quitting your day is foolish. income is income. you can always start your project on the side. now if you run low on cash you're going to have to waste time interviewing for jobs or begging for money. since you don't have a proof of concept, you're going to have a much harder time begging for money. at the least you should see if they'll let you stay on part-time (20 hrs/week or so), if not take you back full-time. get something working using your nights and weekends.
I agree it's a good idea to get something going while still employed. I disagree it's "foolish" not to though. I think the #1 cause of failure for most startups is never taking a plunge at any point. I know too many people who have dreams that remain dreams for so long they're eventually forgotten. It can be really hard to do a good job on a side project if you're the kind of person who tends work really intensely on one thing at a time.
Better to take the risk (if you can) and have a real shot at success than always be waiting until "tomorrow". He's forcing himself to succeed or fail. People are capable of a lot when they don't have an easy out. How many successful companies were side projects? Maybe 5-10%? That's a damn low number if you realize how many people have side projects they wish they had the balls to turn into companies.
My big concern is that $15k just isn't that much cash. Unless you're living somewhere ridiculously cheap or rent free (parents) that's probably just a few months. Not enough to get the profitability for almost anyone. YC companies only work because they get 3-4 months free, can spend their own money after that, and have a really good shot at getting funding.
Thanks. I burn only a few hundred bucks a month, currently. I've been living at a friend's trailer with his band. In exchange for contributing around the house, I get a roof over my head and all the Ramen I need, so not a bad trade. I'm aiming to stretch the money to last a year and a half, but realistically I'm planning for one year. It may also help that I'm 20... It would be hard to sustain this kind of lifestyle after I have assets, I think. I'm also grateful that I'm working with an extremely talented partner.
You're correct. To get tasks done, I have to intensely focus on them one at a time. It has been frustrating to build a product during nights and weekends. A lot of times you simply feel too burned out after work to continue on essentially a second workday. You do anyway, of course, since that's what's required -- but why go through that stress? It is such a relief to have ~50 hours of my life back per week. I'm also fairly sure that those hours won't be wasted, or that the waste will be small, because it's actually a lot of fun to resist temptations like tv, forums, games, etc. It's so much more satisfying to create than to consume.
> I'm also grateful that I'm working with an extremely talented partner.
Congratulations! If you don't mind me asking, what is the situation with your partner (did he or she take the plunge too?)
"Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things--childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves--that go on slipping , like sand, through our fingers." - Salman Rushdie
i disagree, and here's why: most of the applications that we see developed are based on ideas that flow from the common experience, then crystallize via a good idea. regardless of how good your idea is someone else is thinking of it too, and it becomes a question of who can get it to market fastest. if you're a part-timer competing with someone who isn't (as i was in a previous project) you're going to ultimately lose, as your potential users will latch on to the thing that fulfills their needs first, even if doesn't do so best. when that happens, your userbase's growth curve will be slowed.
a few months ago i quit my full-time job to pursue a startup with only $6k in the bank. yeah, food is slim pickins, but we launch stage 1 tomorrow and it feels darn good.
none of this is to say you can't take on a few hours/week of contract work of some kind, but your startup should be your primary focus.
