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What are the chances of one succeeding with moonlighting?

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Re: What are the chances of one succeeding with moonlighting?

#3

Post by mwerty »

This is like being a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. (paraphrasing Charlie Munger)

Self-serving bias all over. As far as I can see, the only valid reason for working on a startup part-time is risk/cost tolerance or some obscure personal situation.

Some 'advantages':

>You can fund your own startup.

Refer pg's equity equation. I'd love to have sequoia/YC worry about my company in addition to my co-founders.

> No one is going to kick you because your took money from them for your FAILED startup. No one even cares if your startup fails

That's not necessarily an upside. I think most people can deal with personal failure a lot better than letting someone else down. This affects motivation. To quote Bezos: Jeff Bezos: I think one thing I find very motivating -- and I think this is probably a very common form of motivation or cause of motivation -- is... I love people counting on me, and so, you know, today it's so easy to be motivated, because we have millions of customers counting on us at Amazon.com. We've got thousands of investors counting on us. And we're a team of thousands of employees all counting on each other. That's fun.

>If you love coding then you can enjoy it 24/7

Try it and notice your efficiency. I'd actually recommend switching roles for your day job and night job.

Regardless, Kudos for being the one-legged man - this shit ain't easy.

Re: What are the chances of one succeeding with moonlighting?

#5

Post by edw519 »

Actually, he overlooked one very, very good reason:

You get requirements from your daytime job.

This is so important that when I stopped moonlighting and went full time on my start-up, I kept an outside client 2 days per week. Let me explain...

One of my biggest problems has always been WHAT to build, not HOW to build it. Many successful start-ups have been the result of building what one needed oneself. I just expand "oneself" to include my parttime clients. Think you have needs? Wait til you see the long lists of needs in almost any small business. Sure, I lose a little time in the development cycle, but I more than make up for it at user acceptance time. No cycles there - I already know what they want.

Re: What are the chances of one succeeding with moonlighting?

#6

Post by dottertrotter »

It really depends on what you call success. If you determine success to be getting acquired and retiring, then no I don't think moonlighting will get you to that point. However, if you determine success to be creating a side business that is profitable and has a slower, but possibly more steady growth rate, I definitely think that is possible if not probable. I have succeeded in creating a profitable side business and regardless of what others may think, I consider myself successful because of that.

Re: What are the chances of one succeeding with moonlighting?

#7

Post by hhm »

"# No one is going to kick you because your took money from them for your FAILED startup. No one even cares if your startup fails"

Actually, this is not the case. Your family is going to kick you big time if you were away of them for months, for a projects that fails. They are counting on you... (at least if you are married, or you have kids, etc)

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