Ways to bootstrap a startup: on the side
joel.is
joel.is
(It may be less important to take care of these details in California, where, as I understand it, state law generally keeps employers from claiming rights to what their employees do on their own time, with their own equipment. But the devil's in the details, and it's probably best to talk to a lawyer about the limits of those provisions before taking anything for granted. And most other states are far less friendly to employees than California...)
"I'd only add that, from my own experience, it is more fruitful to avoid emulating the larger team mentalities when you're a single soul company. Specifically, don't aim for MVP, where your first version is this pale shade of your bigger plan. Instead, aim for MVB, or 'Minimum Viable Business'. Make that first version the whole enchilada. It forces you to think about small products that can be profitable on their own without additional effort, rather than always waiting for the next sign post. When you build up several profitable but small businesses, then you can choose which of those to evolve into a more ambitious version of itself. "
This is probably the biggest lesson I learned as well when I was trying to build a startup product on the side of freelancing for a living. When you are solo its infinitely more useful to build up a functional business with cashflow than work on something where you need to scale up to hit milestones before you make money.
When you need cash to pay your bills, it is very difficult to prioritize putting new effort into something that won't make money in the short term...
ideally, it would be someone that shares your 'ramen profitability' and complements your skill set.
When you have a family don't underestimate the impact that running a startup has on them.
I only hope this turns out not to be a false economy.
Spot on, I commented on some of the problems I'm facing on quora....e.g. "You also have your day job keeping an eye on your proceedings, and if its a good place to work you will inevitably get sucked into putting some extra effort in towards the end of projects, detracting from your startup."
I have two great clients at the moment who I am doing contract web development work for and since they're also both startups it works quite well and I can contribute a lot in terms of startup experience as well as just development, and I think that is valued. I'm always aiming to do my best for them and help them move forward as fast as possible, but there is definitely a clear distinction between that work and my startup.