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Ask YC: What's your day job?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask YC: What's your day job?

#52

Post by RobGR »

SwellJoe wrote: post #9

Startup. Before this one, I had another one for seven years (at some point it stopped being a startup and became a very modestly successful lifestyle business, which wasn't really what I was aiming for, so I shut it down). And when I get bored with this one, I'll start another. I've frequently done contract work, on the side, to make ends meet. Even some quite long projects with great small companies--including anoth…

Just out of curiosity, why did you shut the "very modestly successful lifestyle business" down instead of selling it ? Obviously such businesses are hard to sell to the usual business purchasers (VCs or those business guys who buy franchises or whatever), but you can often find an relative or in-law or local stay-at-home mom who is willing to run it. You might have to be "on call" to consult and help them through problems. Was the business really so specialized that only you could do it ?

Myself, I currently work as a freelance programmer, and do some sys admin work to make ends meet while I try to get my other ideas under way. However, I am going to have to change something, as it is taking up more and more time and making less and less money. If I could get a job as a programmer where they were willing to let me work 2 or 3 days a week for proportionate pay, I think I would take it at this point.

Re: Ask YC: What's your day job?

#54

Post by watmough »

Working out my exit-transition as a programmer/manager at a 300 person consulting shop. I have pretty heavy experience of Oracle and SQL Server based back-ends, batch processing etc., which long-term will make money, but it's not the way the world is going.

Planning to work iPhone software and web-apps. Including perhaps a boutique jobs boards, with the slogan "I personally apply for every job posted!", much like the people who start dating sites to "attract a mate".

Re: Ask YC: What's your day job?

#55

Post by SwellJoe »

raghus wrote: post #43
SwellJoe wrote: post #9

Startup. Before this one, I had another one for seven years (at some point it stopped being a startup and became a very modestly successful lifestyle business, which wasn't really what I was aiming for, so I shut it down). And when I get bored with this one, I'll start another. I've frequently done contract work, on the side, to make ends meet. Even some quite long projects with great small companies--including anoth…

very... and modestly...? :-)

very... and modestly...?

s/modestly/minimally/, I guess. I had a hard time expressing it concisely. It kept me in food and houses and bought me a 350Z, but I never took vacations, and developed a pathological aversion to the sound of a ringing phone.

Re: Ask YC: What's your day job?

#56

Post by SwellJoe »

RobGR wrote: post #52
SwellJoe wrote: post #9

Startup. Before this one, I had another one for seven years (at some point it stopped being a startup and became a very modestly successful lifestyle business, which wasn't really what I was aiming for, so I shut it down). And when I get bored with this one, I'll start another. I've frequently done contract work, on the side, to make ends meet. Even some quite long projects with great small companies--including anoth…

Just out of curiosity, why did you shut the "very modestly successful lifestyle business" down instead of selling it ? Obviously such businesses are hard to sell to the usual business purchasers (VCs or those business guys who buy franchises or whatever), but you can often find an relative or in-law or local stay-at-home mom who is willing to run it. You might have to be "on call" to consult and help them through pro…

Was the business really so specialized that only you could do it ?

Yes, unless I sold it to someone who was roughly just like me, which narrowed it down to a half dozen people. It was an Open Source based business, and a big part of its appeal was the fact that a well-known developer on the project was the one supporting the systems and software.

Selling it would have taken more time for a questionable payout. I wanted to move on to other things as soon as possible (and while it's taken a little over three years, one of those other things is now able to pay about the same as the old business when I left it).

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