Ask HN: Just quit my job, with zero traction on startup | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Just quit my job, with zero traction on startup

10 pointsboeing76713 comments

Today I officially quit my job. I was unhappy. I was told to "tough it out" by many, and I did, but it only became worse. So that's done, I left.

My startup still makes $0.00 in revenue, but I've at least finished coding a Beta version of my SaaS app, and literally only a few days ago started to blast off some cold emails and also recorded a product demo.

I have a good 7-8 months of runway.

If need be, I can cut down my burn by half by giving up my lease and moving into shared housing. If it comes to that.

My question is what should I do now?

1) Immediately look for another job, plug the leak ASAP, runway notwithstanding, and still work on the startup on the side;

2) Give my full-time focus to getting some customers for my SaaS app, make it work, get some initial revenue traction by hook or by crook. Just swim or sink; or

3) Adopt a hybrid approach -- give it a month or two of just full-time focus selling and finding customers. By the end of that "trial" run, I'd either have enough revenue to survive (probably not), some revenue to show for my efforts, which would justify burning off another 2 months of expenses, or no revenue, so I'll start looking for a job again.

Anyone been in this situation before? What did you do, how did it turn out, and what would you do if you find yourself in this situation again?

This may be a bit off topic, but the world needs more people like you. From what you've described I say you are tougher yet more realistic than most. Fearless. I don't know why the job you left didn't realize that. Most would kill to have employees like you given those employees are also productive.

I agree with Trexen though. Your application will likely fail. Most successful applications I've seen succeed (and companies) are never cold start like that. They always seem to come from an established business approaching someone and professing need for their idea/passion/tool and agreeing to be an early adopter/customer. Maybe you can try finding your early adopter/customer before beginning development on your next project. It's a good way to bring in money earlier and a good way to attract investors. It's hard to develop a tool in isolation without a customer guiding you with use-cases and real world need.

Well my day job deteriorated to a state where the stress of staying on far exceeded the anxiety of leaving it, so the only rational thing to do is to cut it off.

As for customer development, there are already multiple healthily-growing startups doing what I'm doing; there is a market, no doubt. It's a matter of reaching them now. It's an MVP, not a full-fledged product.

Worst comes to worse, I'll do a major pivot or shelve it.

Don't have a 6 month runway. Have a lifetime runway. Just keep making and launching things till something has significant traction.

You can only do this with an income. Or it will all come crashing down in six months.

Realistically, your current project will fail. Plan instead t launch 10 things in the next five years.

Put that money in the bank.

I agree. Also 8-12 months is an unrealistic timeframe to generate revenue. Most startups, especially bootstrapped ones need at least 2 years before they gain any serious traction.

With some discipline, you can dedicate 2 hours a day on your startup.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I got to ramen profitability within 6 months in my previous SaaS startup. I'm not saying it wasn't hard, but it isn't this super-impossible thing everyone makes it out to be.

I'd go with shared housing first. While looking for a part time Dev job. Inform the business-owner about what you are trying and that it's possible to go full-time after x months.

Set a deadline and know when to call quits. You want us to assure you, that you did the right thing. But you have the odds against you, so prepare for a worst-case.

Ps. I have multiple side projects running, profitable while working full-time.

PS2. Don't ever work on your side projects during working hours, except handling email.

> except handling email

Why exception for email? I would think even side project email should be a no no during work hours.

Email goes fast and can ruin a lot. As long as you don't do work, you won't lose measurable time ( I do it during coffee or toilet walks)

7-8 months of runway is too little, at least for me personally (I'd be afraid to go do something like this without a longer runway). Move to shared housing first, to extend your runway to 1-2 years first would be my suggestion.

Also, try to find some part time development job (you can tell the company that you are working on bootstrapping your own startup but are able to work for 20 hours or so per week for them as consultant). This will give you some safety net and some income, hopefully enough to just break even while living in shared housing so your runway doesn't decrease too fast.

It's unrealistic to have any meaningful revenue in just few months, expect about 2 years for that in case your SAAS app takes off and you will also need to invest a lot into it in the meantime (infra costs, marketing etc).

Been in this situation b4 - quit first job out of school after 1.5 years of being in it...couldnt take it. Spent ~8 months trying to start a company to only lose like 10k, and not have a lot to show other than some cobbled together code.

I rebased, and saved up - have a job now paying 3x the amount i made then and some runway to pick it up again and bust my ass this time (with a f/t job)

What went wrong during your first go at it?

Ran out of $, really. People telling me I was crazy, that I needed more experience.

I have never personally observed anyone build a business in 7 months and I’m nearly 50. I think your best bet is to get freelance dev work or a part time job to subsidise your income.

I have a part time job and saas sideline which pays a 1/4 of my income. I think techies underestimate the difficulty of sales and marketing. It’s hard work.

I wish you good luck and hope you prove me wrong.

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