6 ms·

Ask HN: Who has started a successful side business while having a full time job?

• ezekg 6y ago
  I started keygen.sh while I had a full-time job. I ran it for 4 years on the side and just recently went full-time on it. You have to make time to keep moving forward.
  • asdev 6y ago
    how many hours per week did you spend on it while running it on the side?
    • ezekg 6y ago
      In the beginning it was like a second job late at night. But towards the end it was an hour or so in the mornings for support/sales, and then maybe a couple hours during the evenings, and a 4-5 hours on some weekends to work on feature dev. I agree with another poster that it’s more about energy than time.
• ecesena 6y ago
  We launched https://solokeys.com https://solokeys.com 2y ago. We're 4, 2 with kids 2 without. I think having partners is fundamental to keep the flywheel going. And also accept that -at the beginning- it's a side project for everybody, so you can only put a few hours, things will necessarily progress slow, etc. Don't give up and celebrate any small win. BTW, despite all the issues that 2020 & covid brought us, next week we're launching our v2: https://solokeys.com/v2 https://solokeys.com/v2.
  • asdev 6y ago
    wow, that looks awesome! did it require a lot of capital initially for manufacturing and sourcing?
    • ecesena 6y ago
      We did it with just the Kickstarter, so around $100k, nothing out of pocket except maybe a total of $1-2k to prototype. The "mistake" we did initially is that we didn't account for enough extra inventory. I mean, with the KS money you have to 1) fulfill the backers, 2) create additional inventory to sell. But at a certain point while you're selling your inventory you need to start manufacturing another batch and you need money for that. Tl;dr: 3x your production costs, don't 2x them. It's not a huge issue, but that means you can do a smaller 2nd batch and you risk to run out of stock, which we did. Don't get me wrong, it's a good problem to have... it's just extra work and we could have optimized better.
  • 35mm 6y ago
    I recently bought a Solokey after researching YubiKey alternatives (the usb-c version seemed overpriced). I assumed your company was much larger than a side project, so great work! I’ve been recommending it to friends. My only feedback is that I’d love to have some kind of waterproof casing beyond the silicone cover that I could put on it - I keep it on my key ring and living in the UK my pockets do get wet in the rain.
    • ecesena 6y ago
      Thank you for buying and for recommending it! The v2 is water resistant, we sealed all components in a layer of epoxy. For v1 there's still a layer of epoxy on the components. As long as you dry it before usage, a bit of water shouldn't damage it. Or if you feel adventurous you can try sealing it with some glue or epoxy. P.S: I called it side business in the sense that it started as a side business. Then thankfully it grew into a company.
      • 35mm 6y ago
        Good to know, thanks!
• clementmas 6y ago
  If you're patient and if the project is not too complex I don't think it's a problem. I launched https://travelmap.net https://travelmap.net 7 years ago while working full time and stopped my job 3 years later to work on it full time
  • asdev 6y ago
    I think patience is my problem. I've always heard start up folks preaching "move fast, and break things" so that's what I try to do, and ship an MVP as quick as possible. However I always feel I'm not moving quick enough and that gives me stress
  • testmasterflex 6y ago
    You should change text Color on that title and subtitle (at least on mobile). Contrast is too low.
  • princevegeta89 6y ago
    Nice product! How many paying users do you have ?
  • blackrock 6y ago
    How’s this working out for you?
• willswire 6y ago
  I developed my first macOS app in November of 2019 because I needed a Safari extension to automatically refresh my browser tabs. After a few months, and a few hundred downloads, I decided to publish it on the App Store and charge a few bucks. I finished out 2020 with a decent profit, and am now working towards learning the Xcode/Swift environment for iOS. I subscribed to a course on Udemy, and do an hour a day. Most people are under the impression that having a successful side business requires an additional 40 hours a week. Find something you're passionate about, see if you can make money by doing it, and take a long-term approach to building up the skills required to be successful. How you live each day is how you live your life. The small investments everyday add up!
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• sigil 6y ago
  I’ve started a couple businesses on the side. First one, took the leap to full time after a year of very long hours. Second one, took the leap after 6 years (!) of less intense work on the side. In the second case I negotiated a 4 day work week. That helped me stay sane, but the one day on / six days off cadence made it hard to build momentum. Putting in a little work on the side every day, as other commenters suggest, is probably the way to go. But it’s a different (and to me less rewarding) kind of work that can be done in small increments. Probably not deep work. Choose your business idea and responsibilities accordingly! And be patient.
  • asdev 6y ago
    Yeah I really feel like I need at least 1.5 hours to get in the deep critical thinking zone, where I can start really doing meaningful work. However, it's hard to find the time to do that
    • sigil 6y ago
      Indeed. Consider whether you might be able to validate the idea without writing code, by outsourcing dev, or building your mvp with low-code / no-code. By validate I mean (1) people will part with real $ for something that's a pretty basic mvp, and (2) there's also a reasonable possibility of it paying your bills. At that point, take the leap (it's always a leap!), roll up your sleeves, and allow yourself to do the deep work to make it successful. If you see early indicators of a successful side business, don't wait too long to leap!
• testmasterflex 6y ago
  Do you work 9-5? It’s actually not about time but about energy levels. To be able to accomplish this, you setup your life to have maximal energy level balance throughout the day. For me that meant to unfortunately leave my girlfriend at home almost every evening the past year to get a few hours in almost everyday until I was done. This also included eating the same food (ready made from Lidl) everyday and just saying no to everything and everyone all the time. I also recommend that you try to take as little responsibility you can at work and perhaps working from home if possible, where you then use half the day for your own stuff. One of the few benefits of this lifestyle/endeavour is that you have an income while trying your startup idea.
  • asdev 6y ago
    Yeah, doing things like neglecting my girlfriend for my side project isn't something that I want to do, I personally think that isn't healthy for our relationship. Of course, everyone has a different kind of relationship so it can work for some people. Was it worth it in the end for you?
    • testmasterflex 6y ago
      It’s harder to found a startup than finding a new girlfriend... (YMMV) Yes I learned a lot. And she respected my commitment but we fought a lot from the stress. All good now.
      • arbhassan 6y ago
        Someone's been watching too many videos of Kevin O'Leary.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • ezekg 6y ago
      Do what I did with my wife: work on the couch while you watch TV together. She eventually saw how important it was to me and it was easier to step away for some productive alone time more often. I will say that it’s much harder now that I have a daughter, and that’s one of the reasons I am now full-time on my business instead of staying part-time. :)
• jmd509 6y ago
  I started a niche menswear business while working FT almost five years ago. I've made plenty of mistakes. It has evolved tremendously over time. It's now almost completely passive, and by adjusting a few levers could be profitable. But it does not - and likely will not - have scale. It also has vulnerabilities that I "can't" (read: won't) address while also working FT. So it's hard to say objectively whether it's successful. But as a learning experience it has been worth its weight in gold. The diverse hard and soft skills you accumulate in the course of keeping your side hustle afloat while spending minimal money are endlessly valuable. Most of them come from learning the hard way. But that's what makes them stick. I've applied some of these skills and lessons learned to newer projects with positive results. A few takeaways: 1.) If you can sift through the mountains of B.S., there is extremely high-quality, free content available to learn about building and scaling startups (e.g. YC Startup School, books, etc.). So not knowing what to do, per se, is not the issue. The real issue is knowing what hard-but-necessary things you should probably do, but not doing them. 2.) So, about those hard-but-necessary things. Working a "day job" and coming home to your side business can be exhausting. This exhaustion can further discourage you from doing the necessary things to grow your startup. To overcome motivation draughts and other mental hurdles, it's helpful to have some combination of the following: A.) a co-founder to share the load, B.) added accountability, e.g. employees, investors, C.) a valuable network with the resources or knowledge to pull you past certain plateaus, and/or D.) extreme passion and enthusiasm for the category / business. 3.) The ultimate challenge is finding balance. Yes, you will need to make sacrifices. But the experience forces you to be acutely aware of how you allocate your energy and attention. For example: Does spending a few hours per week exercising actually provide a net-positive affect on overall productivity? Does 20 minutes of clear-headed morning work before commuting accomplish as much as 1 hour of exhausted, post-commute work? While we're at it, is there "dead time" you could be using to work on your side business (e.g. commuting, watching Netflix, sitting on your phone waiting for food, etc.)? Are you already over-committed and stretched at work? Could you talk to your boss about your workload, find someone to delegate to, or negotiate a more flexible work arrangement? Are you spending an hour most nights with your significant other but your mind is elsewhere, or are you spending forty-five min where you're totally present? The list goes on. This exercise in itself is valuable even if your startup ultimately fails. 4.) Finally, in my experience, you can build a profitable product and achieve PMF while working a day job. These things require mostly a good tactics and knowledge (see #1). The true hurdle becomes scale. Scale requires resources - you could throw money at it, but that's rarely sustainable. It's better to use your time, ingenuity, sweat equity, and enthusiasm and hope the flywheel starts turning. But these are in short supply when you're already contending with a day job and other priorities. You can optimize your days (see #3). You can put controls in place to contend with inevitable hurdles (see #2). 5.) Ultimately, you need to define what success looks like for your side-business. Whatever your goal, day job or not, value comes from finding and solving the most interesting and commercially viable problem you can. Without this, the challenges of running a side business while working FT grow exponentially.
• princevegeta89 6y ago
  Off-topic slightly, but I'm currently working on a side project along with a demanding job at a FAANG company. I've been working on it for about 4 months and we're close to launching the initial product. Although I'm at FAANG, my full-time job is nowhere near interesting or motivating to me as what I'm working on the side, which gets me up at any point in the night or day with 0 second thoughts. Working out helps me a lot and allows me to refresh and get more capacity. Sure, there are days where I'm squeezed out, but enough sleep also helps. What I've also learned is, use anything you have to, to get the job done and don't focus on optimization and scaling problems at all. Make sure to throw away features that don't add any value now and always keep that in mind. If you are careful about these points, you can certainly accelerate.
  • asdev 6y ago
    I guess it's not a solo endeavor, you're working on it with other people? How many hours a day do you work on the side project vs your FAANG job?
    • princevegeta89 6y ago
      After my job takes close to 10 hours, I put roughly 3 hours on the side project everyday. Weekends and holidays are where I put 10 hours in it per day. I'm working on it with one another partner by the way.
      • braveyellowtoad 6y ago
        I respect your effort. Out of curiosity, do you have a partner / children? If yes, how do you balance your family with work/entrepreneurship? If not, do you think people with family commitments can/should use their free time on side projects? (As for me, I work similar hours to you and have a wife but no kids. I think my side projects will have to stop when the kids come along; my wife is already sad that instead of spending time with her I choose extra work that is unpaid in the short term and may never result in a financial reward for our family.)
• hiram112 6y ago
  I've tried a few times - mostly just blogging and pay-per-click revenue and developing software and sites for individual clients. It was not worth the trouble. Maybe it was only possible in the last decade (2009-2020) due to the stock market being in a valley when I started investing a large percentage of my income each year, but I now make 6 figures a year in dividends and capital gains from my investments in S&P funds. I did live frugally and sacrificed a lot, and it probably helped that I do not have a family nor a mortgage. Because I still live way beneath my means, this "business" continues to grow exponentially year after year, and I'll be able to retire pretty comfortably in my mid 40's (estimate). It takes very little of my time (compared to an actual business like Ebay reselling or some small SAAS that I could create). I know it's not the type of side-hustle many on this site imagine, but it probably is more feasible for those who don't have any million-dollar ideas, don't want to put in the time and energy into a high-risk venture, and already enjoy (or can tolerate) their day job that pays well enough.
  • asdev 6y ago
    do you have a finance background? what resources did you use to get started?
    • hiram112 6y ago
      No I don't have a finance background, but my dad was a finance guy. Growing up he gave a small amount of money to us each year in a mutual fund, and so I learned very young how exponential growth works. It's one thing to learn about it with formulas in math class, quite another to see the $500 invested at 12 years old become $3000 in your late 20s, without doing any work or maintenance. It leaves an impression. The best resource I can think of right now is something like Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/. There are various sister subs that are more specific to the lifestyle you want. Getting started earlier - in your 20s, especially if you make a decent engineer's salary with low cost lifestyle - is the biggest advantage you have over everyone else.
• frongpik 6y ago
  It's manageable if you have a business partner so you two could alternate in running things and you'll have to slack off at work to release energy for the side gig. Also, beware that your employer might try to get a piece of your side profits: there are ways to dodge this, but you'd better have a sound defense plan.
• joemclarke 6y ago
  I started my web hosting business while working full time and going to grad school part time in 2005. I worked on it nights and weekends and tried to incorporate it into my grad school projects. I was able to leave my full time job and go all in on my own business about a year later and have been self employed ever since. It just takes a lot of patience, motivation and a willingness to give up some of your free time.
• blackrock 6y ago
  Someone should create a website for all the things you need to learn, to start and run a side hustle.
  • itisit 6y ago
    Not exactly a how-to guide, but some good info here: https://www.starterstory.com https://www.starterstory.com
• analog31 6y ago
  I started a business to make a gadget for a niche market, while also working another sideline as a part time musician. One thing is that my day job did not demand heroic hours, and I have a very short commute. I live in a cheap region, so I have plenty of space in my house for all operations. Another factor is that the market itself is such that my business will never grow beyond a certain size. I make and ship a few gadgets a week. I'm successful inasmuch as the business adds a few thousand dollars per year to the kitty. Playing music has also produced a net income if you don't count what my parents paid for lessons. ;-) An interesting nuance is that my product contains no Code. My market doesn't judge my credibility by the sophistication of my web page. It is not technically passive income, but semi-passive in the sense that the baseline attention it demands is utterly predictable from month to month. The lack of Code is by intent, to provide a contrast with what I do all day.
• noodle 6y ago
  Depends on your definition of "successful" and "side business", but yes, a few. The most successful one I had that was a true side business was a nice aggregation and stats website that was probably doing around $2-3k/mo until I had to shut it down for reasons outside of my control. > If you have, how did you do it? I do side projects for 2 major reasons: to build something I'd like to use myself, and to learn/practice tech skills that I can't at my day job. Its just about consistently making a little time every week to move things forward.
• jhunter1016 6y ago
  I started Graphite Docs (https://graphitedocs.com https://graphitedocs.com) while working a day job. I put in the work mostly before my day job every day. And on weekends. It was successful from a usage standpoint. Tens of thousands of people used Graphite. And for a period of time, it was successful from a revenue standpoint. I was getting about $20k per month in grant money from the protocol Graphite was built on. I’m hoping to recapture that with my new side project, Perligo. I haven’t launched yet, so we’ll see how it goes. But my main advice would be start small. Small things don’t take a ton of time. Graphite was super small at first. Grow as your time allows.