3 ms·
A few paths for you in my mind: 1. Bootstrap a side hustle IMO starting a side hustle that becomes profitable enough to quit your day job is the best strategy
by a13n 4y ago
A few paths for you in my mind:
1. Bootstrap a side hustle
IMO starting a side hustle that becomes profitable enough to quit your day job is the best strategy here.
There are very few SaaS ideas that will produce $B returns in <10 years. They're all highly competitive with well-funded competitors.
However, there are easily thousands of SaaS ideas that will produce $10k/mo (with 90% margins) in the next 1-2 years. Take pretty much any existing SaaS product (eg. Segment, Zapier, Intercom, Jira, etc) and build a simpler version with nicer design for lower pricing, and you can get paying customers.
Once you're making $10k/mo (or even less) and growing you can probably quit your job and then that frees up a ton of time to invest in the existing business or a new business.
2. Buy someone's side hustle
Check our Microacquire. Tons of people are buying and selling SaaS companies on there.
If you have some money saved up, and some risk tolerance, you could consider buying a very small SaaS business (eg. $1k-2k/mo revenue) and growing it from there.
Even if this isn't an option for you, it's probably a good idea to check out Microacquire anyway to get inspiration for ideas for SaaS companies for #1.
3. Raise a pre-seed round
Try to find a VC firm who is willing to give you some money to spend time starting a company. This will be easier if you have a) a good background, b) a good co-founder, c) a good idea/big market and ideally an MVP.
That's kind of what the pre-seed round is all about. It gives VCs exposure to get into your company early at a great price, and it gives you a way to work on your idea while still making a salary.
4. Apply to be an entrepreneur in residence
A lot of VC firms have EIR positions where you basically get paid a salary while you're trying to decide what startup you want to start. The idea is that when you start a company you'll raise your first round from that VC firm.