Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs

[jriley]

I'm a YC '08 Reject underwhelmed by my safe, boring corporate gig. Regular scans of HN remind me of the excellent things happening elsewhere. I was particularly struck by the theory that the best example you can set for your kids (0 so far) is to pursue your dreams, not an income.

I quit today, bought the supportive girlfriend a ring, and will start January 2011 as my own boss. I'm giving myself six months to bootstrap. Thought you should be the first to know.

Let the fun begin.

[patio11]

Congratulations on making the most important decision of your life and, secondarily, on opening the business. Words cannot express how much better self-employment is than what I used to do for a living.

[stavros]

Well, it's only good if it's making you money...

[suhail]

jriley: Email me [email protected] -- You just got free Mixpanel, good luck when you launch we're here to help.

[DanielN]

This is some of the best and most simplistic advertising and pr I've seen in a while. I've heard of mix panel probably 50 times but this was the first time I clicked through your website to see what you guys are all about.

Nice product by the way.

[jacquesm]

Classy!

[staunch]

> Thought you should be the first to know.

Good and good luck. Now please tell your fiancée!

[toast76]

If I have two pieces of advice I can share,

1. Pick up some contract work - you can easily turn 6 mths into 12 mths, and then 2 years, then 3...no matter how many projects fail to get off the ground, if you have a bit of side income, it'll help in the long run.

2. Don't ever forget why you quit - if that is to "pursue your dreams, not an income". Write it on a wall above your monitors and don't ever forget it.

EDIT: Oh, and good luck! :)

[gommm]

Be careful with contract work though, it's very easy to fall into the trap of taking on too much and pushing back your own project...

Contract work can be worse golden handcuffs than a job in corporate

[dstein]

  Once you have mastered time, you will understand how
  true it is that most people overestimate what they can
  accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can
  achieve in a decade.

  -Tony Robbins

[dmoney]

How do you master time?

[bobf]

The same thing is true on smaller scales as well, for example: 1 day versus 10.

[jeromec]

Let the [work] begin.

FTFY I hope you're prepared to work at least five times harder than you did at your safe job, and for little to no guaranteed reward. Actually, if you're only giving yourself six months, make that ten times harder. I would say good luck, but considering around 90% of startups fail, work hard, be persistent and expect difficulty, seems more helpful to say. The success stories appearing on HN can give a skewed impression on how hard it is to succeed. Congratulations, though, for bucking a potential path of regrets.

Edit: A bit more advice is release early, and often. The trick is finding the balance between minimum viability and having enough value for traction. Iterating on an idea is almost always necessary, so be on the lookout for how that can help and possibly even save your endeavor. A six month deadline to succeed means you're really going to be up against it.

[rewind]

The comments and/or advice you're giving (and the tone you're using) are the type of things you say to someone before they decide to make the jump if you want them to think long and hard before making a tough decision. When you say it like this to someone who is announcing that his decision is made, you just sound condescending. It doesn't help that you throw in a bunch of advice when you don't even know who he is, what his company/product is about, or what his plan is.

[toast76]

Wow. The Thanksgiving parade was last week Mr. Raincloud.

Here's some positive thoughts for you!

- Running your own business is quite simply the most rewarding thing you can ever do (professionally at least). - Succeed or fail, you'll come out of it better off than you started. - Don't measure your success by whether TechCrunch writes about you. Measure it by being proud of what you achieve. - Even your biggest failures are at worst just one learning step to your first success. - If nobody has heard of you in 10 years time, but you're happy, enjoying your work, have a happy and healthy family and you're still your own boss...then you've succeeded. Congratulations.

Most importantly - Ignore "minimum viability", "traction", "iteration", "deadline" and all the other things a dozen different "5 steps to success" books might tell you.... if you have the confidence to go it alone, then do what works for you, YOUR product and YOUR dream.

[jasonkester]

This is what everybody says, but I just haven't found it to be true.

I work 40 hour weeks sometimes, 20 hour weeks other times, and often go entire months not doing much at all on the startup. The ball is always moving forward though, and things are always getting better.

It really doesn't take a huge amount of effort to get your first version out the door. And it doesn't take much effort beyond that to get to the point where money is coming in. Once that happens, there's no particular reason I can think of to work 60 hour weeks, unless that is something you want to do.

Naturally, it depends on what you're building. If you're a single founder though, it pays to build something straightforward that solves problems for people with money. There's lots of things like that that need building. Build one and you'll (hopefully) find it doesn't monopolize your life.

[jey]

Relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ

Rumor is that the "boss" was actually David E. Shaw himself.

[hasenj]

I already regret not learning serious hacking in high school and university.

I got lots of A's (and B's), mind you, and I did work on projects of my own and everything, but I really saw it as just a hobby. I was always on windows, mostly dependent an IDEs, and I always thought I gotta be doing something more serious, like gasp oil and gas.

Good thing I'm still 25.

But I really feel like I should've started thinking about doing a startup when I was 18 or 20.

[earle]

It's not a rumor, Jeff Bezos did indeed work at D.E. Shaw & Co. So did quite a few well known people in technology.

[sreitshamer]

You might need a lot more than 6 months. But, like my wife always tells me, you don't fail as an entrepreneur until you quit. And the ride is sure worth it. Life is short.

[pbhjpbhj]

>you don't fail as an entrepreneur until you quit.

I'm not experienced in it, but I imagine that one can fail as an entrepreneur because you didn't quit.

Flogging dead horses and all.

[kadavy]

Amen on that. I figured I'd need 6 months starting about 3 years ago. Things are really starting to come together now though.

[arianb]

It'll be a tough and long road, but if you're really set on it, you'll be happier than ever. Good luck, man.

[kj12345]

Good luck! One odd piece of advice I have is to recommend limiting the amount of startup advice you read online. It's too generic now that you've committed. Focus on what you're creating, not on making your venture look like the internet's current concept of "startup". Look, for example, at the popular phrase "Minimum Viable Product". You'll find a lot of excitement around the "minimum" part, but the "viable" part matters also and is fully dependent on what you're doing. There are many things that are unique about individual businesses, but generic online advice by necessity exaggerates the shared aspects.

[seejay]

Dear fellow HNer,

This is to help you when you visit this page again in a difficult time...

Shit happens... thats completely normal. Awesome things will definitely come your way. You only gotta do one simple thing...

Keep swinging!.. Don't ever give up!

Tattoo this on the back of your hand if you want... it's totally worth the trouble.

With the very best of luck,

SeeJay

PS: And thank me on that day when you read this post again with joy... Oh just for the record, No! I don't have it tattooed on the back of my hand... I make sure I have it on my mind instead. ;-)

[kaffeinecoma]

What are you planning to work on?

[jriley]

The original project exists in working order and my partners agreed to let me buy their share. I'll be building out v2 as we designed. We all took 2 weeks off in 2007 to build it, launched it, and hardly ever touched it again. v2 carries it to iPhone, iPad and starts marketing it.

If I have ambition after that I've got a few quick ideas (a short e-book on an area I've developed expertise, an obscure niche how-to site, fixing up my rental property, etc).

[dorkitude]

Congrats :)

If you're in SF, let me know

We have a sweet co-working space for hackers with all of the three C's: coffee, camaraderie, and a fast connection

[jriley]

Appreciate it. I'm actually in Austin though, and eager to meet some like-minded folks. I'll be checking out the local bootstrap chapter to start.

[dannyr]

In the Bay Area here.

Where/what is your coworking space in SF?

[skbach]

6 mos ain't enough, but otherwise, great idea.

[lrm242]

6 months isn't enough for what? To build a product and start selling it? To raise venture money? To put together a presentation and pitch 10 customers?

6 months is plenty of time to accomplish a lot. It's enough time to build a product and get non-trivial revenue. It's certainly enough time to prove to himself that he made the right decision.

[Xuzz]

Then again, no matter how much time you give yourself, you will find a way to fill it up. Maybe an unrealistic goal is for the best: it might increase productivity, even if it slips.

[cmer]

I completely agree with this. 6 months is definitely not enough runway to iterate a few times and find a winning combination. I've seen too many people fail because of the lack of runway.

I suggest that you do a few consulting gigs on the side to keep you afloat...

Congrats on your big move!

[sachitgupta]

How much do you think is enough?

[marcamillion]

Firstly...let me say...Congrats.

Secondly, brilliant that you made sure to lock in the girlfriend at the beginning of the journey, not after you started when she realizes what a crazy person you are - and how crappy the emotional roller coaster will be. :)

Thirdly, I wish you all the best. I would recommend that you quickly setup a landing page to ride the support you are getting from the community - collecting emails from people interested in what you are doing. You have to take advantage of all of these opportunities right now, because you officially have a clock strapped to your back (i.e. before you run out of money). So leverage every opportunity to the most you can. On the landing page, put something about the project that people can figure out if they would be interested or not.

Fourthly, definitely keep us posted - even those that might not be interested in your product, will be inspired by your story.

[efsavage]

"the best example you can set for your kids ... is to pursue your dreams, not an income"

My father did this, in several ways, and failed massively at all of them, and yet for reasons I can't really articulate I 100% agree with this.

[csomar]

I still a student but I'm building my small Internet Empire, so that I don't need to apply for a job when I finish studies (or better, don't think about it). I completed around 35% of my studies and yet, this month, made (around $400) what an Engineer would make in my area.

I'm enthusiastic about the future, especially the next month, when I'll release my Wordpress Premium plugin (and estimate $1K in sales in one month).

Even if you have a nice job, make sure you always have an alternative, in case of... you don't get sucked, by anyone.

[PStamatiou]

jriley: Email me [email protected] Would love to intro you to someone you should meet in Austin.

[danielson]

Godspeed!

[gshannon]

This is the best thing you will ever do.

You will look back at this moment and realize it is the defining moment in your life.