With all the benefits at a corporate job I still want nothing more than to be out on my own and start my own SaaS business.
Has anyone left a great corporate job for entrepreneuriship and regretted it?
Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
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Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#2How about the other way around ? Leaving entrepreneurship in order to take a corporate job and not looking back ?!... a bit of history: just around college ( 1996-1997 ) with the internet boom in brazil, i took my first consultant clients, since then worked with several "fintech" ( wasn't called that by then, but that is what those companies were/are... ) and tried to grow my company ( software consultancy and tailored code ).
But being a tech entrepreneur below the equator line is not for mere mortals ( crony capitalism everywhere, labor and tax laws very fluid and incomprehensible by most professionals, terrible and costly infrastructure... ) so, last year i gave up.
Took a corporate job writing code on a multinational corporation ( gargantuan enough to have access to the juicy contracts, contacts and clients ) and now i have a paycheck every month, in exchange for just 8 hours a day of my life.
Before, it were 14 to 16 hours a day, plus weekends, no payed vacation, no time left for my family, and most months ( after payroll and taxes ) there were no money left for me...
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#3I've hacked away on projects over nights and weekends, hoping that one of them would be my ticket to a self-led lifestyle, but with no success. Then I landed a contracting client, and quit my job to commit fully to the client. I took the chance! Six months later, I was fairly burnt out on working alone with this client. In retrospect, I wish I had kept the client and tried to grow the business, even if reality wasn't as rosy as I had hoped.
Since then I've tried to find more clients and not had much success, after taking a job and then quitting again. Looks like I may end up back in the corporate world soon enough.
So- no regrets from this attempt to find freedom, even though it's leading me back to where I started. I will say it's become clear to me that our socioeconomic system is not set up to support people becoming more free... quite the opposite.
Maybe if you try to make a SaaS business into something that requires VC-style scaling, it could backfire and cause regret, as you're committed to something that becomes more all-encompassing and lasts many years.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#4I'm barely making it but that for me is better in every way than my life as an employee. Corporate products were always disappointments, the teams rarely stayed functional for long, there was zero security, and the money simply wasn't worth the cost of not being able to even try out my dreams in the real world.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#5You won't regret it if you go to entrepreneurship and ship.
The problem is not about entrepreneurship but in not planning for failure and having backup plans.
John Carmack: "There is wisdom that only comes from complete product cycles -- no amount of job hopping can provide it." [1]
From personal experience, I can say go for it not because you hate corporate, but because you want an end to end experience, then come back to an even better role, better pay cheque corporate job, if the gig fails but you have shipped and have good landing zone on failure (some months with expenses in bank mainly). HTH.
[1] https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/761986843319660548?...
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#6No. It was a mission to secure cash flow at first, but I’m very happy with my MRR which is services based.
The looming regret I felt coming on in my great corporate job would’ve been not leaving. Having close to no control over your schedule except for PTO is no way to live.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#7Contemplating this decision myself. Would love to hear others thoughts!
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#8What's wrong with working the corporate world, and moonlighting your SaaS business? If it ends up taking off, then quit. I don't understand why it has to be either or. I run multiple side gigs, while keeping the safe corporate job, for now.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#9What's wrong with working the corporate world, and moonlighting your SaaS business? If it ends up taking off, then quit. I don't understand why it has to be either or. I run multiple side gigs, while keeping the safe corporate job, for now.
I think energy would be the answer for many people. Seems easy to become demotivated from corporate work and let that leak into your side projects.
Not that I disagree with you. But I've run into the problem myself. I think what you state is probably the best option though. Just gotta get life in order enough to avoid the energy issue.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret leaving corporate for entrepreneurship?
#10What's wrong with working the corporate world, and moonlighting your SaaS business? If it ends up taking off, then quit. I don't understand why it has to be either or. I run multiple side gigs, while keeping the safe corporate job, for now.
I think energy would be the answer for many people. Seems easy to become demotivated from corporate work and let that leak into your side projects. Not that I disagree with you. But I've run into the problem myself. I think what you state is probably the best option though. Just gotta get life in order enough to avoid the energy issue.
Energy or time. If you have a family you probably don't have time for side gigs