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Comment by cperciva | Hacker News Reader

In my case it's a combination of (a) graduating with money in the bank due to generous scholarships, and (b) having low expenses due to living in my parents' basement.

YCers, of course, are given a theoretical 3 months of living expenses and then usually get other investment at the end of the YC program -- so there's no mystery there (at least for those people for whom $5k == 3 months of living expenses).

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Bingo! I too live in my parents' basement - it has it's perks and a few downfalls as well. Aside from saving money, I've found it easier to code at all hours of the night and day while in the basement. There's also an added sense of privacy which seems to give me some mental comfort as well. On the downside, I've now become part of the super-nerd stereotype: jobless and living in my parents' basement. =)

On a side note, I've also found it increasingly difficult to keep in touch with old friends post-grad. The majority of my time is now devoted to my projects rather than hanging out or attempting to reconnect.

On the downside, I've now become part of the super-nerd stereotype: jobless and living in my parents' basement. =)

You're probably just being facetious, but you're not jobless; you just don't have a job that involves working under contract for someone else. ;-)

My friends referred to it as "unemployed but busy", at one point. Many of them were "unemployed and bored" at the time, since it was right around the time when all my friends were thinking of dropping out of grad school.

When I was working on my product full-time, I always said I was "self-unemployed."

As a matter of fact, in India, by default most recent grads live with their parents. In fact, in almost all cases parents pay for your college tuitions as well. So, by the time you graduate, you have no debt, free food and accommodation. But, of course, there is tremendous amount of pressure to get a real job. It is amusing how different two cultures can be.

Just being curious: have you (or anyone else building their startup on their parent's expense) ever considered giving your folks a cut of equity in your company? And if so, how much?

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