Ask HN: How can I best utilize $20k towards a startup idea? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I best utilize $20k towards a startup idea?

8 pointsme_me_mu_mu8 comments

I sold some shares and now I have ~20k USD extra. I'm in my 30s and I have been programming for about 5 years, and I'm kind of bored of the daily grind. I can't imagine spending another 5 years crushing Jira tickets or doing code reviews.

I have been working on building mobile apps to tackle problems I'm passionate about solving, and teaching myself as much as possible, and I feel comfortable now with building web/mobile apps, backend services, and I understand a bit about cloud providers and navigating AWS/GCP. I also been reading books through the pandemic on design and product management, and also learned to use various tools like Figma and notion to organize.

How can I best utilize my 20k and do something meaningful with that amount this year? I don't know any 1st hand connections/friends who own their own software business, so I want to ask here.

Should I use that amount to register a business, so that I can release apps under that entity?

Should I use that amount to hire a professional designer to build landing/product page so I can focus on building the app/service and talking to potential users?

Should I move to the bay area or another big city center? Unfortunately I don't have any software engineer friends in my area as I work remote..

Please help me out, I need some inspiration and advice. Thank you.

I am not an expert but was in your shoes a few years ago so check and think on what I say.

The best chance of success will come from having more development time. So don't spend your money. You could also find partners, but make sure there is a peaking order (one of the founders has a plurality). So join someones existing project or sweat enough over your own that other founders would be willing to join at a lesser cut.

I would not register a business. Waste of money (dev time). You can wait till there are other founders or you have revenue and want a tax advantage. Assuming you are in the US you default to a sole proprietorship under your name anyhow, so no worries there. If you want a cool sounding name you file for a "Doing Business As" <cool name" for under ten bucks and ten minutes of your time.

I would not using the big cloud providers. Waste of money. Run it on k8s/VM/Container on your desktop or your PI till you have users or use free tier services.

I would not hire. At 20k the best bang for the buck would be your time.

I would not move. Again, costs. If you want to meet people you already seem to have a knack for it. :)

Also, hunter321 and yuppie_scum are wise men, hahaha, and I don't see any bad advice on this page. Add a contact to your about and I would be happy to chat.

Keep your 20k for now. Focus on honing and studying marketing and sales skills, seek out an audience for your app(s) and figure out how to reach them consistently. Maybe start with a very, very small app you can work on while keeping your day job, don’t outsource anything, do all the dev, design marketing yourself. You will learn a lot through that. Most importantly don’t start something like this without a clear strategy on how to sell it.

1. You don't need 20k to register an LLC or a corporation, but it's a good idea if you begin to collect PII data.

2. You don't need a complex landing page. Just something to explain your product, and collect an email. Use open source landing page templates.

3. Having software engineer friends does not automatically guarantee you anything. Move to an area where you can attend startup oriented events so you can meet founders and investors. They are the people that will teach you things and influence your success the most.

Put some contact information in your profile, or contact me.

I am currently doing something similar, but I have more experience and money saved, several apps already in progress, and trusted developers that I work with.

Maybe our skillsets won't match, overlap too much, or we won't find a common goal, but you never know.

Well I don't know if that's a good advice but I would say first create a proof of concept of your idea and see how people react to it before quitting your job. Then if you get some traction identify the weaknesses and put the money there ;)

I’d love to send you an email. How can I do that? It sounds like you might be in a similar position and I’d love to chat.

Do you have any responsibilities? Take that 20k and go traveling. Note this may or may not be good advice.

Just invest in real estate or vanguard funds. Much lower downside.

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