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Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

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Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#21

Post by toddynho »

I started BuySellAds (http://buysellads.com) while employed full-time at HubSpot (http://hubspot.com). A few years after leaving, my company ended up on the Inc 500 (http://www.inc.com/profile/buysellads) and we're still doing quite well.

- I had the project specifically spelled out in my employment agreement with them since I had already been working on it for a while. I started working for them because I genuinely believed in their mission, and there was a certain allure of a steady paycheck after freelancing for a while. I made the decision to leave after about a year of trying to juggle both.

- By the time I left HubSpot was 50 people and they had plenty of funding, so while perhaps they would have liked for me to stick around, there's nothing I did that has ultimately contributed to them becoming the billion dollar company they are today (a nice humbling lesson for the youngster I was back then...).

- I actually think doing this (as long as you can keep it clean legally and actually own what you're building in your spare time) far outweighs quitting your job before starting a company. I wrote a post on Quora about this in a little more detail (http://www.quora.com/I-plan-to-quit-my-job-at-a-software-com...)

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#22

Post by Major_Grooves »

I started Satago and raised my first money for it on Seedrs while I was still employed at Rocket Internet. I don't think it was in my contract that I could not start a company (it is in many) but I did have to get an IP waiver from Rocket before Seedrs would release the investment - just in case. I then built most of the MVP (with a contractor) whilst employed, which was very difficult.

Main advice would be to save as much money as you can before you take the plunge. I did not have enough spare money. Also play with timezones if you can. My contractor is in Russia, which meant I could work with him in the mornings if I got up early before starting my day job.

Here is where we are now: http://www.satago.co.uk Got in to the Seedcamp accelerator and raised $1M announced the other day. Going quite well. First employee starting tomorrow. :)

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#23

Post by demystified »

I did start a company while still employed.. Here is what I did:

- Was upfront with my employer. (having established such a trust-based relationship for a long-time did really help)

- Told him that while I was using my spare time for my 'business'. If it would start getting more of my time, I was willing to negotiate a part-time position (hey, be honest, and if you are really valuable to your employer, there is nothing you should be worried of)

Believe me, people quit their jobs all the time - what employers do not like is getting caught off-guard. Just give them sufficient time in advance before leaving your job -- that will be appreciated most of the time.

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#24

Post by preinheimer »

I launched WonderProxy ( https://wonderproxy.com ) while employed. I actually launched it to solve a problem a co-worker was having. He was a friend, and kept having to stay late to try and test aspects of our website using various free web proxies.

I bought a few VPS in different countries, gave him the password, and it was an instant hit.

They were my first customer, and are still a customer several years later. I launched with like 13 servers. We've got 127 now in 65 different countries.

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#25

Post by sebslomski »

1 1/2 years ago I started my company http://cutterslounge.de I didn't quit my job and started working on my company, I've already built a prototype of my product whilst being employed. This gave me the huge advantage of not starting from scratch. It was easier for me to convince my now co-founder to join me and quit his job.

After I quit my job, I had still a good relationship with them, which made it possible for me to work freelance for them from time to time. This means there was cash flow from the very first days.

Now, a 1 1/2 years later, our product has become passive income with almost no effort now. My co-founder and me worked as consultants/freelancers while we developed our product. Showing off our product gained us trust and some local fame, which lead to many really cool jobs and investments (right now we ware working on a quite cool project, where we are invested in as well).

I'm happy :-)

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#26

Post by mokkol »

I am starting my own company ( a saas app ) while im still employed. I changed 5 day workweek to 3 day work week so I have more time for my side project. The salary cut is worth it. I rather spend some time in the weekend to rest and preventing burning out. I can survive as well with my current salary so I lower the risk for not having any income.

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#27

Post by pkorzeniewski »

alanbyrne wrote: post #3
paraschopra wrote: post #2

Yes, I started http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ when I was employed as R&D engineer. I told them way before and the business interests wasn't competing. The company is doing quite well. My advice would be to say upfront and declare what you're doing, and if possible get in writing that this is something you'll own (and not them).

I agree with paraschopra. Many places I have worked have included a clause in the employment contract that says something along the lines of "Anything you create whilst working for us, including in your own time, will become property of our company"

I can't believe some companies include such clause, I would never sign such bullshit agreement. I can understand a clause against creating something that can be a competition to your employer products, but other than that - stay away from my free time.

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#28

Post by m4nu »

Started working on https://nota.io while employed as full stack dev. The idea actually came from my day to day workflow.

Quickly I found that I had trouble focusing on the job that was actually paying me and all i wanted to do is build my app. So I quit (my employer totally understood my motivations). That was 6 months ago.

Now I've launched a few week ago and I am realising that I planed a bit short budget wise, so soon I am afraid I'll have to go back job hunting. I wish i had plan for more slack.

The lesson that i've taken form that is that if you want to build a software that you are passionate about soon enough it will take all your focus. So do plan on that. Validate and plan as much as possible while keeping your day job and when you are as ready as you possibly can just take the dive! Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Did you start a company whilst employed?

#30

Post by sumedh »

pud wrote: post #4

I started my first company while employed as a project manager at a web design shop. I started a (smaller) web design shop. While employed, I spent some evenings and weekends trying to find clients. I quit my job when I got my first paying client. The company I started isn't around anymore -- but here I am 18 years later still happily self-employed and doing well. So I'd say it was a success. Edit: Last month I gave…

That was a nice talk.

Why am I getting the Jobs stanford speech vibe in your talk.

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