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Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#21

Post by jaequery »

patricklouys wrote: post #20
jaequery wrote: post #7

Well I ran a solo startup so my experience might be different from others but for me, it was like living a dream. While working full-time somewhere, I started this SaaS business and soon after, the monthly income kept doubling to the point I was able to quit my job knowing my living expenses are cared for. When I quit, it was like wow, the feeling of liberation just hits you so hard. I worked for 7 years prior to doi…

Are you still doing that or back at a job?

This was almost 7 years ago and I sold the company in less than a year of operation. It wasn't like retirement money though, got about a year of break from work. I've launched a few startups after that and joined a couple other startups in the process. But nowadays, I just try to do consultant gigs. Looking back, I still can't get over how great it was though and I regret selling it too early. I also realized just how hard it is to launch a successful business and I was pretty lucky with my first.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#22

Post by kentt »

pedrohidalgo wrote: post #6

I did it twice. Both times I failed but I don't regret it. I felt very good when doing it. I lost savings but it was a good live experience. On the second time I created this plugin: http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/61050/pleasure-play-frame... I tried to make a living of this, I only sold 5 licenses of 25 dollars per year and to develop this plugin took me 2 and a half months of hard work. Didn't have a problem ge…

Thanks for sharing a down to earth experience.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#23

Post by jasonkester »

The biggest change was how much more free time I had.

When you're building a Nights and Weekends side project, you get used to stealing whatever free hours you can to work on the product. But you also necessarily build things so that they don't take up much of your time every day. If they did, it would interfere with your day job and that just wouldn't work.

So when you remove the day job, you find that suddenly you have this successful business that runs itself in the background and you can do pretty much whatever you want with your day.

Most people in this situation will immediately fill that time up with work on the product, and I did to some extent. But I also made sure to take a bunch of that time just to enjoy with my family. I eventually settled on 2-3 days a week where I was "at work", with the rest devoted to other pursuits. Both me and my wife are rock climbers, which is an "other pursuit" that will happily expand to fill the time available. We're also parents, so ditto there.

I also make a point of downing tools for a while from time to time. Again, because I can.

I took the kids out of school and dragged them off backpacking around SouthEast Asia for a few months the first year. We did a couple more medium sized trips this year, and I took the entire Fall and Spring off because those are the best times for Bouldering in the forest here. Again, work is happy to ramp up or down to accommodate because I never shifted it out of that ability to run on nights and weekends.

So now, I burst for a few weeks at a time on work stuff (with possibly a more relaxed definition of Full Time than most would use), then slow down and relax for a bit.

It's actually not so bad.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#24

Post by jasonkester »

foxhop wrote: post #5

Only asking for opinions from people who were successful is literally asking for survivor bias perspectives. I dream of working for myself but I've never taken the plunge. My income from side projects is about 1/3 of the way to my minimum number to quit and go full time. I do a lot of thinking about this, my number is the same as my financial independence / early retirement number. One of the biggest things that hold…

Only asking for opinions from people who were successful is literally asking for survivor bias perspectives.

Possibly. But on the flip side, "only quit your day job once your business replaces its income" is a really good strategy for being successful.

That's actually a piece of advice I don't feel like I see pounded in enough. I see so many people "quit my job today to start a startup!" and I have to bite my tongue before I dump on their day by telling them what a terrible idea that was.

Then again, I personally did kinda quit my job before building my first revenue generating product, so pots & kettles and all that. I wouldn't do it again though.

Sounds like you're on the right path.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#25

Post by 12s12m »

I actually have a different take on this. I was building a side project 2 times in my past, to a point where there was some buzz around these side projects. And, I didn't have a job when I was working on these. However, as the products were nearing completion for V1. I got very good offers for contract work. I also had debts, so I took up the jobs. However, this led to the products failing to get any traction.

So, if you are planning to leave a job and have a good product which is getting you even half of the money you need. Leaving your job will only increase the chances of success. However, hanging on to the job while working on a product is going to be much harder.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#26

Post by vasco »

zghst wrote: post #15
foxhop wrote: post #5

Only asking for opinions from people who were successful is literally asking for survivor bias perspectives. I dream of working for myself but I've never taken the plunge. My income from side projects is about 1/3 of the way to my minimum number to quit and go full time. I do a lot of thinking about this, my number is the same as my financial independence / early retirement number. One of the biggest things that hold…

Oh that is very tough! I'm only in my early 20s, but I worry so much about retirement, probably one of my most deep fears! I figure the only way for me to get ahead is to be financially successful, either my startup makes it or I go to get my PhD in a cutting edge, lucrative compsci field.

I chuckled at the thought of getting a PhD to be financially successful.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#27

Post by erikrothoff »

I'm on my last day at my current job before taking the plunge to focus on my half successful startup! I'm going down in pay to about half, we're still losing money every month for me being employed. Our runway is ~6 months before our savings are out. Basically we have to double the monthly revenue that took 5 slow years to grow up to. Exciting and scary times!!!

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#28

Post by aj7 »

zghst wrote: post #15
foxhop wrote: post #5

Only asking for opinions from people who were successful is literally asking for survivor bias perspectives. I dream of working for myself but I've never taken the plunge. My income from side projects is about 1/3 of the way to my minimum number to quit and go full time. I do a lot of thinking about this, my number is the same as my financial independence / early retirement number. One of the biggest things that hold…

Oh that is very tough! I'm only in my early 20s, but I worry so much about retirement, probably one of my most deep fears! I figure the only way for me to get ahead is to be financially successful, either my startup makes it or I go to get my PhD in a cutting edge, lucrative compsci field.

I thought that too, and was fairly successful working for small companies and startups in the laser field.

Peers in government and the national labs outearned me. The key is expectation value of total lifetime earnings. In retirement, people with real pensions take riverboat cruises in Europe. People without have to worry about Sharpe ratios and PEG.

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#29

Post by kakarot »

erikrothoff wrote: post #27

I'm on my last day at my current job before taking the plunge to focus on my half successful startup! I'm going down in pay to about half, we're still losing money every month for me being employed. Our runway is ~6 months before our savings are out. Basically we have to double the monthly revenue that took 5 slow years to grow up to. Exciting and scary times!!!

Good luck! I hope it all works out. Scary times, indeed :)

Re: Ask HN: What was it like to quit your job and focus on your successful startup?

#30

Post by kakarot »

zghst wrote: post #14

I am 2 months into doing this, it feels a lot like when I moved to SF, lot of things up in the air but very promising. I had a 6 month financial plan but it was hard to adapt to the lack of income and seeing my savings decrease month by month, so I'm doing contracting and TaskRabbit. I'm not really a ramen noodles person, so I make due with what I can get at the grocer. I have a previous coworker who'd love to help m…

I'm curious, do you mind sharing a bit about what it is you're working on?
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