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Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

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Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#1

Post by driven20 »

A little about me. I'm close to 30. I recently left my job, I was burnt out. I want to take 1-2 months for myself to reflect and figure out my next steps. I'm a software developer and I have been working with various small to medium software companies for the past 4-5 years. I currently live in a small city in the south (gf and I want to move to NYC or another big city). I can build CRUD apps from the ground up. I have around $60,000 saved and with my current bills, I have a runway of 1.5-2 years. My life goal is to build a successful business and entrepreneurship has been something I have always been interested in. However, I have never successfully built anything that gained traction, so I consider myself more of a wantrepreneur.

Options:

#1 Spend my time studying and finding a new job in NYC. I'm pretty confident that if I spend my time on leetCode and networking I will land a good job. I feel like this is the safe route.

#2 Spend my time pursuing a couple ideas I have. It's nothing new or innovating, a productivity app and a yelp like service working with small businesses. Reading all the content here is super motivating and inspiring, I feel like I could make these ideas work, but it's also super risky. I don't want to spend 1-2 years working on these ideas only to look up and realized I wasted my time and money.

#3 Some combination of both? I was thinking that I can pursue my side projects and look for a new job at the same time. However, I feel like having a clear focus on one thing is important.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#4

Post by jf22 »

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.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#5

Post by takanori »

Before you write a line of code for #2, have a clear strategy for app distribution, user acquisition, free to paid conversion. It won’t just happen because you have a great product. Just remember to make a million a year, you need 10,000 people paying you $10 a month.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#6

Post by rognjen »

takanori wrote: post #5

Before you write a line of code for #2, have a clear strategy for app distribution, user acquisition, free to paid conversion. It won’t just happen because you have a great product. Just remember to make a million a year, you need 10,000 people paying you $10 a month.

I don't entirely agree with this. I think it's useful to build a proof of concept even without any follow-up plans or objectives.

Besides the fact that it'll be easier to visualize and present the idea to people, the act of building a proof of concept or a real MVP would be learning experiences themselves.

In fact thinking about what's to be included as part of the MVP and prioritizing to fit within a pre-set deadline would be extremely valuable.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#7

Post by JamesBarney »

rognjen wrote: post #6
takanori wrote: post #5

Before you write a line of code for #2, have a clear strategy for app distribution, user acquisition, free to paid conversion. It won’t just happen because you have a great product. Just remember to make a million a year, you need 10,000 people paying you $10 a month.

I don't entirely agree with this. I think it's useful to build a proof of concept even without any follow-up plans or objectives. Besides the fact that it'll be easier to visualize and present the idea to people, the act of building a proof of concept or a real MVP would be learning experiences themselves. In fact thinking about what's to be included as part of the MVP and prioritizing to fit within a pre-set deadlin…

Building a proof of concept is an incredibly expensive way to figure out what clients want. And many times you find out you're so far off that none of the project is reusable.

Also plenty of clients will take meeting without an proof of concept. And this is especially true when you have a really good idea.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#9

Post by cageface »

takanori wrote: post #5

Before you write a line of code for #2, have a clear strategy for app distribution, user acquisition, free to paid conversion. It won’t just happen because you have a great product. Just remember to make a million a year, you need 10,000 people paying you $10 a month.

Yeah. I spent the better part of two years building something I really wanted to build that I thought people would really want to buy. Turned out I was wrong. If you're burning through your own savings you need to find out as early as possible if there actually is any real demand for your product.
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