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There's a lot of awful legal advice in the comments here much of which ignores key issues like what exactly your contract says, which legal jurisdiction you are

There's a lot of awful legal advice in the comments here much of which ignores key issues like what exactly your contract says, which legal jurisdiction you are in and what you are planning to do. Ignore all of it. If you want to know about the legal consequences of something you would like to do, take your contract to a lawyer before you do it and pay for written advice. As for what you can do to be successful when you start a company here's some advice: 1) Network. People make crucial decisions about large amounts of money on reputation, instinct and lots of other intangibles all the time. Build a list of genuine contacts. Build a reputation for competence and integrity so that those contacts think and speak well of you. This pays off more than anything else you could do for getting off the ground. 2) Learn. I don't mean learn certain technologies or do lots of qualifications. Learn about an industry (not IT) and it's business problems. Learn this directly from people doing the work, not from go-betweens or books. Of course learn tech too but tech is pretty easy to get to grips with if you're really a geek. When you match cool tech up to real business problems suddenly you look like some kind of wizard.

kanyethegreat 7y ago
Great advice. Number 2 is really hard to execute though. What are actionable steps you can take to really learn about an industry/domain. I wish I was a fly on the wall and could observe people's workflows. Thought about making a platform for this like lunchclub. Kinda like how kids shadow professions they may be interested in.
- ratherbefuddled 7y ago
  > What are actionable steps you can take to really learn about an industry/domain (This is from the point of view of someone who has largely been a s/w developer building products sold to customers not in tech). IMO there aren't any secrets method really, just behaviours that are in some respects obvious but also may run counter some instincts people in tech have. Maybe some of these are overcoming introvert tendencies, maybe some are more about getting outside a tech bubble. Take opportunities to work directly with customers rather than just from specs or via product managers. If you can help out in pre-sales and go meet a prospect, do it. Read the RFP questions and listen to what the client asks. Think about why. If you can go help out with an integration project for a month or two, why not? Learn about the other systems your customers use and what they love/hate about them. Talk to actual users whenever you can. When you deal with a support ticket pick the phone up and have a conversation. Be nosey, show an interest in what they're doing and why. Get comfortable saying "I don't know" to people who do. Read the background on the industry your customers are in. Is there a regulator? Are there industry news feeds everyone follows? Do the large players publish business plans? Read their reports to investors. Identify the key people and follow their output. There's nothing particularly insightful here and I expect this is beyond what most people want to do early in their careers but if you want to build enough knowledge of an industry to start a business at some point you'll need to do these sorts of things. Most people aren't going to wake up one day with a killer idea like being hit by lightning, or fall out of college into the next Google. The majority opportunities take some knowledge, experience and confidence to recognise.
scribu 7y ago
> Build a reputation for competence and integrity so that those contacts think and speak well of you. That's all well and good when you've already got a business up and running. But is there a way to start building those sorts of relationships before you quit your day job? Only way I can think of is by doing contracting/consulting on the side.
- ratherbefuddled 7y ago
  > But is there a way to start building those sorts of relationships before you quit your day job? It depends on your specific job but generally you're going to have colleagues and customers. Today's customer might be a future collaborator. Today's colleague might be a future co-founder. Today's boss might one day be a buyer. For me, the CEO of a business where I was a dev eventually retired after acquisition and some years later helped me to find investors in my own startup. If he hadn't thought well of me I doubt he would have helped. You can't really plan all these interconnections, so you have to do this generally and that's a good thing.

kanyethegreat 7y ago

Great advice. Number 2 is really hard to execute though. What are actionable steps you can take to really learn about an industry/domain. I wish I was a fly on the wall and could observe people's workflows. Thought about making a platform for this like lunchclub. Kinda like how kids shadow professions they may be interested in.

ratherbefuddled 7y ago
> What are actionable steps you can take to really learn about an industry/domain (This is from the point of view of someone who has largely been a s/w developer building products sold to customers not in tech). IMO there aren't any secrets method really, just behaviours that are in some respects obvious but also may run counter some instincts people in tech have. Maybe some of these are overcoming introvert tendencies, maybe some are more about getting outside a tech bubble. Take opportunities to work directly with customers rather than just from specs or via product managers. If you can help out in pre-sales and go meet a prospect, do it. Read the RFP questions and listen to what the client asks. Think about why. If you can go help out with an integration project for a month or two, why not? Learn about the other systems your customers use and what they love/hate about them. Talk to actual users whenever you can. When you deal with a support ticket pick the phone up and have a conversation. Be nosey, show an interest in what they're doing and why. Get comfortable saying "I don't know" to people who do. Read the background on the industry your customers are in. Is there a regulator? Are there industry news feeds everyone follows? Do the large players publish business plans? Read their reports to investors. Identify the key people and follow their output. There's nothing particularly insightful here and I expect this is beyond what most people want to do early in their careers but if you want to build enough knowledge of an industry to start a business at some point you'll need to do these sorts of things. Most people aren't going to wake up one day with a killer idea like being hit by lightning, or fall out of college into the next Google. The majority opportunities take some knowledge, experience and confidence to recognise.

scribu 7y ago

> Build a reputation for competence and integrity so that those contacts think and speak well of you. That's all well and good when you've already got a business up and running. But is there a way to start building those sorts of relationships before you quit your day job? Only way I can think of is by doing contracting/consulting on the side.

ratherbefuddled 7y ago
> But is there a way to start building those sorts of relationships before you quit your day job? It depends on your specific job but generally you're going to have colleagues and customers. Today's customer might be a future collaborator. Today's colleague might be a future co-founder. Today's boss might one day be a buyer. For me, the CEO of a business where I was a dev eventually retired after acquisition and some years later helped me to find investors in my own startup. If he hadn't thought well of me I doubt he would have helped. You can't really plan all these interconnections, so you have to do this generally and that's a good thing.