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I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

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Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#171

Post by chernevik »

mgkimsal wrote: post #65
phugoid wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a similar situation (quit high-paying job, following startup dream). May I ask how you broke into dev/design consulting? I'll have to go that way too, and soon. But I'm still a bit mystified about where one finds consulting gigs... Places like ODesk/Elancer?

Networking by and large will be your best bet. An odesk may get you some short-term work, but it won't necessarily be all that high paying. With a decent rep on odesk or elance you might get some good gigs, but those will probably develop in to non-odesk relationships with clients ("going direct"). I don't know many people who use odesk who pay more then $20-$25/hour, and it's typically for smaller type stuff. There…

It takes patience. I left a finance to learn to code a couple of years ago, but only got smart about networking last spring. I'm just now beginning to bring in some freelance / consulting jobs. You just have to keep at it -- and deliver on time, on budget, on spec.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#172

Post by miles_matthias »

gozman wrote: post #13
BigCanOfTuna wrote: post #8

Nice idea. I'd be interested to know (and if you're willing to share with the community): 1. What was your job. 2. How much did you get paid. 3. How much savings(runway) do you have to support this product. Thanks!

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

I'd love to hear about your experience as a tech person getting your MBA.

Also, great idea and website. Oddly enough I just heard a presentation yesterday about MobileIgniter, who amongst several other things, does something similar. They did the TechStars iOS app, which does exactly the same thing - pull blog entries from WordPress. Nice work!

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#173

Post by BadassFractal »

ajjuliani wrote: post #38
gozman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

You have to put up a blog post on this...

Completely agree, it'd make for a very informative read. You quit your job, worked hard, and now have something impressive to show that many people seem to want to purchase. I'd say you're on the right track!

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#174

Post by alphamale3000 »

gozman wrote: post #13
BigCanOfTuna wrote: post #8

Nice idea. I'd be interested to know (and if you're willing to share with the community): 1. What was your job. 2. How much did you get paid. 3. How much savings(runway) do you have to support this product. Thanks!

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

Since when is 80k / year "high-paying"? Hopefully the per diems were high enough to compensate the salary level.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#175

Post by TomGullen »

alphamale3000 wrote: post #174
gozman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

Since when is 80k / year "high-paying"? Hopefully the per diems were high enough to compensate the salary level.

I don't know what you consider high paying but to me that seems like high pay

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#177

Post by [deleted] »

gozman wrote: post #79
BigCanOfTuna wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Did you change your standard of living to to follow your dream? If so, to what extent? Are you now eating raman? Also, do you have any dependents (wife, children)? Oh, and how old are you? Sorry, I know you are really interested in sharing your product but many of us want to know what people are willing to give up to chase their dreams. Thanks again.

I did change my standard of living somewhat - I didn't travel this year as I usually do, cut out most useless expenses and took public transit whenever I could. We need surprisingly little to live when you think about it. At the same time, I made sure to take on small paid projects to keep fed. I don't have any dependants, but I am married and contribute to the household financially. That hasn't stopped, I just had t…

[deleted]

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#178

Post by designium »

alphamale3000 wrote: post #174
gozman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

Since when is 80k / year "high-paying"? Hopefully the per diems were high enough to compensate the salary level.

You have to realize that in Quebec, Canada, that's actually a high-level salary.

If you are living in NYC, nah.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#179

Post by elliottcarlson »

alphamale3000 wrote: post #174
gozman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

Since when is 80k / year "high-paying"? Hopefully the per diems were high enough to compensate the salary level.

Depending on where you live that can be considered to be in the higher scale as far as pay grades go - and obviously in other places it might be lower or average. You can't only go by what people are paid where you live.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#180

Post by toddmorey »

alphamale3000 wrote: post #174
gozman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I was a software engineer that got an MBA and was doing management consulting. 2. Over 80k / year 3. My runway is private, but we financed ourselves by taking on short-term iOS/Wordpress dev/design consulting gigs to stay fed.

Since when is 80k / year "high-paying"? Hopefully the per diems were high enough to compensate the salary level.

Whoa. Let's not forget that 80k/year puts a person among the top 0.78% richest people in the world. [1] Just offering a bit of perspective.

[1] http://www.globalrichlist.com/how.html

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