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VC here. If you're building a bootstrapped business, then starting as a side project and building up revenue until you can go full time is probably the way to g
by lpolovets 4y ago
VC here. If you're building a bootstrapped business, then starting as a side project and building up revenue until you can go full time is probably the way to go.
If you're going the venture-backed route, I think there's a misconception that there's no salary or minimal salary at early stages when you're funded, but this is not true. Most founders take a reasonable salary, where reasonably is defined more by your personal needs than anything else. $100k-$150k salaries are pretty common at seed. That's not Google level, but it's not bad. Here's a thread on that: https://twitter.com/lpolovets/status/1365123608905879555 https://twitter.com/lpolovets/status/1365123608905879555
- pc86 4y agoIf you're not a FAANG engineer, and like 95% of people work somewhere that doesn't give you a ton of stock or RSUs, and you don't live in a super expensive metro, $100-150k is basically strong mid/weak senior money. I know plenty of places hiring with no stock, no bonuses, and seniors top out at $160k or so. They hire capable engineers no problem. With that in mind, taking a pay cut into the middle of that range to do your own thing and potentially make a lot more isn't as drastic as going from a $400k FAANG job to a $35k ramen-every-meal situation.
- foobarian 4y agoI think the problem is not the paycut, so much as you suddenly work 80 hour weeks and never see your kids.
- LanceH 4y ago> work 80 hour weeks Hasn't really been my experience. There can be the odd extra evenings or even weekends, but nothing drastic. The big difference in hours is probably how effective those 40 hours a week need to be compared to a big company.
- bombcar 4y agoIf it's your startup, choose a location to work that's close to home, and have the kids come over. I fondly remember running around the overly large halls of various companies my dad worked for which were startup or startup adjacent.
- QuarterReptile 4y agoThis brings back fond memories of playing tag with my brothers through the cubicles where my dad worked when he had weekend work to do, complete with a vending machine room and some desks that had bowls of M&Ms. It was great fun!
- alexchantavy 4y agoWould love to hear more haha, sounds like your dad did a good job juggling it all if you look fondly back on it
- QuarterReptile 4y agoWell, my three brothers and I ranged from ages 5 to 10, so that's a good starting point. Then figure it's a bunch of long narrow hallways, which were wide enough for kids to run in, but narrow enough that you feel fast running along the walls. Low-pile office park carpet turns out to be perfect for traction when running in your socks at that age. And then M&Ms and vending machine stuff is the perfect treat for kids who mostly ate homemade meals. I'm sure the two most uncommon enablers of the good experience were 1, there being four kids in the family to play together and, 2, my dad not worrying that we were going to cause a bunch of problems when left to run around the office.
- eclark 4y agoI'm doing this by starting an all remote start up. I can hear my son playing downstairs or outside, while I get to dedicate myself for a while. I'm actually able to make it to more of the important times, now that I'm not commuting, even though I work long hours.
- Kalanos 4y agoyeah dude just "take" a salary from your seed round. lmao
- higeorge13 4y agoAre we even allowed to do side projects? What if our employer claims ownership or even conflicts of interest with what we are building? How will i even present it into hn or producthunt with my name and all my credentials while i am still working somewhere else? Any employer would fire us on the spot if they found out, wouldn’t they?
- theGnuMe 4y agoThe answer is, it depends. Different states have different laws etc...
- nazka 4y agoAlso check what your contract says. About non-compete clauses and exclusivity clauses. If it’s green lights everywhere I will advise you to have another GitHub account than your professional one. And makes everything as separate as possible.
- tracker1 4y agoDepends on the employer and where you live... you may have to get permission or specific exclusion when you start a job. As long as there isn't overlap with the business in question, I haven't experienced an issue working on the side. Note: working on the side is not drawing multiple FTE salaries... but actual work outside business hours.
- higeorge13 4y agoI don’t know, the conflict of interest especially in saas is tricky. Let’s assume that I build some niche etl tool, my employer deals with data etl for a certain market, how can i safely determine that my side project doesn’t interfere with their business? Not even lawyers can determine this. And what about the working hours overlap? Who knows except my commits to my repo and myself? I don’t know, side projects seem like a bad advice as they probably increase current job insecurity imo..
- 4y ago
- atzero 4y agoI think I understand what you mean. Bootstrap = use your current salary. VC = use startup funds to pay yourself but it gets touchy real quick. I currently make 140k in MCOL, so to hear that taking a 140k salary isnt out of the question, eventually, is reassuring.
- lpolovets 4y agoI think the toughest part ends up being the time between when you leave your job and when you raise your first funding round. That could be a 1-2 month gap, or it could be a year. Best advice there is that you can probably do some of the initial startup work while working somewhere (e.g. customer interviews, spec'ing out a product, recruiting a cofounder, maybe even launching something), so that when you leave your job you can do a fundraise soon and have decent confidence in the company you want to build.
- roflyear 4y agoMy startup CEO takes home like $500k. lol!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- TruthWillHurt 4y agolol founders taking a salary... I got 5 startups for you to fund! Founders need to show a lot of work done / churn to get VC backed.
- Kalanos 4y agoright. as if seed rounds grow on trees