"What would you do if you were me?"
I'd start learning to be more self-reliant and stop seeking advice on what I should do with my life from random people on the internet.
I'd start learning to be more self-reliant and stop seeking advice on what I should do with my life from random people on the internet.
Asking for advice from peers who are actively involved in what you want to do is a great idea.
Since you are early in your dev career, I would highly recommend finding an existing startup to join with more experienced developers and learning from them - both what they do wrong and what they do right. Hopefully more of the latter ;)
When I left my first bay area job I almost did my own startup at that point. However, when I was honest with myself, I realized I wasn't ready to do it alone and needed a team. So I looked around and applied at several startups. I felt great about one particular startup where the founder was super-smart in business, but also very mature and kind. I don't think I ever saw him get upset or show the least unkindness during the whole startup phase. And he had plenty to be frustrated with, believe me. Anyway, I learned a ton of good and bad through that experience and the company was acquired by Intuit for $60 million. I was really lucky in that regard. Most startups will not have an exit so quick or so profitable.
So that's my recommendation based on my limited experience. Good luck!
I think he has some serious soul searching to do and that's what I was trying to communicate. I could have said it more gently I suppose.
If you actually read his question, it's clear that he is asking very specifically for advice on this situation:
1) Moving to California
2) Wants cofounders
3) Has junior dev skills in PHP/Ruby
4) Has 10K in savings
Doesn't sound much like the meta-physical angst question as you suggest...
Exactly.
The good news is that there are plenty of startups that already have the "show off the ground". Join the most interesting startup you can find with a team you 'click' with, then work your tail off with them. You'll learn more than you ever dreamt ;)
If I present a problem to a bunch of friends, the chance that I'll just take their list of suggestions and pick one to run with is minimal. What is valuable are the various tidbits of information that come up during the discussion. Often, it's information that I wouldn't have thought to ask about directly.