[tucaz]

There are two sides for you to consider.

On the positive side, it gives the hiring manager, if they care for that, a signal that you can build and ship stuff. You have tried building your own company and has more experience around the challenges that most devs do not have. I love to interview people who built stuff.

On the negative side, it also signals that you might not be as committed to the new company since you are pursuing something on the side, or has demonstrated that you want to pursue something other than the engagement you are applying for. I’m not saying that you can’t do both things at once, or that X is better than Z. Just stating how it might come across and can negatively affect your job search.

As long as you consider these two sides and come up with a “solution” to this, you are in the path to make an informed decision and can “defend” your position.

Good luck!

[wavemode]

While I agree that your "negative side" reasoning comes into play in some hiring managers' minds, in my experience filtering those companies out can be beneficial anyway. There's a night and day difference between the culture of companies that think "I like that my employees are inventive and have hands-on experience building things from scratch" versus companies that think "I'm threatened that my employee might start his own business and not need this job anymore."