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Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#21

Post by forcer »

I started doing affiliate marketing and building websites on the side for about two years before handing my notice. I could have quit after few months where my revenues from the side job exceeded what I had in my day job as a software developer. Nevertheless it took about 2 years because I was scared, I should have quit much sooner. Now 4 years later we are doing 7-figures a year.

I think its the best way to start a company because you are only risking sweat-equity. The danger is that your day job holds you from growing your startup more.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#22

Post by cmer »

vaksel wrote: post #6

Doing a startup is 90% waiting, and 10% doing. It's perfectly possible to do one on the weekend. Especially since coding is a tiny iota of actually doing one, most of it boils down to marketing anyways

If you consider marketing and selling as "waiting", you're doing it wrong my friend.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#23

Post by paulhauggis »

It can work, but you can easily burn yourself out.

Rather than working 8-10 hours on your startup and having some free time. You work 8 hours and spend all of your free time on your startup.

I prefer getting some capital saved and then quitting your day job.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#25

Post by ticks »

Maro wrote: post #2

You mean "profitable side-project"? "Startup" usually means a company that fulfills a few of the below: - something the founders do full-time - less than 3 years old - in a bootstrap phase or burning VC money - in search of a business model (not yet profitable) - has the potential to grow

I agree with this comment. Saying 'start-up' has a load of baggage and hype attached to it... better off just saying something like: spare time project. There are lots of people running websites that make money, but I don't think they would call them start-ups.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#26

Post by jasonkester »

I have two profitable SaaS products that were built while I was theoretically working full time on something else. I was a bit fortunate that my "something else" was Consulting, which you can ramp down by exactly as many hours per week as you'd like to devote to your side project.

The thing is, if you use the term "Startup" here to describe anything other than a zero-profit 80hr/week scramble for VC funding and eventual acquisition, you're going to get people popping up and claiming that what you're doing is not startuppy enough to count. So for the benefit of that crowd, you might want to rephrase your question in terms of building a product that brings in enough revenue to quit your job.

If that's what you want to build, then yes. It's absolutely possible, and there are dozens of people here who have done so.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#29

Post by timimit »

ry0ohki wrote: post #20

I'm not sure if they are considered startups per say, but I've started two profitable companies while working a day job (to the point where I could quit my day job!) http://www.AUsedCar.com and http://www.BudgetSimple.com . I should say I also created a failed startup during that time. The biggest difference between the successes and the failure were that the successes did not require me to answer phone calls, make s…

Hi ry

AUsedCar.com

How does that site compare in a very busy market with established big name players?

Thanks

Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?

#30

Post by Liu »

whirlycott1 wrote: post #8

I started StyleFeeder in January, 2005, built it into a profitable company of 8 people and sold it to Time Inc in January 2010. From January, 2005 through May, 2006, I worked on StyleFeeder on the side - while I had a pretty demanding day job, mind you - as I built up the basic business... until I had invested so much time and effort into it that I was maxed out and needed to find a way to work on it full time with t…

Very interesting post, is there a one detailing how you started?
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