I have built Pluggio.com that has $3500/month profit on the side. It's been built in approx. 2 hours a day during the past two years.
Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
41–50 of 197 posts
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#42I started my present company first while recovering from Cancer and then while working full-time at a start-up. I wrote about it on my blog at http://blogs.windwardreports.com/davidt/2010/11/windward-rep...
So yes it can be done.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#43You 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 think that you're talking about a very specific type of startup business. People start and build businesses while employed all of the time. Some of those businesses require that the owners devote their full energies to them at a certain milestone. Others do not -- plenty of software and consulting roles do not require 100% commitment, particularly if you have a flexible employer and can bootstrap. Many college prof…
You said it: "consulting roles", "side gigs". Why overload "startup" with something that can be better described by calling it what it is.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#44I 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…
around how much was Stylefeeder acquired for? I always thought fashion search/bookmarking was a commodity...
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I must be doing something wrong then. I'm constantly running out of time. I'm always thinking about who to meet, who to talk to, what to change in order to become better. Not to mention optimizing text, updating the blog, doing the paperwork... I don't understand the 'waiting' part really.
then you probably just started...I don't mean the first few weeks after you launch...there is plenty of things to do then. I mean that period for all sites after the launch coverage, the time where your traffic goes down to almost 0. Who to meet/who to talk to...should have been done prior to launch. optimizing text? it takes a while to do a/b testing if your traffic is tiny...same goes for seeing results from market…
I am just getting started indeed. However, I talked to a lot of potential users and did the research before I started. Checked out the legal stuff, negotiated with lawyers and developers.
But I don't stop talking / researching now I'm actually running it. I'm asking (potential) users for feedback all the time. I'm planning a new price-strategy, meeting a former competitor, talking to models and to commercial photographers the next two weeks. It's amazing how one talk leads to the other. Also because I'm on a tight budget I try to help other people so they can help me out.
Blogging about it as well: http://royfreemod.tumblr.com/
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#46You 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
"A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty." -- Eric Ries
"A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model." -- Steven Blank
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I must be doing something wrong then. I'm constantly running out of time. I'm always thinking about who to meet, who to talk to, what to change in order to become better. Not to mention optimizing text, updating the blog, doing the paperwork... I don't understand the 'waiting' part really.
then you probably just started...I don't mean the first few weeks after you launch...there is plenty of things to do then. I mean that period for all sites after the launch coverage, the time where your traffic goes down to almost 0. Who to meet/who to talk to...should have been done prior to launch. optimizing text? it takes a while to do a/b testing if your traffic is tiny...same goes for seeing results from market…
if your traffic is tiny then shouldn't you be doing marketing and promotion?
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#48I 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…
around how much was Stylefeeder acquired for? I always thought fashion search/bookmarking was a commodity...
http://www.quora.com/How-much-was-StyleFeeder-acquired-for
Sure, fashion search/bookmarking is a commodity - that's why those sites don't succeed.
I think discovery services are more nuanced than this and it's easier to understand the value they bring both to users and retailers, so we positioned ourselves as a "personal shopping engine." The goal was to shift users away from the Google search box towards a service geared towards shopping. I'm sure you can see value in that.
Hot company du jour is Pinterest... probably headed towards 3B pvs/month and recently closed a round of funding at $200-250M. Keep an eye on them if you think it's all still a commodity. It just depends on what lens you look through. Part of the challenge is putting aside one's cynicism and trying to positive about what your company _can_ be or _could_ be if people take it seriously.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#49I have built, launched, and run Swappa http://swappa.com while having a day job. Revenues won't support me quitting yet (or anytime soon), but Swappa is profitable.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you built a profitable startup while having a day job?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I must be doing something wrong then. I'm constantly running out of time. I'm always thinking about who to meet, who to talk to, what to change in order to become better. Not to mention optimizing text, updating the blog, doing the paperwork... I don't understand the 'waiting' part really.
then you probably just started...I don't mean the first few weeks after you launch...there is plenty of things to do then. I mean that period for all sites after the launch coverage, the time where your traffic goes down to almost 0. Who to meet/who to talk to...should have been done prior to launch. optimizing text? it takes a while to do a/b testing if your traffic is tiny...same goes for seeing results from market…
You must be joking right? Except you're not, which makes it sad instead of funny.
It must be very comfortable to not see the endless opportunities in increasing traction for your service after launch. Not even bothering to commit code any longer, since it was perfect at launch. Or doing marketing, sales, community and customer support, PR, ops, paying bills, sending invoices, handling complaints, bookkeeping, etc etc.
I never ever had the problem to keep myself busy, the problem is always prioritizing among the plethora of tasks you need to do and accepting the fact that you never will be able to do all of them.