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Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

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Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#41

Post by zealog »

For me, it's all about number 2 (and how it relates to #1) and my current contracts and obligations at my "day job."

I build startups all day every day, so I'm comfortable with the field. I've got what I think is a good idea and a ton of execution on it so far. I have a small group of testers that (about 20% friends, the rest random strangers) and a desire to make a great product.

There is a great monetary upside potential, but I just don't have the resources at this time to quit and focus 100% on this. Of course, I sleep so very little that I spend at least as many hours "on the side" as I do at my day job, so it might be somewhat moot anyway.

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#42

Post by webwright »

huhtenberg wrote: post #11

6 and 5 are closely related. The way it worked for me was to (a) generate and *polish* the idea; (1) make sure it is technically sound (2) not trivial, i.e. not easy to copy (3) maps well on business opportunities (4) does not have IP (patents, licenses, etc) problems (b) implement it about 80-90% through, prepare solid beta (c) release beta and see how it's does (d) if all goes well, evaluate the progress and estima…

I'd love to hear some reasoning behind: "not trivial, i.e. not easy to copy"

Who cares if it's easy to copy? Paul Buccheit says he built the first version of Gmail in an afternoon. Digg was famously built in fairly short order. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook-- all would be fairly trivial to clone. Less trivial to scale, obviously but... Feature-wise their V1 releases weren't that complex.

If you want something that you can do in your off hours AND something that isn't easy to copy, I'd say you might have an unreasonably low opinion of hackers around the world. Surely there's nothing you could build in your off hours that a few persistent hackers couldn't clone in a few months of full-time work, is there?

More on the "why should you care" front-- can you name any successful product/company that succeeded cloning someone else's idea? Maybe you can, but it's the exception, not the the rule. Now there ARE examples of companies jumping into the existing marketing and cleaning up by doing BETTER (iPhone, Flickr, etc) - but that's not cloning... That's innovating.

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#43

Post by s3graham »

vlad wrote: post #35
s3graham wrote: post #16

9. Failed at full-time (gave myself 6 months). For now, I'm back to enjoying a job + #8. Maybe I'll try again if I convince myself something's good enough to try for. Are you generating $500/day in value piddling around on your MacBook in Ruby? Are you generating orders of magnitude more than that?

You're supposed to fail.

Well then, I did a helluva good job :)

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#44

Post by huhtenberg »

webwright wrote: post #42
huhtenberg wrote: post #11

6 and 5 are closely related. The way it worked for me was to (a) generate and *polish* the idea; (1) make sure it is technically sound (2) not trivial, i.e. not easy to copy (3) maps well on business opportunities (4) does not have IP (patents, licenses, etc) problems (b) implement it about 80-90% through, prepare solid beta (c) release beta and see how it's does (d) if all goes well, evaluate the progress and estima…

I'd love to hear some reasoning behind: "not trivial, i.e. not easy to copy" Who cares if it's easy to copy? Paul Buccheit says he built the first version of Gmail in an afternoon. Digg was famously built in fairly short order. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook-- all would be fairly trivial to clone. Less trivial to scale, obviously but... Feature-wise their V1 releases weren't that complex. If you want something that you ca…

For reasoning see my other reply in this thread. Specifically your "few months" estimate is rather conservative. A team of professionals can clone the app or the service in a matter of weeks. The question here rather is how easy to put this cloning team together, i.e. how mainstream the idea is to begin with.

Additionally, you appear to be mostly considering high-profile web apps, which is not exactly the whole software universe. Head to the tucows.com, pick virtually any category and you will see it full of apps that are very similar. On the other end of spectrum, have a look at companies like NetScreen, which effectively grew their business by building cheaper Cisco devices. And this is not a singular example, it's more of a general MO rather.

All in all, I wrote about what worked for me and what worked exceptionally well. This does not imply that it's the only way.

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#45

Post by poronski »

bkj123 wrote: post #25

started my own solo concompany doing business intelligence work (e.g. predictive modeling). current contract takes about 45 hrs per week and I need to work extra to getit's funny. I left the corporate world in August to become a business intelligence consultant (e.g. predictive modeling). I spend 40+ hours/week at my current client and looking to line up future work. yet, i don't consider this to be my startup (much…

psst .. you can edit the post after it's first submitted :)

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#46

Post by bayareaguy »

A combination of #3, #4 and #8:

#3 - I'm very committed to the people and project at my regular job and I like things there too much to want to leave.

#4 - my idea will only work with a good web interface. Web gui/design is not where my skills are at the moment.

#8 - this is something I want for myself. there's a chance others may want functionality but I know if I don't get the interface right I'll only confuse people and I'll only get one chance at a first impression.

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#47

Post by bayareaguy »

tonyvt2005 wrote: post #28
lyime wrote: post #18

The main reason is I am going to school, and I don't see any point dropping out just to do a startup. I have many years to do that. But i am doing it on the side as we speak. I have had a few ideas over the year, although I haven't found enough reasons to devote much time to them, which is pretty much (5). After a recent launch buy a certain fruit theme company I have found an excellent if not a killer idea to really…

Fruit theme company? Wonder who that could be? :)

http://www.fruit.com ?

(in case you don't already know where that link goes, see if can guess before clicking it)

Re: Ask YC: Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?

#50

Post by cmm324 »

I am working on my startup all the time. At work, at home, out on the town. I am always talking about it, emailing about it, and marketing it. To some I may look like a whore because there is not one family member or friend who I have not asked if they have connections to anyone in property management or real estate investment. Why I don't drop all my work and focus on it full time is lacking of capital. If I had enough money to get by for 6 months then I would do it in a heart beat. But that is not the case.
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