The Project: I am starting a company (just myself) to produce mobile phone apps (iOS to start)
The Motivation:
1) I hate commuting, I hate not having an office with a door, I hate having to work on a schedule, I hate having to follow someone else's orders.
2) I don't enjoy writing code, even though I'm very good at it. It's exhausting, and it drains me.
3) I enjoy researching/analyzing potential markets.
4) I enjoy documenting the idea, capturing the product story, rationale for design choices, screen mock-ups, use-case diagrams...
5) I enjoy talking with customers.
6) I enjoy thinking about how to market a product. As it is just as if not more important than creating a great product.
7) I can't stand the boring life of a steady paycheck and limited upside, I crave and seek out high risk/high payoff endeavors. (0.2% equity at someone else's start-up? Do I look naive? Do I look that stupid?)
8) I'm the boss, 'I am the decider' (I'd rather make 30k a year as the boss than 150k a year as somebody's bitch)
9) I would rather work hard for a couple of years to create a recurring revenue stream, than work leisurely and be stuck working for the next 30+ years.
10) Freedom, especially time is more important to me than possessions. A small home, in a small town that is cheap is far more valuable to me as I will then have money to travel and pursue my interests and hobbies. (That's right, I'm leaving you California at the end of this month. NO MORE STATE INCOME TAX :) NO MORE RIDICULOUS COST OF LIVING. NO MORE CARRYING FREELOADERS WITH MY HIGH TAX PAYMENTS (18k just to CA last year just for income tax) )
The Product:
1) I decided to pursue my current product when I searched for it on the App store. The existing apps just suck, horrible interfaces, horrible computer AI (I noticed most of the AI cheats, and is predictable) and no multiplayer, this game is much more fun when you play with and against other people.
2) I researched the market, there are at least 5 million people in the U.S. that play this game regularly.
3) I researched how best to monetize the app, in game ads with the ability to purchase credits to play without ads (why limit the revenue to one pathetic $.99 sale? recurring revenue from the same customer is the ONLY way to make real money)
4) While my competitors quickly whipped up and shipped a very poor product, I will ship a polished well thought out user interface. I will steal their 'customers' and dominate this market.
The Fallout:
1) Even if the product fails, I will and in fact have already learned far more than I did in the last 14 years of being someone else's employee.
2) I feel much better being a doer rather than a talker. I got tired of sitting around talking with other salary slaves about how I was going to do something 'someday'. I'm doing it, and 10 years later they are still talking about it.
3) The IP and server infrastructure I'm building has the high potential for reuse and may even be a product that I can sell to other companies that are interested in multiplayer or even capturing app use metrics and allowing for real time ad configuration.
4) I'm putting my money where my mouth is, instead of sitting around talking about how stupid the managers are, the company executives are; I'm focusing instead on making all the decisions to make my company an enviable success.
5) I have 2 years more of 'runway', if it fails I will be far more marketable. I'll no longer be pigeon holed as just a 'software manager/engineer'. I will be executive material. And if not, I will just bag groceries or serve people at a drive-through, because quite frankly I've had it as being a 'programmer'.
What carries the most weight in my decision? I can't work for someone else anymore, I won't work for someone else anymore. I can only operate in an environment where 'I' have customers.