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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?

#51

Post by brickcap »

GFuller wrote: post #11
brickcap wrote: post #8

I tired to create a couple of products while I was still employed. They were not successful but I learned a lot just by deciding to do it. And in the end it gave me confidence enough to leave the job and go into consulting with which fortunately I have had success. Any way, whether or not you tell your employee about your startup depends upon how well you know him/her, how comfortable are you with him/her and what yo…

Thanks, this is along the lines of what I've been thinking. Although some have said to be upfront with your employer. My current employment is in an unrelated industry. I'm sure nothing good could come from letting my employers know that I'm working on something in my spare time. Especially when I can't be sure what I start will work.

Exactly. What good it will do to either your employer or yourself? Try your ideas out. See if they have any weight. After which assess your situation and have a heart to heart with your employer.

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

#52

Post by frandroid »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #27
alanbyrne wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You may also never work for some of these awesome companies. Pact with the devil, etc.

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

#53

Post by benweatherman »

I was 1 of 4 co-founders of https://www.ordoro.com that we started just as I got a job at http://www.bazaarvoice.com. Both companies are B2B but we're in totally different spaces and market sizes.

I was very upfront about my startup with Bazaarvoice. They were genuinely very excited about my potential success. I was often asked by directors or C-levels how things were going. I recently bumped into the CEO Brett Hurt and he asked me how my startup was doing. I wouldn't have been able to work as hard as I did on Ordoro without all the great support.

I think a big part of starting up while being employed is doing well at your day job. You need to make sure you're doing well there so they can be supportive. If they're having to pick up your slack, they won't be so happy about your new venture.

Good luck!

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

#54

Post by USNetizen »

As it appears to be the case with most people here, I did the same thing - started while still employed.

I started a cloud and security solutions company that mostly targets the government market, but also commercial to a degree.

My employer was supportive. The government market is a little different, though, so if you work for a large company they sometimes see you as an opportunity to work on contracts that are targeted only for small business. For example, you can get these special "small business only" contracts and bring them to your (former) employer to work on as a subcontractor. You both win in this case.

The company is currently growing steadily after about 9 months in operation. We're in this for the long term, so steady is better than a rapid ascent. We have about 5-6 employees and are generating enough to pay myself a large percentage of what I was making working for other employers (which was fairly substantial).

My advice is don't burn bridges - meaning don't let your startup work impact your "day job" while you are doing both. Your employer can be a gateway to your first customers, so don't upset them. Also, there is no "ideal" time to make the leap, but when things are noticeably starting to take off (a couple solid, stable clients on decent-paying contracts) and you can pay yourself about 30-50% of what you were making in your full-time job it would be a good sign.

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

#55

Post by SDGT »

I work a full 8-5 salaried job, have a side job from 6-whenever I sleep, and am starting a consulting gig with a friend of mine.

All bootstrapped, all while still having security. Things are still in their infancy, but we have 5 clients between two people, so things may pick up a bit soon.

I wouldn't do this any other way though. It may take a little bit longer to set everything up, but I have security. If everything fails tomorrow, my worst case scenario is I get back up and go back to work in the morning.

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

#56

Post by j45 »

I went to school and worked part time while starting a business on the side. Looking back, it's interesting to note that one may go through a progression from freelancer, to contractor, to consultant and beyond.

Regardless of what you want to do, some lessons are waiting for us in every decision we make, regardless of the direction.

Entrepreneurship, at a small level, teaches taught me real business skills. There is a huge value in building something small before something big. The difference is sufficient enough that the "go hard or go home" mantra neatly seems to divide the folks who solved any problem of value to others, vs trying to channel their inner Steve Jobs, or doing as others are.

The most valuable thing I have today is the realization that I"m going to do this for a very long time and I will not accept anyone telling me to go home.

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

#57

Post by scuba7183 »

SDGT wrote: post #55

I work a full 8-5 salaried job, have a side job from 6-whenever I sleep, and am starting a consulting gig with a friend of mine. All bootstrapped, all while still having security. Things are still in their infancy, but we have 5 clients between two people, so things may pick up a bit soon. I wouldn't do this any other way though. It may take a little bit longer to set everything up, but I have security. If everything…

What do you consult?

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

#58

Post by SDGT »

scuba7183 wrote: post #57
SDGT wrote: post #55

I work a full 8-5 salaried job, have a side job from 6-whenever I sleep, and am starting a consulting gig with a friend of mine. All bootstrapped, all while still having security. Things are still in their infancy, but we have 5 clients between two people, so things may pick up a bit soon. I wouldn't do this any other way though. It may take a little bit longer to set everything up, but I have security. If everything…

What do you consult?

A lot.

We'll pretty much take care of whatever a company needs as long as it isn't .net. We're predominately a PHP shop that deals with Magento and Drupal dev, but we also do full app development from scratch on Symfony2 or Yii, whatever fits the task the best.

We get requests for doing maint on clients old sites, migrations to new setups, and sometimes just build off little glue apps that makes peoples' lives easier around their respective offices. It's small but getting there.

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

#59

Post by wuliwong »

Thanks for asking this, I've wondered the same thing. I actually just launched http://www.SoSoSwift.com 5 days ago. It certainly isn't a company yet but I hope it might grow into one. If not SoSoSwift, I will certainly keep building startups on my nights and weekends. I work for a big tech company. I know we have one of those crazy agreements about them owning everything I make. But, like I've read I don't believe those overly-broad agreements stand up well in court. Basically, I feel that if I get to the point at which someone starts suing me, then I've accomplished something already. I would be astonished if a court awarded my company to my employer. I suppose a more realistic outcome might be some percentage of ownership or damages? I know it isn't the ideal stance to take but I don't have the savings to first quit my job and then start a project. Anyway, I've enjoyed reading comments from people that have actually started successful companies in this scenario. It seems to be the road less traveled in the startup world, or at least the road less talked about.

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

#60

Post by bawabawa »

I am still currently employed and working on two online applications. Before that, I failed twice mostly because my partners and I were all employed full-time and we did not have enough time to dedicate to our side-project.

This time,I met with some investors who agreed to let me use their resources (dev, design). This allows me to be sure that someone is working hard on the development of the apps since they are paid for that.

I spend 30 minutes in the morning on the "social" aspect of the business, 2 hours at night on management of "my" team (review of the day, planning for the next day, testing), and my Saturday is devoted to tasks which are more time-consuming.

Sunday is the rest day which I keep free from my family.

As I am a C.F.O. by day, my applications are related to my field of expertise:

500Assets (Depreciation Software for accountants): (http://500assets.com/) and rKruiter (Recruitment Management for H.R. practitioners): (http://www.rkruiter.com/)

Being employed allows me to think about growing the company before getting a salary for myself. My employer is fine with that as long as it does not interfere with my job.

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