find your day gigs?

I've tried to do this, but the time required to do it (via reaching through my network) has really been a lot. More than expected. And, then I tried to go outside of my network, and I was just overwhelmed with the repsponses. I couldn't easily discern which opportunities were worth the time.

Is there someone I can hire to be my freelancing mentor?

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