Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obviously it is not. You can read my question as how long did it take you to get enough traction in your side project to became a full time job. And still the answer will vary depend on how much do you spend in your side project, the market, your goals, etc. I hope no one decides to go full time with their pet projects because of the time they have spent on them!
Perhaps the post has changed but this is the title I see: "Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?" Adjusting it would definitely helps clarify if that's not what you meant. Perhaps, "How successful was your side project before you went full time?", or "How much MRR / traction... ?"
Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#22Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#2328 months a mean of 2~3h per day. Now It's my full time job and 3rd Start-up. The most time consuming part until now, finding good partners, product definition, market research. So far so good, but it confirms me that Europe is slower for firing up a project.
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#2418 months until I reached $4k in MRR. It wasn't enough to pay the bills, but I had a couple of years of runway. I ended up not using my savings as the business started to grow 1k/month after I quit my job.
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Patrick, do you intend to continue doing side projects with you new role at Stripe? Best of luck at this new role :)
I'm going to keep writing/speaking, but probably not launch any new for-money style projects. Partly this is out of respect for the day job's wishes, partly this is out of desire to maintain free hours for spending with my young family.
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#2628 months a mean of 2~3h per day. Now It's my full time job and 3rd Start-up. The most time consuming part until now, finding good partners, product definition, market research. So far so good, but it confirms me that Europe is slower for firing up a project.
Can you elaborate on the Europe is slower part?
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#2728 months a mean of 2~3h per day. Now It's my full time job and 3rd Start-up. The most time consuming part until now, finding good partners, product definition, market research. So far so good, but it confirms me that Europe is slower for firing up a project.
Can you elaborate on the Europe is slower part?
There is not a big entrepreneurship culture in general (at least in Spain & Southern France) so starting a startup, learning through others experience, next steps etc.. It's harder.
Also the social pressure is a big reason why entrepreneurship is hard. While in USA, failing and starting over is seen as something natural, in the various Spanish and French communities I have lived is seen as a disaster. Even more in some places is seen as an intent of showing everyone that you are smarter than them so you create your own product/service in stead of working in making better the existing ones. I think it's a cultural thing.
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on the Europe is slower part?
My opinion (which may differ from the other user), USA is a big market with a lot of similarities (a common language). Europe is a set of different countries which can be very different and do not share the same language among other things like the laws, bureaucracy, culture, etc. And there are more startups in USA, the ecosystem is more mature. I think all this factors make USA more atractive to get traction
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on the Europe is slower part?
Sure ! There is not a big entrepreneurship culture in general (at least in Spain & Southern France) so starting a startup, learning through others experience, next steps etc.. It's harder. Also the social pressure is a big reason why entrepreneurship is hard. While in USA, failing and starting over is seen as something natural, in the various Spanish and French communities I have lived is seen as a disaster. Even mor…
Re: Ask HN: How long did you work on a side project until it was your full time job?
#30Probably unusual, but about 10 weeks. It was a niche market paid iPad app, written and deployed in 6 weeks, and we saw immediate sales so we left off iOS contracting and began working on it full time. That was a little more than 6 years ago and it has continued to be our full-time project. However we did add versions on most other platforms and a cloud sync service, and I'm not sure that we would've continued to gene…