71–80 of 197 posts
I defended my thesis around that time too.
I consider conserving cash fundamental. The stipend for a PhD candidate was under $30k/year for living in Manhattan. I wasn't in subsidized housing and had no savings or other source of income.
I wanted to do this so jumped in and read the comments to this post to try to get some ideas on how to do this. They made me a bit depressed: Most people achieved this while working as a consultant (i.e. flexible hours, etc.), not as a big company employee, like me. Also from what I gather, many data points come from young people, unencumbered with a family life and kid(s). So, my more specific question is: Has anybo…
It's really, really hard to make time for a side business in there too.
Are you working on something? How are you making the time for it? How's your progress?
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…
Do you mind sharing how raising money helped you guys? You were only 8 people and raised $4M. Edit: Had you reach 7 figure revenue yet?
Yes, we had reached 7 figure revenues many years ago, long before the acquisition.
In the last couple of years I have built up Deal Drop ( http://www.getdealdrop.com ) to be $3,000/month in revenue as an antidote to the abusive relationship with my day job while helping raise my daughter of the same age. I hoped by now that I could quit and work full time on the side project but I settled for a less abusive day job instead. This week I took a trip to the ER in an ambulance because I had a seizure a…
I co-founded Submedia in 1999 while finishing my PhD in physics at Columbia. By then the other we worked on the project three years developing the technology, writing patents and business plans, etc. I defended my thesis around that time too. I consider conserving cash fundamental. The stipend for a PhD candidate was under $30k/year for living in Manhattan. I wasn't in subsidized housing and had no savings or other s…
I wanted to do this so jumped in and read the comments to this post to try to get some ideas on how to do this. They made me a bit depressed: Most people achieved this while working as a consultant (i.e. flexible hours, etc.), not as a big company employee, like me. Also from what I gather, many data points come from young people, unencumbered with a family life and kid(s). So, my more specific question is: Has anybo…
I hear ya... This is something I struggle with too. Long workday at Mega Corp., 45min+ drive-commute each way, 3 kids (7, 5, 2), a spouse with a highly variable work schedule, and ongoing charity work. It's really, really hard to make time for a side business in there too. Are you working on something? How are you making the time for it? How's your progress?
It doesn't matter how rich or respected my side-project startup would make me, I wouldn't be able to get that time back.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorta... http://www.whirlycott.com/phil/2005/10/17/stylefeeder-step-1... LMK if that's not what you are looking for.
Well, I would be happy to hear about things such as: * Which features did your first version have? * How did you get your first users? * Did StyleFeeder rely on B2B connections, if so how did you find/create them? * What was StyleFeeder's business model? * When did you start looking for funding/why/how? Thanks for the time and experience sharing!
* Basic social sharing of products, fancy bookmarklet, following other people and then we quickly moved into some high-end realtime recommendation technology.
* At first, it was just friends and family spreading the word. Our first big jump came after our bizdev guy joined and he did a deal with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to feature us on their homepage and for them to create accounts and share products they were interested in with their fans. We did a bunch of other celebrity stuff. Then, we really grew right after the Facebook platform launched. SEO was also a major factor.
* B2B connections were largely a waste of time.
* 90% affiliate, 10% advertising.
* Funding: I didn't pursue it at first, but smarter people than I saw the bigger opportunity that I hadn't tuned into yet and made introductions.
I wanted to do this so jumped in and read the comments to this post to try to get some ideas on how to do this. They made me a bit depressed: Most people achieved this while working as a consultant (i.e. flexible hours, etc.), not as a big company employee, like me. Also from what I gather, many data points come from young people, unencumbered with a family life and kid(s). So, my more specific question is: Has anybo…
So after a year of weekends and evenings, my partner started to pound the pavement. We were profitable in our very first year after launch, and continue to be. Our biggest expense is advertising, which is very targeted. I think about 80-85% of our pre-tax revenue ends up being profit, which is great.
I still have my day job, and for the 30 hours/week between us that we still put in, we've been _very_ successful.