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Been at bigco, did a few startups, a couple paid out, most did not. As an option, I'ld explore a side-hustle first, see if you like doing that enough before go

Been at bigco, did a few startups, a couple paid out, most did not. As an option, I'ld explore a side-hustle first, see if you like doing that enough before going all-in. Your goal for side-hustle, 20k MRR or gross margin monthly (ecom). Choose a metric that's real. If you can't hit it on a part time basis, you probably won't make it on a full time basis (for venture style startups that is. If you're targeting lifestyle growth levels, you can always do that part time. So what if it take 3x longer because you spend 2 days a week instead of 6 on it. ). Run it like a startup, eg. hire folks, pay for them (out of your salary), manage them, build out specs/build stuff/etc. Do all the things you would need to create a startup. Low risk, a little expensive as an experiment, but if you didn't leave your posh job, you can afford it. eg. it's a 100-200k experiment, but that's 'ok'. You'ld have certainty.

technotony 8y ago
I've seen many many of my friends try the side hustle, and none succeed. Mostly they burn themselves out from working so many hours and then stuff gets tough, as it does, and they bail. I think a better approach is to make some savings and take a sabbatical to test out what it's really like. If your day job is cushy and unstressful then maybe that's a different story...
- jamisteven 8y ago
  ^ This, so true. Lot of people preaching the side hustle who either havent actually tried it OR have very lax jobs that allow for this kind of thing.
- avbanks 8y ago
  So since none of your friends succeeded in doing a side hustle that means you shouldn't?
- anonfounderj 8y ago
  Yes. Doing a (venture) startup is tough. If someone can't handle the stress/hours/etc of building out a side-hustle.. they won't succeed as a founder of a full fledged startup either. It's a signal. Stay in the job. Sabbatical: yep. definitely do that if possible/available.

technotony 8y ago

I've seen many many of my friends try the side hustle, and none succeed. Mostly they burn themselves out from working so many hours and then stuff gets tough, as it does, and they bail. I think a better approach is to make some savings and take a sabbatical to test out what it's really like. If your day job is cushy and unstressful then maybe that's a different story...

jamisteven 8y ago
^ This, so true. Lot of people preaching the side hustle who either havent actually tried it OR have very lax jobs that allow for this kind of thing.
avbanks 8y ago
So since none of your friends succeeded in doing a side hustle that means you shouldn't?
anonfounderj 8y ago
Yes. Doing a (venture) startup is tough. If someone can't handle the stress/hours/etc of building out a side-hustle.. they won't succeed as a founder of a full fledged startup either. It's a signal. Stay in the job. Sabbatical: yep. definitely do that if possible/available.