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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?

#141

Post by ry0ohki »

cpeneguy wrote: post #132
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…

The Budgeting app is nice. How are you making income off it? It's free and has no adds.

It's freemium, there's a Pro version you can upgrade to

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

#142

Post by spodek »

joejohnson wrote: post #75
spodek wrote: post #71

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…

Submedia.tv? What is Submedia?

We put boxes on the walls of subway tunnels that, when the train passes, look like movie screens to riders. We sell ads on the displays on a monthly basis and share revenue with transit authority.

Some videos here: http://www.submediaworld.com/submediaworld/Submedia_Tunnel_A...

I also make art with the medium, but that's another story.

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

#143

Post by prayag »

jasonkester wrote: post #26

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 event…

>you're doing is not startuppy enough to count

I have always had a problem with that. A start-up is a start-up if you decide it's a start-up and want to transform it into a viable business. There is no magic line that you have to cross to transform your project into a start-up. I always advice people to call their projects a start-up from the beginning.

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

#144

Post by dclowd9901 »

jasonkester wrote: post #26

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 event…

Your latter input is appreciated, but I'm not sure being a "full-time consultant" qualifies you to answer this question, which is almost certainly directed at those with less daily flexibility. If my site explodes in activity while I'm at work, I can literally do nothing to sop up any problems that might arise, unless I decide to try to cash in sick time and head out early, or sit on my hands til I get home. A fulltime consultant faces none of these issues.

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

#145

Post by shiftpgdn »

pitdesi wrote: post #39

I started a couple of profitable small businesses while working a ton of hours management consulting, including a headphone website where I used all my vacation to travel to China to get my products manufactured cheaper. I was hoping to do a few things on the side until it made sense to quit my day job, but I found it never made sense to quit my day job. More incredibly to me is FeeFighters ( http://feefighters.com )…

Do you have a blog or anything where you've written about your trip to china? I've been reselling Chinese goods for about a year and a half and I've always wanted to go over there.

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

#146

Post by nopal »

I built a service for monitoring SSL certificates (https://www.certician.com/) in my free time, although it's not yet profitable. I'm hoping it will be someday soon.

The feeling when a new customer from across the country signs up is a pretty good one!

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

#147

Post by inuhj »

Sukotto wrote: post #72
Jun8 wrote: post #68

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?

I am in a similar position. I'm 26, my girlfriend is 27. We're both medical students doing our clinical rotations. I'm near the top of my class in med school and my girlfriend is similar. We have a 4 year old daughter as well. I'm currently working on my startup and keeping my girlfriend happy.

Some tips: - Weekends are not for your startup. Weekends are for your wife and kids. I work on my startup after I finish putting my daughter to sleep at 8:30pm. I finish working by 11pm or midnight.

- Your wife is going to be the one picking up your slack. Make your life easier by making her life easier. For me that means taking on more responsibility around the house(I'm vigilant about dishes, cleaning the bathroom, and doing laundry). I do this stuff as soon as I get home so she can play with our daughter instead of doing housework. This keeps my girlfriend's stress levels down and makes my startup seem less burdensome. - Take on tasks that require you to sit around for long periods of time. Today I took our car to get serviced and coded in the waiting area.

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

#148

Post by Ecio78 »

Timothee wrote: post #100
ryanhuff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some small tips that can make it more doable. * If you can, take the train into work. That's about 1.5 hours of additional productive startup time. Sitting in a car is dead time. * Get rid of your lunch hour. Park yourself at a nearby Starbucks and add an extra hour each day of productive startup time. Do this every day. * Given your spouse's variable work schedule, my guess is that your most productive time is in th…

About the lunch hour, one always needs to be careful of the rules of the company they work for regarding intellectual property. Working from a Starbucks shields you from using company equipment/network, but I'm sure in some cases, lunch time is not exactly your own time. But otherwise, great points! As far as I'm concerned, my commute doesn't allow me very convenient public transportation. (though I should look into…

if you have (or could have) problems working your laptops (you cant install apps, you dont want others see your personal project stuff on your pc etc..), you still can:

* work in the cloud (virtual server, ec2 instance, web based tools etc..) using a internet USB key on the train

* use another OS instance in a virtualized environment (i.e. virtualbox installed in a usb key) and install all the stuff you need in this VM (im not sure you can do it w/o admin priviledges in windows)

* boot a linux distro from USB key so you still use your laptop but completely without touching your original OS

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

#149

Post by danmaz74 »

j45 wrote: post #104
Sukotto wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

One thing you might want to look at is putting in some time in the mornings with your best energy instead of at the end of a long, long day. Early to bed, and early to rise might work for you.

Absolutely. I started waking up at 6 am and working until 8:30 a month ago, and it's been a great boost in my productivity.

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

#150

Post by vaksel »

martinkallstrom wrote: post #140
vaksel wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did say marketing/sales is the exception. Not bothering to commit code? If it works, and you don't have actual customers yet? Then yes...it's just busy work at that point. Community/Customer Support? I dunno about you, but customer support is only required for less than 1% of users. And even then it's usually a case of 1-2 sentences. Paying bills? How many bills do you have as a startup?

Hundreds. Please stop diluting the startup term with your hobby projects.

We are talking about fresh startups, that are just getting launched. Twingly has been in business for 6 years.

And even then, "hundreds" of bills is crap...unless of course you count every purchase on your credit card statement as a "bill"

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