Ask HN: Advice for turning my side project into a real business

Perhaps consider making a deal with a company willing to market your idea, paying you a share of total sales? Would be a good idea to ensure you have lawyer with suitable experience.

I would find a way to validate that there is a path to $1m/year. Perhaps talking to some of the folks to see if they would commit to paying if you're able to deliver what you're building.

If you can get some written commitments in place, it will be a lot easier to pitch to investors if you decide to go that route, and you'll get a better valuation.

It doesn't sound like you are able to bear a worst case scenario at the moment since you have dependents, so you want to be as sure as possible before you lose your income stream.

[random advice from the internet]

Maybe a business loan (is that even a thing?).

It is a thing, but basically most intial business loans boil down to signature loans. You sign as an individual and you are on the hook personally.

Sure an established business might get a loan collateralized against business assets such as inventory, real property, recievables, etc. Or a line of credit for cashflow.

Anyway, the simplest thing that might work is charging more for the existing product so you can support existing customers.

In part because $1m/year is not enough to make sense to an established angel investor. But mostly because charging more money is a good way to make more money; a good test of viability; and the simplest thing that might work.

Finally, be clear on the competing ideas. One is getting a new job. The other is owning/building your own business. They are not mutually exclusive. You can get a new job and continue building your side project organically.

Indeed a plan to build your side project organically over a few years is not the only option. Another is to build a new project that is easier to turn into a business (maybe even one that resegments your existing product under a new brand).

Keeping in mind that getting other people's (friends, family & fools) money is a lot of work that doesn't bring in revenue.

Good luck.

I kind of was in that situation once, I had a side hustle that was making about $1000-1500/month. It seems cool to be making "real" $$$, but if you're not properly accounting for labor, equipment, operating costs, taxes, etc. etc. it's relatively easy to be "making" a few hundred $$$/month, and might be harder to scale up than you think.

I would grind it out until that's more like $10k/month. At that point, if you have good growth and retention, you could try to raise enough money to keep going full time for another year.

Can you do a friends/family round?