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Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

deepsouthventures.com

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Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#51

Post by Fin_Code »

llmblockchain wrote: post #46

I can relate to this, though I came into it already knowing how to do the coding part. I had no idea how to do the rest of it. My entire career was spent building valuable software for companies to generate large profits only for me to be laid off (and fired, once). After the firing I was quite angry and probably a bit arrogant. I went on a bit of a rage.. "I built the most successful product there, I can do it on my…

I'm right at your starting point. Can basically build anything but committing to an idea is the sticking point. What product would you want to start with today?

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#52

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

For me, I found out that us “olds” are not exactly loved (actively hated, more like), and gave up looking for work, after being laid off from one of the top imaging corporations in the world.

Pissed me off, something fierce, being treated that way (especially as I figured out it was being supported from the C-Suite). However, I have since realized that it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

I enjoy writing software. So much, that I will do it for free.

When no one’s paying me, I get to do it the way that I want to do it. No scrum standup humiliation sessions, no deliberately writing terrible software, so terrible programmers can understand it, no being told how lucky I am, to be “allowed” to work.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#53

Post by giancarlostoro »

dkobia wrote: post #32

I've often heard the narrative from hiring managers over the years that a prospect who's been laid off probably doesn't make a good hire, especially if they've been laid off multiple times. In this wonderfully written and inspiring piece, perhaps we should consider that the real issue isn't the individual's capability but rather that their potential has been misdirected or they haven't been in environments that recog…

> especially if they've been laid off multiple times.

Every fantastic senior dev I have worked with has been laid off several times. Our industry is not immune to companies failing. You shouldn't discount people just because they've been laid off.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#54

Post by mraza007 »

llmblockchain wrote: post #46

I can relate to this, though I came into it already knowing how to do the coding part. I had no idea how to do the rest of it. My entire career was spent building valuable software for companies to generate large profits only for me to be laid off (and fired, once). After the firing I was quite angry and probably a bit arrogant. I went on a bit of a rage.. "I built the most successful product there, I can do it on my…

That’s impressive,

If you don’t mind can you share what have you built

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#56

Post by codazoda »

Fin_Code wrote: post #51
llmblockchain wrote: post #46

I can relate to this, though I came into it already knowing how to do the coding part. I had no idea how to do the rest of it. My entire career was spent building valuable software for companies to generate large profits only for me to be laid off (and fired, once). After the firing I was quite angry and probably a bit arrogant. I went on a bit of a rage.. "I built the most successful product there, I can do it on my…

I'm right at your starting point. Can basically build anything but committing to an idea is the sticking point. What product would you want to start with today?

Reach out if you want to start a conversation. I'm thinking maybe a Slack for people at this stage. My email address is in my profile.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#57

Post by llmblockchain »

Fin_Code wrote: post #51
llmblockchain wrote: post #46

I can relate to this, though I came into it already knowing how to do the coding part. I had no idea how to do the rest of it. My entire career was spent building valuable software for companies to generate large profits only for me to be laid off (and fired, once). After the firing I was quite angry and probably a bit arrogant. I went on a bit of a rage.. "I built the most successful product there, I can do it on my…

I'm right at your starting point. Can basically build anything but committing to an idea is the sticking point. What product would you want to start with today?

I'm unsure if my advice is any good, but it's what worked for me. Here's the general thought process/flow I use.

1) Start by picking your customer. Pick a customer that is easy to find and has a clear channel to access them. For example, maybe I want to target sales people. I know a lot of sales folks use LinkedIn, seems like an easy channel to them. edit: Also, pick a customer that _pays_ for things. B2B-type customers. You don't want to be selling a product to teenagers, developers or anyone that doesn't like to pay for solutions :)

2) Don't invent anything new. Pick a well established idea/business that is already being done (and most importantly, people are paying for). Continuing on the sales example, I know sales people often pay for technographic data. There are plenty of SaaS products out there selling that kind of data. I build a list of them.

3) Scope the product down to its bare essentials. What exactly are the sales people buying? The products probably have a lot of fluff that isn't needed. Get rid of it. This is a good time to talk to the target customer. It can be nice to hear their complaints about the products they are currently using, etc.

4) Finally, build the product and ship it. Get the initial version out quickly and keep refining it.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#58

Post by renegade-otter »

I was putting off starting my SaaS idea for years (has to do with assigning code reviewers based on specific file patterns and notifying them on Slack) but the idea was much more marketable 10 years ago when I first had it. GitHub did not even have the concept of CODEOWNERS back then.

After getting laid off, I decided to roll the dice instead of looking for another work-for-hire. Yeah, it's too late, but I needed this just to get excited about technology again. I was seriously jaded from debugging the microservices spaghetti at every frigging job, trying to make a pile out of water and not actually building anything.

I torches through my savings, and no regrets. I am in my 40s, and the time to take a chance is running out.

The point is, there is such a thing as "right place, right time". The idea and the execution have to be well-timed. It might be too early, or it might be too late (as it was for me). Take The Globe, for example - the Facebook before Facebook. They failed because a) there were no phones b) not enough people online to get the network effect. Similarly, good luck getting your "crypto" getting traction at this point.

If you have an idea, and you think the time is right - take the chance. Not knowing what will happen is part of the fun. Don't look at it as taking risk, look at it as rowing through a river and without knowing where the river goes. If you don't row, you will never find out what's around the bend.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#59

Post by atrettel »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #47
atrettel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post reminded me of some thoughts I've had about a similar topic over the last few years. I'm a scientist, and I've often thought about how the work I and others would do would be different in different funding environments. That's the same idea of people's "potential [being] misdirected" that you are talking about. People often chase the newest shiny things and follow the money for both hiring and funding, but…

This makes me think about all the psych grads, that went to school, wanting to help people, but are now writing dark patterns. But they are being paid a lot more than they would get, helping people.

That's a great example of this kind of problem. People are pragmatic and take the jobs that are available, even if that it's not what they originally planned for or what would be more helpful. I've done the same myself a few times.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#60

Post by [deleted] »

eightturn wrote: post #19
leetrout wrote: post #4

> I didn’t raise any money for these projects. I funded them with my 9-5 salary. Solo. And the reason for that was simple – why on earth would I vehemently abandon boneheaded micro-managing layoff kings in the 9-5 world only to raise money & adopt a board of boneheaded micro-managing layoff kings in the startup world. If I’m gonna build, I’m gonna have free-rein decision making to pursue any and all ludicrous busines…

appreciate that, leetrout (Peter here)

[deleted]
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