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Comment by indieofone | Hacker News Reader

I would add this advice: 1) start by working on your apps on the side while working another job, 2) while working said job, save and invest. Over time this can provide the cushion necessary to jump to full time indie.

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This is excellent advice. I have done side hustles for a while before jumping full indie, when I had enough runway to make me comfortable. Some people wait to jump full time once their side income replace their salary. For me, it's a recipe to procrastinate forever

My strategy was interest income + indie business income. I went full time indie once my interest and dividend income was a few thousand per month.

Just be careful of inventions assignments. If you live in the US you probably signed paperwork that says anything you invent or create is property of the company you work for.

If you signed one of these and hack on the side… successful business could be owned by your previous company.

You can always ask that they release the IP which requires the lawyers to officially sign it over to you.

Before you quit your job make sure you own it.

I think it would only matter for something that is quite significant. And in that case, you would probably quit long before it mattered.

Careful, you can still be sued by your past employer even after you quit.

How can they prove when where and what. Ive never seen this happen and largely think its FUD.

I mean if you have git commits from that period it’s pretty easy to track it

commit after hours or weekends

that's not exactly how those work (they can claim an invention if it's done during work hours, with company equipment, in the business area of operation. Might differ from state to state, but that's the gist of those contracts

It varies by state, what you described is California's rules, which are by far the most permissive of moonlighting.

Note that it's an "or", not an "and":

i.e. your employer can require you to assign the invention to them if it's done during work hours OR with company equipment OR related to the company's business.

The full text in the California labor code is here:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....

There’s only a few states (CA and few others) where the employer can’t claim IP developed on your own time and equipment. The other states absolutely can.

Most indie developers are not developing IP of interest to anyone other than the indie. Without marketing and continued development the IP is of little value.

Yes if you invent the next google in your spare time you could be in trouble. For this it’s best to get funding. At the lifestyle income level, your employer doesn’t have the time or money to waste on your passive income stream.

Obviously don’t be cavalier about it, but this will just get you fired not sued.

highly depends on your employer and your relationship to them. I've heard of cases of someone getting sued due to _an open source_ they maintained, simply out of pettiness.

wow

I saved up enough money to last a year and then lived off that while I developed my product full time. By the end of that year I was making close to what I made in my old job. 20 years later and I'm still working for myself.

That's a good advice. For me I was doing freelancing on the side for many years, and then naturally as my app was starting to make more money, I'd decrease the amount of freelancing I was doing, and then eventually I stopped freelancing altogether.

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