This article does a wonderful job explaing why moonlighting is a poor path for people to start new companies. But we don't have to reason this one through - we

This article does a wonderful job explaing why moonlighting is a poor path for people to start new companies. But we don't have to reason this one through - we just look out into the world and check. All in all, it does look grim. Most of the successful software companies do seem to have taken a big plunge at some point. Consulting companies don't count, but consulting companies that have morphed into product companies might. Can anyone think of a few successful companies that have started this way? Or, if not successful companies, personal applications that someone managed to sell for a lot of dough? Joelonsoftware's fogbugz might be a good candidate, as well as the 37signals apps. I think that delicious was started as a personal project by an employee with a full-time job. None of these are the giant, smash successes you read about in the business section of the mainstream press, but they can be still be remarkably profitable quiet successes.