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I am planning to live on the provision from my parents to startup after June. That is when my current job finishes. :-)
Well, of course, I have got my ideas and plans ready before starting. :-)
WebNotes’ first founder worked part-time on WebNotes for about a year after graduating before raising enough investor money to go full time. After going full-time, he gave everyone else an ultimatum to jump ship as well, and now, we’re a five person team. So, in short, I’m lucky. The startup has been able to fund me from the start.
I ask because there seems to be some division amongst the comments and essays I've read about how severe of a risk this is, and whether it is a greater risk than jumping in without building up a sufficiently comfortable cushion beforehand. The other half of this, that either hasn't be discussed as much, or maybe I just haven't noticed discussions of, is what happens when a risk of competition appears while the people involved are working at mitigating the risk of inadequate savings/funding.
It seems that some would argue that going the route of the part-time job to fund the project is reasonable path to follow and that things will work out; others that would claim that it puts the startup at an acute risk of failing or just never getting off the ground, and that never having enough money goes with the territory.
As concrete examples of both viewpoints, the 37Signals guys would argue that splitting one's time at first is fine, and is in a lot of ways more desirable than diving straight in. On the other hand, pg has argued in his essays that moonlighting is incredibly risky to a startup's success, due to both the time commitment required by other obligation(s) and the placating effect of an near-assured soft landing should things go bad.
It seems like this situation is precisely where discussions of risk trade-offs come in. Hearing the thoughts behind how these trade-offs are balanced is interesting and useful, both for the sake of curiosity and helping me and others develop an intuition for where our own balance should lie.
In my case it's a combination of (a) graduating with money in the bank due to generous scholarships, and (b) having low expenses due to living in my parents' basement. YCers, of course, are given a theoretical 3 months of living expenses and then usually get other investment at the end of the YC program -- so there's no mystery there (at least for those people for whom $5k == 3 months of living expenses).
Bingo! I too live in my parents' basement - it has it's perks and a few downfalls as well. Aside from saving money, I've found it easier to code at all hours of the night and day while in the basement. There's also an added sense of privacy which seems to give me some mental comfort as well. On the downside, I've now become part of the super-nerd stereotype: jobless and living in my parents' basement. =) On a side no…
There's also the Royal Society Enterprise Fellowships, also in Scotland, which is an even cushier deal - you graduate straight from PhD to startup with a year's salary from the university and some small seed investment.
For the most part universities want to commercialise your work, so if you're a graduate with no money but a ton of great work you want to turn into a business, there is support there - you just have to know where to look.
This applies more to postgraduate students, mind; some of the things that supported me fresh out of my BA and looking to start some projects included a part time job that paid well enough to cover my basic expenses, leaving me free to tinker in the rest of the time, and doing a lot of freelance work which pretty much came to the same end. Having money saved up from internships and graduate stipends also helped, but I believe the system is a little different in the US ;)
I started my first company by getting supported by my partner, working all day & night :). I had a deadline of 6 months to release which I met. We lived like students (still in a student flat), and by no means had any disposable income. It was exciting and daring, and paid off. My advice, find a brainy girl/boy who believes in you (and can add value in their own way) and talk it over :)
I started my first company by getting supported by my partner, working all day & night :). I had a deadline of 6 months to release which I met. We lived like students (still in a student flat), and by no means had any disposable income. It was exciting and daring, and paid off. My advice, find a brainy girl/boy who believes in you (and can add value in their own way) and talk it over :)
That's pretty impressive. The pressures of working 24/7 on a startup don't always mesh with the ideal of a happy balanced relationship, especially if the startup founder is relying entirely on the other to be the breadwinner. I've not really been in that position myself, but I've heard a lot of stories about how relationships nearly died because of someone getting obsessed with a startup and neglecting their spouse.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's pretty impressive. The pressures of working 24/7 on a startup don't always mesh with the ideal of a happy balanced relationship, especially if the startup founder is relying entirely on the other to be the breadwinner. I've not really been in that position myself, but I've heard a lot of stories about how relationships nearly died because of someone getting obsessed with a startup and neglecting their spouse.…
She's a special girl what can I say :) We have both been working on a mutual startup products for a few years now. It has worked for us, probably because we are both different (optimist/dreamer vs pessimist/realist) yet the same (passionate, understand the same domain specific areas, work insane hours and love it).
It's amazing what the response to
"I just recently graduated. Instead of going to Europe to get drunk for a year, I'd like to go home for a year and write software for my startup."
can be.
In my case it's a combination of (a) graduating with money in the bank due to generous scholarships, and (b) having low expenses due to living in my parents' basement. YCers, of course, are given a theoretical 3 months of living expenses and then usually get other investment at the end of the YC program -- so there's no mystery there (at least for those people for whom $5k == 3 months of living expenses).