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Comment by dasil003 | Hacker News Reader

I'm really fascinated by this career path. As I approach 40 I'm really feeling the pain of the whole developer vs manager dichotomy. The fact is, I've always been comfortable on both sides as a generalist and a team lead, but as my career progresses I'm increasingly feeling the pressure to specialize either by going full-time or specializing in some area that can command a hire salary than the reams of bootcamp dev grads + 5 years experience are claiming. One path would be to found a company and raise money, but I don't really want to spend my brainpower on pitching investors, and the thought of having employees dependent on me feels stressful. I figure I have enough general experience with tech and business that I ought to be able to bootstrap a comfortable solo lifestyle business, but what?

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I'm just on the other side of 40 and have similar developer vs manager pains as you. Had my own bootstrapped company for several years, sold it, and lately have been working as an engineering manager at a startup.

Its nice not having the normal worries of a founder but I already have the itch to do something again. Problem is, I never have luck when I go out looking for an idea. The idea usually finds you. You just need to make more opportunities for serendipity.

Also, don't think you have to found a company AND raise money.

> I ought to be able to bootstrap a comfortable solo lifestyle business, but what?

I can't help thinking that his blogging & communications was integral not only the success of the product, but the inception aswell. Something magic happens when you build a flow: more stuff appears from nowhere.

I'm trying to do the same. But after spending the last few months building my own product, I feel like I'm not ready yet. The mistake I made in my career so far was not knowing enough about one industry, it's very difficult to think of a profitable idea if there isn't an industry you know inside out. So I'm considering going back to full time employment, pick an area that I'm really interested and learn that market well.

Pick something that you enjoy ... What does pro athletes like more then money, fame, good looks, and medals ? They like training and competing over all else. So in order to get successful you need to really like what you do. Sometimes it will feel like "work", but that usually means it is work.

I am pursuing this path. I'm interested in fulfilled by Amazon-type products in addition to software projects. It's truly amazing how "easy" it is run one of these businesses solo in comparison to before the internet.

What do you mean by "fulfilled by Amazon-type products"?

I guess he means Amazons' FBA, their drop shipping service.

one business model out there is: Find a product like vitamins and slap your brand on it put it on amazon and let them fulfill it.

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