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Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

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Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#41

Post by nostrademons »

azanar wrote: post #16
mdolon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

On the downside, I've now become part of the super-nerd stereotype: jobless and living in my parents' basement. =) You're probably just being facetious, but you're not jobless; you just don't have a job that involves working under contract for someone else. ;-)

My friends referred to it as "unemployed but busy", at one point. Many of them were "unemployed and bored" at the time, since it was right around the time when all my friends were thinking of dropping out of grad school.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#42

Post by beathan »

wheels wrote: post #40
beathan wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear more about your move to Europe. Did you move for a job and have an employer help out with the red tape, or did you work out another path? Having spent about a year in Europe backpacking during my college days (on $10k, no less), finding a means to make it a full-time experience would be great. EDIT: I assumed you are/were a citizen of the US and shouldn't have.

Yes, I am a US citizen. In a nutshell, I took all of my overtime and vacation in that year of working full-time and went to Guatemala to study Spanish and met a German girl ... that was September of 2001, so a pretty nutty time in the US, and it seemed like a good excuse to try something different. I had a job with a startup lined up, which fell through, and then ended up getting hired by the SAP LinuxLab who sponsor…

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#43

Post by marram »

We are two cofounders. We both had full time jobs. We worked nights and weekends for a year and got something out the door. Now that it is going well, I made a deal with my employer to switch to part-time. I consolidated my fixed costs (aka sold the car, got rid of cable) to be able to live on a part-time salary. The other cofounder is on an H1-B, so he doesn't have the same options.

We live in Cambridge, MA, so you can get by without a car. Food is cheap, and rent is in the range of $700 a month with roommates. So one should be able to live in Cambridge comfortable on about $1600 a month.

Once we get funding, we will both do it full-time.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#44

Post by protohex »

code_devil wrote: post #39
aditya wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you know that you can always switch to a part-time H1b to make more time, right? Also, apply to YC if you are interested and ready to commit, the visa thing is hard but not insurmountable (especially if you raise money). IIRC, The buxfers did it! It's very easy to go down the road of, oh no there are so many obstacles, but if you're relentlessly resourceful, you can make it work :)

I am a believer in "if you're relentlessly resourceful, you can make it work :)". I honestly never considered/thought moving to a part time H1 especially in this economy. It was always evenings/weekends in my mind. But now that you mention about Part time, it seems a pretty descent option :) BTW what/who are the "IIRC , The buxfers" ?

IIRC = If I Recall/Remember Correctly

Buxfers = http://www.buxfer.com/about.php (I think)

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#45

Post by monological »

I just graduated and got a full time job. I leave work around 5ish, I hit up a cafe and usually work until 8-10. I get home relax a bit, I go to the gym around 11 and then bedtime for me. Lather, rinse, repeat...

I've learned what I need to do to not burn myself. I've fine tuned it to the point where it's become sustainable, at least for a while. I try to exercise four times a week, eat healthy, get at least 7+ hours of sleep and to, once in a while, change things up dramatically to break routine, such as going to a different city to work.

My job pays the bills, I don't have very many responsibilities and my goal is to start a company which will provide a steady source of income and open up other doors of opportunity.

Bottom line: You can have a full-time job and start a company.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#46

Post by frosty »

nostrademons wrote: post #41
azanar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the downside, I've now become part of the super-nerd stereotype: jobless and living in my parents' basement. =) You're probably just being facetious, but you're not jobless; you just don't have a job that involves working under contract for someone else. ;-)

My friends referred to it as "unemployed but busy", at one point. Many of them were "unemployed and bored" at the time, since it was right around the time when all my friends were thinking of dropping out of grad school.

When I was working on my product full-time, I always said I was "self-unemployed."

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#47

Post by dannyr »

code_devil wrote: post #9
tokenadult wrote: post #6

I see a common theme here in the first few submitted replies. What does an ambitious young person do if the parents are a) dead and gone, b) sick and dying, c) impoverished, or d) stingy? (I ask as a parent of would-be start-up founders, trying my best not to fit into those categories, but never knowing for sure when I might fit into category a).

I think it's ideal to have some sort of part time job. In my case, I have a full time job and can't leave it for two reasons: 1) I am on H1b-Visa [More Important than #2, so didn't even think about applying for YC this summer, though I would love to] 2) I need $$$ :-) I typically try to wake up early(6am), hit the gym, put in my 8/9 hrs at work so I am free by 5-6 pm. Now I have potentially 6 more hours till 12:00 am…

code_devil,

I'm going to Startup Weekend but I'm also a backend developer. There should only be 1 backend developer per team right?

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#48

Post by jdileo »

nolanbrown23 wrote: post #10

Everyone's how is going to be different and probably not applicable to your situation but here is what you can do...just make it fucking happen. This small piece of advice may not seem that helpful but what I'm trying to say is you're nuking it. You're over thinking. Jump in head first and see what happens. On that note, I don't recommend any plan that involves your parents, but that's just my undying need for self-r…

Although I am new to HN I have tried to contribute in a positive way and have not, until now, left a negative comment.

Being a founder is about getting things done, busting walls down and doing, often, the unthinkable in terms of effort and brainpower to prove your thesis correct.

Based on your question, you probably aren't ready.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#49

Post by TorUsa »

nostrademons wrote: post #3

The easiest way is just to move back in with parents. Most middle-class families can afford to do this; I think the stats from my graduating class (05, top private college) were that 50% of students were moving back home. I took a slightly different path: I moved back in with the 'rents, but I also took a job for a couple years and saved up money. Then I went full-time on my startup, funding it mostly out of savings…

Is this in the U.S.? If I were a school administrator and half my graduating students were moving back in with their parents after graduation, I would consider my school to be failing terribly. I would expect even a community college to be better than that.

Alternatively, by "top private" do you mean very expensive, so most of the students were independently wealthy and were getting degrees in things not intended/needed to provide jobs after graduation? I just can't fathom going to / sending my child to a school where that was normal.

Re: Ask HN: You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How?

#50

Post by nostrademons »

TorUsa wrote: post #49
nostrademons wrote: post #3

The easiest way is just to move back in with parents. Most middle-class families can afford to do this; I think the stats from my graduating class (05, top private college) were that 50% of students were moving back home. I took a slightly different path: I moved back in with the 'rents, but I also took a job for a couple years and saved up money. Then I went full-time on my startup, funding it mostly out of savings…

Is this in the U.S.? If I were a school administrator and half my graduating students were moving back in with their parents after graduation, I would consider my school to be failing terribly. I would expect even a community college to be better than that. Alternatively, by "top private" do you mean very expensive, so most of the students were independently wealthy and were getting degrees in things not intended/nee…

Yes, this is in the U.S.

"Top private" as in #1 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. It's academically selective (slightly under 20% acceptance rate), and yes, very pricey for those not on financial aid. The demographics did skew toward children of upper-middle-class parents who wanted degrees in useless subjects. Liberal arts, after all.

BTW, this is not saying that 50% of graduates could not find jobs. There were a couple in that situation (mostly English, history, and language majors), but most people living back with their parents had jobs - in some cases, very good ones. I worked at a financial software startup. I had a classmate at the State Dept. Another friend was doing strategic analysis at MITRE (MIT Research and Engineering). All of us chose to live with our parents, even though we were making more than the median household incomes for our respective areas. Then there are more conventional live-with-parents stories, like the schoolteachers and librarians and baristas and unemployed.

It's more that if a large enough critical mass (say, all the English majors) chooses to live with their parents, it then becomes socially acceptable. And then their friends do it (while banking the rest of their salary), partially so as not to feel "different" from their less-successful classmates and partially just because they can.

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