6 ms·

Tell HN: I'm freee

54 points by zhyder 18y ago

I finally took the leap and quit my day job today (well, gave notice to be precise). Just wanted to thank the community here: 1. For teaching me about web-app design & development, and inspiring me with your stories. 2. More specifically, for cheering on Dabbleboard. I had launched the beta on HN, and -for many months- your words were my greatest source of encouragement, since it took a while to build a user(fan)base. I hope to someday be able to return the favors... And good luck to you too :)!

davidw 18y ago
I hope you had a firm grasp on the next vine before you let go! Good luck:-)
- zhyder 18y ago
  To be honest, it's not as firm as on the previous vine, but falling (together with the rush of worrying about it) can be lotsa fun too :).
kirubakaran 18y ago
Congratulations. Wishing you the best.
aaronblohowiak 18y ago
(^.^) Congrats!! GL&HF.
vaksel 18y ago
Congrats, do you have any plans yet on what extra things to accomplish with that free time?
- zhyder 18y ago
  Yep, both on the product-development side as well as the other (dark) side.
yters 18y ago
Has anyone kept track of the others who've posted about quitting their job to do a startup in the past?
- staunch 18y ago
  It's hard to track them. They usually lose their internet connections when they're evicted :-)
  - palish 18y ago
    For what it's worth, mine is still on. :) Us "dropouts" are just busy building our respective products. (Also, congrats to zhyder. Enjoy being able to take a nap whenever you want to.) That said, I should probably start a blog about what I'm building. I want to post daily reports about what I did that day. That would be both useful and motivational, I think.
    - zhyder 18y ago
      Thanks! I'll also enjoy responding to customer emails whenever I want to (=immediately), and actually being able to make sales calls.
- snprbob86 18y ago
  there has got to be a web app in there somewhere...
- pistoriusp 18y ago
  I quit my job last year December, and coded for 4 months straight before I took another job. I'm very near to closing a deal with the web application that I started in January. Next year April I plan to resign again, and start another new venture. This time with a bit more of my own seed money.
vaksel 18y ago
Looking at your site, you absolutely must add pictionary functionality. Shouldn't be that hard, since you already have the visual part + I believe the chat, so all you need to do is make some keyword lists and bam. Separate yourself from other pictionary sites by making more niche specific keyword lists. And throw up a site-wide monthly league for users to compete with each other
- zhyder 18y ago
  The thing is: the Dabbleboard (vector-based) interface is not optimized for that kind of drawing, which bitmap-based tools (like MS Paint) handle better. Biggest feature "hole" would be the lack of a bitmap eraser.
nickh 18y ago
Good on you, mate. I just watched the Dabbleboard video, and was really impressed with what you've created!
jncraton 18y ago
I've played with Dabbleboard a bit in the past, and I think that it is a great tool. I have to admit though, I haven't been following it that closely. How are you planning to make a living off of it? I'm just curious. I'll understand if you would rather not answer that.
zacharye 18y ago
Excellent! Congrats to you! I first used dabbleboard a few months ago, linked through HN, and have gone back many times since. Fantastic and well-executed tool indeed.
dustineichler 18y ago
You're an inspiration, quiting my day job is the dream! "Starting up" is the reality.
chwolfe 18y ago
Nice The Who ref.
raju 18y ago
Great news. I, unfortunately did not see DabbleBoard prior to this post, but I saw your demo, and was impressed. Great job! Here's wishing you luck, and success. Cheers!
APLonDrugs 18y ago
Congrats! Best of luck, make it happen...stay positive and it will.
seshagiric 18y ago
All the best with your start up. If you don't mind what is the business model - your main source of revenue will be ads?
- zhyder 18y ago
  Freemium. The premium version will have more business-friendly features.
hwijaya 18y ago
Congratulations!! Good luck and keep post on HN on how it goes!
Fuca 18y ago
Some thoughts about being there (back on rat race as now): - You will feel better right away, what you said about being free its excatly right, and you realize how depressing was being trap on a cubicule kissing ass. - Money is much easier to get, you realize that a salary is peanuts compared with how much you can do on your own if you make it. - Live like a cockroach, the thing about not knowing where or if my next check will come make me realize I could live (and save money!) with half of what I made with a weekly salary, and in the past I was under credit card debt for going out meals and worthless stuff. -You will find out that the urgency and strees to find an income will be a great motivation to make it. That is one of the biggest disadvantages in a job you do not have that feeling and that is probably what really makes the difference on the long run. -Be honest to yourself and decide what you do ASAP, think it thru and once you decide give it all. Be quick on this on 2 things: to see if the field you choose have future and to move to try another thing fast, make sure you go into vocation whatever it may be. -Dont fool yourself into laziness, have an area free of distractions and give it all. Family can suck all your time if you do not have clear boundaries and scheduale. Little bit of my story: - I was lay off in march, decided to sell some products, realized my bussiness model was not possible on the long run (I was not the owner of what I sell, mostly like an employee), but it gave me half of what I used to make on an office, and much better life, lots of free time. If I had the same opportunity, I will have an "office" and scheduale, decide on a bussiness for the long run, not just to make money fast, be honest on doing what I liked even if took some time. Good luck making it.
kleneway 18y ago
Congrats - great idea, well executed. I can't wait to start using this. Question to you or anyone else on this thread - are there any tools out there that could convert a UI mockup for a webpage (like one created with Dabbleboard or Basalmiq) into standards compliant html/css?
- Raphael 18y ago
  Make it, and I will love you forever.
- ph0rque 18y ago
  That's one of my ideas for future startups. In fact Balsamiq is very close to it: the output is xml.
- balsamiq 18y ago
  In the case of Balsamiq, I think it would be pretty simple. My files are saved in BMML, which is just a simple XML dialect. I suspect someone with good XSLT/HTML/CSS knowledge could write a little BMML->HTML+CSS script in a couple of days.
Angostura 18y ago
Congratulations. I blooged about Dabbleboard a while ago, but blimey - with the new tool set, I'm going to need to blog again. Brilliant work

Tell HN: I'm freee

54 points by zhyder 18y ago

davidw 18y ago

I hope you had a firm grasp on the next vine before you let go! Good luck:-)

zhyder 18y ago
To be honest, it's not as firm as on the previous vine, but falling (together with the rush of worrying about it) can be lotsa fun too :).

kirubakaran 18y ago

Congratulations. Wishing you the best.

aaronblohowiak 18y ago

(^.^) Congrats!! GL&HF.

vaksel 18y ago

Congrats, do you have any plans yet on what extra things to accomplish with that free time?

zhyder 18y ago
Yep, both on the product-development side as well as the other (dark) side.

yters 18y ago

Has anyone kept track of the others who've posted about quitting their job to do a startup in the past?

staunch 18y ago
It's hard to track them. They usually lose their internet connections when they're evicted :-)
- palish 18y ago
  For what it's worth, mine is still on. :) Us "dropouts" are just busy building our respective products. (Also, congrats to zhyder. Enjoy being able to take a nap whenever you want to.) That said, I should probably start a blog about what I'm building. I want to post daily reports about what I did that day. That would be both useful and motivational, I think.
  - zhyder 18y ago
    Thanks! I'll also enjoy responding to customer emails whenever I want to (=immediately), and actually being able to make sales calls.
snprbob86 18y ago
there has got to be a web app in there somewhere...
pistoriusp 18y ago
I quit my job last year December, and coded for 4 months straight before I took another job. I'm very near to closing a deal with the web application that I started in January. Next year April I plan to resign again, and start another new venture. This time with a bit more of my own seed money.

vaksel 18y ago

Looking at your site, you absolutely must add pictionary functionality. Shouldn't be that hard, since you already have the visual part + I believe the chat, so all you need to do is make some keyword lists and bam. Separate yourself from other pictionary sites by making more niche specific keyword lists. And throw up a site-wide monthly league for users to compete with each other

zhyder 18y ago
The thing is: the Dabbleboard (vector-based) interface is not optimized for that kind of drawing, which bitmap-based tools (like MS Paint) handle better. Biggest feature "hole" would be the lack of a bitmap eraser.

nickh 18y ago

Good on you, mate. I just watched the Dabbleboard video, and was really impressed with what you've created!

jncraton 18y ago

I've played with Dabbleboard a bit in the past, and I think that it is a great tool. I have to admit though, I haven't been following it that closely. How are you planning to make a living off of it? I'm just curious. I'll understand if you would rather not answer that.

zacharye 18y ago

Excellent! Congrats to you! I first used dabbleboard a few months ago, linked through HN, and have gone back many times since. Fantastic and well-executed tool indeed.

dustineichler 18y ago

You're an inspiration, quiting my day job is the dream! "Starting up" is the reality.

chwolfe 18y ago

Nice The Who ref.

raju 18y ago

Great news. I, unfortunately did not see DabbleBoard prior to this post, but I saw your demo, and was impressed. Great job! Here's wishing you luck, and success. Cheers!

APLonDrugs 18y ago

Congrats! Best of luck, make it happen...stay positive and it will.

seshagiric 18y ago

All the best with your start up. If you don't mind what is the business model - your main source of revenue will be ads?

zhyder 18y ago
Freemium. The premium version will have more business-friendly features.

hwijaya 18y ago

Congratulations!! Good luck and keep post on HN on how it goes!

Fuca 18y ago

Some thoughts about being there (back on rat race as now): - You will feel better right away, what you said about being free its excatly right, and you realize how depressing was being trap on a cubicule kissing ass. - Money is much easier to get, you realize that a salary is peanuts compared with how much you can do on your own if you make it. - Live like a cockroach, the thing about not knowing where or if my next check will come make me realize I could live (and save money!) with half of what I made with a weekly salary, and in the past I was under credit card debt for going out meals and worthless stuff. -You will find out that the urgency and strees to find an income will be a great motivation to make it. That is one of the biggest disadvantages in a job you do not have that feeling and that is probably what really makes the difference on the long run. -Be honest to yourself and decide what you do ASAP, think it thru and once you decide give it all. Be quick on this on 2 things: to see if the field you choose have future and to move to try another thing fast, make sure you go into vocation whatever it may be. -Dont fool yourself into laziness, have an area free of distractions and give it all. Family can suck all your time if you do not have clear boundaries and scheduale. Little bit of my story: - I was lay off in march, decided to sell some products, realized my bussiness model was not possible on the long run (I was not the owner of what I sell, mostly like an employee), but it gave me half of what I used to make on an office, and much better life, lots of free time. If I had the same opportunity, I will have an "office" and scheduale, decide on a bussiness for the long run, not just to make money fast, be honest on doing what I liked even if took some time. Good luck making it.

kleneway 18y ago

Congrats - great idea, well executed. I can't wait to start using this. Question to you or anyone else on this thread - are there any tools out there that could convert a UI mockup for a webpage (like one created with Dabbleboard or Basalmiq) into standards compliant html/css?

Raphael 18y ago
Make it, and I will love you forever.
ph0rque 18y ago
That's one of my ideas for future startups. In fact Balsamiq is very close to it: the output is xml.
balsamiq 18y ago
In the case of Balsamiq, I think it would be pretty simple. My files are saved in BMML, which is just a simple XML dialect. I suspect someone with good XSLT/HTML/CSS knowledge could write a little BMML->HTML+CSS script in a couple of days.

Angostura 18y ago

Congratulations. I blooged about Dabbleboard a while ago, but blimey - with the new tool set, I'm going to need to blog again. Brilliant work