Personally I've never been able to really combine work with startups. You are single-threaded, so to speak, so doing things sequentially (work -> quit -> start

Personally I've never been able to really combine work with startups. You are single-threaded, so to speak, so doing things sequentially (work -> quit -> start company) works better than multi-tasking. Plus, staying on the job gives you too much comfort. Here are four things that I have done or considered doing: 1) Try to sell your startup idea to management. Chances are it won't work, but it's worth a try - the company might invest money or people in it. This one actually never worked for me. 2) Try to steer your work at the job so it overlaps with your startup. E.g., if you think your startup should use Python, but you don't know it, persuade your boss to use Python for your next work project, so you can get the hang of it. Persuade your company to open source some code that could help you for your startup. 3) If you work in a place with good bonuses (50%+ of annual salary), work hard, wait for the bonus and quit. That's what I planned to do, but my hedge fund went bankrupt three months before bonus time. Still, I got a decent settlement, so it worked even better. 4) Decide you are quitting, but don't announce it. Become a bad employee. Note that this is immoral, dangerous and potentially illegal, plus faith has its way to play jokes on you, so after you burn the bridges with your boss you might meet her again in a different scenario (e.g., she becomes a VC). Leave the office earlier, start working from home more often (while actually working on your startup), try to take a 1-2 month vacation/sabbatical, etc. Unless you work at a 7-11, you would usually have 2-3 months before management starts coming down on you. This way you can work on a prototype and if two months in you realize it's not worth it, you can still recover things at the job.