Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [...] or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time [...] That sounds illegal.
It is illegal in California
It is legal in California if the company can show a conflict of interest.
Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
51–60 of 193 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#52Not really a startup in the sense of a VC backed multi million dollar company but three working friends and me have bootstrapped a fitness websites with science based health advice, mostly free, to basically the largest fitness related website in the Netherlands. Currently employing people, which i think still sounds insane for a hobby project. https://www.fit.nl . 700.000 pageviews a month. App, 2 books, system for…
What inspired a doctor to code? I assume that must have an inspiring story
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#53Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…
> [...] or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time [...] That sounds illegal.
Even if it is totally illegal, you're still going to go to court to fight it, and lawyers are expensive. Nobody sane is going to spend 30k+ going to trial on a side project.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#54I've got two cash flow positive side-projects while maintaining full-time employment, having a life, wife, and kid. BreezyPDF - https://breezypdf.com - Dead simple PDF generation from URLs. Comes with a rails middleware so all you have to do is add .pdf to the end of a URL to download a PDF of that URL. HOALife - https://hoalife.com - A CC&R Inspection and Enforcement tool for property managers.
I love how one of the Breezy testimonials is from HOALife. Way to dog-food!
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#55Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…
Depends where you live, this is illegal in California.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Side projects prove the passion, I certainly agree. Only, I can't get my head around if employee decides to start dreaming his/her side project taking over the current job. If odds are close and side project has good traction, maybe it's not ethical to work in fulltime before understanding it either.
It's not ethical to take a job you think you might leave at some point in the future? lol
Isn't fulltime an accepted life-style? I see lot of people didn't think far enough but loved their job. Indeed, they seem much happier than lost people in startups. If I would hire someone, I would like to work with that type of person. They can change their mind later, no problem.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
"asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter" That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Assuming you're not stealing technology, or doing it on their time or machines, there is no way a court would uphold that. If I build a house, or rebuild a car in my off time, they own that too? Corporations don't own your entire life.
Sadly this is fairly commonplace in IP contracts. Though some companies provide potential hires with an option to list "own inventions" wherein he/she can list projects they may continue to develop in their own time and retain ownership of. Granted, all entries therein are subject to approval by the company - obviously they won't let you pursue a project that is actually in competition with their business.
My understanding of the “list all inventions/projects” activity is that its purpose is to let the employer know what past projects they can’t grab, but it is not a way for you to continue working on them while still owning the IP. Their lawyers will say, “we can’t go after the parts of this project that were disclosed to us, but we can go after it based on the parts you’ve worked on since joining us.”
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#58I work full time and get/test/ship washer/dryer/dishwasher spare parts in my, uh, spare time. It's profitable at 2000 pounds/month, and can go much, much higher. Fuck this shit because no one should just work 6-8 24/7.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#59I run starterstory.com with a full time job and this month it's on track to make $1,700 revenue.
I actually wrote a blog post about balancing side project and full time job: https://starterstory.com/blog/full-time-job-and-full-time-si...
Not sure if that's what you're looking for but hope it helps.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#60I've got two cash flow positive side-projects while maintaining full-time employment, having a life, wife, and kid. BreezyPDF - https://breezypdf.com - Dead simple PDF generation from URLs. Comes with a rails middleware so all you have to do is add .pdf to the end of a URL to download a PDF of that URL. HOALife - https://hoalife.com - A CC&R Inspection and Enforcement tool for property managers.
I love how one of the Breezy testimonials is from HOALife. Way to dog-food!
Ha, I should probably update those to customers that are less biased