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Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

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Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#111

Post by zigzaggy »

_vuqm wrote: post #49

Might not be your typical answer, but I launched an ecommerce store that’s been profitable since the first month. At first I targeted solo devs without much digital design skills, but it turns out that blank sketchpads are very useful to designers and design agencies as well. It’s done well enough where I continue to run out of each batch of inventory and it’s turned a small profit as I continue to order large and la…

These are awesome. I’m a proposal manager, and I sketch out storyboards with pen and paper during the planning stage. Something like this with pages divided into 1/4ths and 1/8ths would be very helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#112

Post by ryandrake »

drb91 wrote: post #81
ryandrake wrote: post #7

Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…

IANAL, but I believe at least in California, emmployers have no right to IP that is unrelated to work IP and developed on your personal time on a personal laptop. If it is in a contract it should be unenforcable. The key here is having a clear demarcation between work and personal projects.

Also NAL, but my understanding (even in CA) is it comes down to whether or not there is a conflict of interest. Say you work for Amazon and want to write software for controlling drones. Is there a conflict of interest? Does Amazon make drones? Maybe? Maybe they will? Do/will they use drones and purchase drone software? I’m already seeing dollar signs (legal fees) flying past my eyeballs here. Why would anyone risk that kind of legal exposure, even if they are “really sure” they are right?

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#113

Post by patd »

I would call it a profitable side-project rather than a startup but I've built a price comparison browser extension : http://www.shoptimate.com

I'm currently busy launching a SaaS tool http://blockedby.com but having two small children, a full time job and Shoptimate.com limits the time I can spend on this.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#114

Post by bootloop »

polote wrote: post #67

That's what I do currently, I'm a full time product manager in a normal company, and I'm also working as a CTO at a startup, we are 3. Two people are working full time, and I only work part time (about 30h per week). I do that, because I like doing multilple things at the same time. But I think it is a very difficult life. I can do that because I have no social life and everything is optimized so that I can work all…

"Very tired all the time" - Where I come from (EU) this is the reason why it's not allowed to work two jobs (>40h) if the employer doesn't approve.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#115

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

wilsmex wrote: post #79
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This absolutely infuriates me to the point where I'm struggling to remain civil. My blood instantly began boiling after reading that sentence. Why the @#$% does some web designer think it's a good idea to disable mousewheel scrolling?! What does this accomplish? What feature do you gain? What was the goal? I just can't for the life of me grok what would be going through someone's brain when they decide "Hey, you know…

In this case it's a bug, as I'm not trying to 'disable' the mouse, but track scrolling and then make the menu 'stick' to the header when the user scrolls down the page. A common design pattern which increases usability quite a bit.

Isn't that usually done with CSS?

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#116

Post by overcast »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #97
overcast wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter" That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Assuming you're not stealing technology, or doing it on their time or machines, there is no way a court would uphold that. If I build a house, or rebuild a car in my off time, they own that too? Corporations don't own your entire life.

This blog post has a decent explanation of the rationale for why they are written that way: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr...

I understand their rationale, but the problem is that unless your state protects you from nonsense, they are still written in a way where they literally are saying they own everything you do outside of the job. Likely? Who knows. But if an employer was really interested in the value of one of your projects, they could potentially bring up a suit against you for it.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#117

Post by quickthrower2 »

polote wrote: post #67

That's what I do currently, I'm a full time product manager in a normal company, and I'm also working as a CTO at a startup, we are 3. Two people are working full time, and I only work part time (about 30h per week). I do that, because I like doing multilple things at the same time. But I think it is a very difficult life. I can do that because I have no social life and everything is optimized so that I can work all…

Does you diet suffer? Exercise? Do you get to shower? Sleep much?

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#118

Post by simplecomplex »

dazhbog wrote: post #75

We had a different turn of events in our case. Me and my co-founder we were working on the startup, while on our full-time jobs, and we got some grants from governments to allow us to quit and persuit it full time. This was 4 years ago and we are still going strong with sales and grants. Never underestimate the opportunities for free money! Governments, councils, schemes, all have projections, agentas and budgets and…

Any good resources for which grants are available for tech?

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#119

Post by quickthrower2 »

deedubaya wrote: post #60
redhale wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how one of the Breezy testimonials is from HOALife. Way to dog-food!

Ha, I should probably update those to customers that are less biased

You are not the first, you won't be the last :-)

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#120

Post by leetrout »

jjoonathan wrote: post #77
jcadam wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I now ask to see these agreements before signing a job offer after making a similar mistake at a previous company.

I did too, and they made verbal promises that they went back on. Next time I'll make sure to ask in an on-the-record communications medium.

Same here. Was working on some research projects and the future employer's recruiter said my new manager loves giving back and while I would have to reduce my hours on the project it should be fine. Legal did not agree, minor he-said-she-said spat and I reneged on the offer. I hate feeling like I'm an indentured servant for a company that wasn't even willing to match my existing pay.
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