Hi Graham, I did this for several years myself. I registered a company and domains. I wrote several thousands lines of code over weekends and nights. I never released any of it because it wasn't quite finished yet. I never "finished" because: - work always took priority over my own business - I was working on the wrong stuff in my business anyway
Three lessons learned: - find someone to be accountable to. Someone needs to force you to release to real people so it's not just a hobby - learn how to work on the right stuff for a business. Don't just work on the interesting tech or whatever's in your comfort zone. - As a developer you have lots of excellent fall-back options if you quit you job and then fail to make any revenue. Ways to get started: - come to a startup camp or bootup camp. You'll learn how amazingly quickly you can get something up if you focus on the right stuff - come to Silicon Beach drinks and introduce yourself to a few people. Most will give you a kick about getting started and releasing Alternative option: - contribute your talent to an open source project if you want to keep your job but put your side projects to good use. cheers, Jeromy Evans On Dec 13, 10:42 am, Hendro Wijaya <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Graham, > > Welcome. > > This is my experience. Take it with a grain of salt. > > 1. There will always be conflicting advice. Both sides have successful > examples. Quit your job. Stay with your job. Raise money. Bootstrap. Lean > startup. Fat startup. Get a cofounder. Single founder. Get different > viewpoint but realize there is no silver bullet. You are the one in charge > and everyone situation is different. My personal experience: doing it full > time means I have to confront the fact that I have no other excuses. I can't > say 'I am just doing that on the side, nothing serious'. It's either I make > it or I make it. > > 2. Distribution is important. I have checked your blog. We have the same > genes. We are coders. We love to sit in front of computer and code. > Unfortunately, no one will find our products / services without a clear > distribution strategy. "How am I going to get my awesome products in front of > my customers?" is one of my questions every time I evaluate an idea. > > 3. New market vs existing market. Understand differences in market types. New > market means no one is looking for your product yet. No one realize they have > the problems that you have the solutions for. You need to create demand. Your > customers are not searching for the solutions in Google. This is usually fall > into "revolutionary idea" category. You need to have a clear finance plan. It > usually takes a long time to educate the market. No, 6 months is not long in > real world. Existing market is "a better mousetrap" category. It is generally > easier to market it. People understand the problems and looking for solution. > They are searching for it in Google. > > 4. Just do it. Ship that product out. You'll learn more by doing it. I read a > lot before I started and thought I would be invincible. Later I realize the > real education started in real world. > > There are still more but those are few I have on top of my head. One thing > for sure. It will be a fun journey. Go do it! > > Please feel free to email me if there is anything I can help. > > - Hendro Wijaya > > From: [email protected] > Subject: [SiliconBeach] Introduction and Question > Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:42:03 +1100 > To: [email protected] > > I've been lurking here for a couple of months and only just noticed the > guidelines, specifically "no lurking!", so sorry. (How often do you read > email footers?)Apologies aside, here is a quick introduction, and my most > pressing entrepreneurial question: > IntroIn short, I'm a Software Engineer who lives in Sydney, writes a lot of > code both at work and home, and loves using technology to make people's lives > better and/or easier.If you want to know more about that you can read a bio > here. > I've joined the list because I've found over my ten years of experience that > it's frustrating when I have a great idea and the people above me, who make > the decisions, don't act on it.That's their prerogative, for sure, but I'd > like to be in the position where I get to make decisions, follow my own path > and see where that takes me. > QuestionMy questions is: > What tips do you have for starting a business part-time? (And getting to > full-time.) > I read Bart's "22 ways to fail" and noticed that "Don't give up your day job" > is apparently a great way to fail (d'oh!), so I wouldn't be surprised to get > a lot of "don't bother" answers.But I'm sure there must be people who've done > this and have either a success story, or an interesting failure that we could > all learn from.I've read Jason Cohen's "Employed with a side of startup", > which has some great advice.I'd love to just hear some tips from more people > who've been in the trenches and come out the other side wiser. > Cheers, > Graham. > -- > > Graham Lea > Belmont Technology Pty Ltd > [email protected] > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. > > Guidelines on > discussion:http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e13... > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > To post to this group, send email to > > [email protected] > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected] > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
