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Comment by arikrak | Hacker News Reader

Is there any data on the success rate of companies that aim small? A lot of the allure of the startup is a chance to strike it big. If one isn't doing that anyways, might make more sense to join a big company since they offer a considerably higher expected return on your work.

(Also if one can get funding, it lets one get paid an actual salary more quickly.)

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I have no clue, it seems uncommon in software, but personally I'd choose working 3 hours a day over 200k/yr any day.

IMO having a small team constraint is powerful too, you really have to optimize things otherwise you're screwed. Basically the opposite of a startup, where you'd toss money at the problem while you try and attract more people, making the product increasingly brittle.

working 3 hours a day over 200k/yr any day

A business that you own and which makes you any money on 3 hours a day may be even more rare than a unicorn. In most cases you'll be spending those 3 hours per day on administrative stuff alone.

That's definitely not true. There are only a few dozen unicorns, and hundreds of self-sustained businesses that "print" small amounts of money. If you join any large city's small business CEO groups (in NYC, SF, Toronto, London, etc.) you'll find a lot of one-person, bootstrapped companies that just run themselves.

It's not easy, but there are dozens or hundreds in many large cities.

Success as a small company often comes from passion and expertise. Passion wants more than 3 hours a week.

And if it makes money in 3 hours, chances are it makes more in 30 hours.

Three hours per day, not week :p. It's very doable, work smart not hard as they say!

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