Ask HN: I got laid off, how should I use my time to work on my startup idea? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I got laid off, how should I use my time to work on my startup idea?

22 pointstuxxy11 comments

I'm an engineer and I just got laid off. I have enough savings for 2-3 months of funds that aren't my own (severance, etc). How should I use my time to maximize the chances of success (getting funded, etc) to continue working on my startup idea fulltime?

I would consider success getting a small angel investment to continue working fulltime.

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To be blunt: forget it, go find another job and then run your start-up alongside your new job, if and when it takes off jump ship otherwise be happy you're not broke.

It's silly to burn up that little bit of $ that you will receive on an outside chance like this.

Agree 100%.

Generally speaking, your chance of failure is probably around 99%. Starting a startup is essentially buying a lotto ticket.

Like jacquesm says, finding a new job and running your startup on the side is the safer bet. If that's viable, then I'd suggest you find a new employer that has a contract friendly to side projects.

As an aside, there should really be a list of companies that are friendly in this regard. GitHub was recently in the news for allowing employees to work on personal projects using company resources, which is awesome.[0]

[0] https://qz.com/937038/github-now-lets-its-workers-keep-the-i...

Just give yourself a month and don't write a single line of code.

Go meet your customers in the first week. Ask lots of whys. Do more structured IN PERSON interviews in the second week. Look at how it has been solved in the past and what competitors do. Draw up a rough solution (e.g. landing page) in week 4 and test it out in person as well as drive some traffic to it from online communities (reddit and FB groups do get you some traffic to have an idea about conversion rates).

GV has some good articles around cust dev interviews on their medium.

You probably have higher chances finding angel money for a well validated idea in the market than a product you built for 3 months full time without knowing exactly what to build.

It all depends on your background, where your product is, etc. In your place, I would start reading. Any answer here would parrot what has been written a thousand times before.

You should know that getting even a small angel investment, for many, is quite tough -- and it takes time. If I were you, I would consider instead just focusing that time on getting the product far enough along that people either can use it or get excited about it. Get to know startups in your area and make yourself known in that community. Just chasing investment without an MVP that has clear growth is usually a waste of time.

Given the chance of success in the startup space, I would take another route. If you currently have skills to get another job right away, do it.

Then look for a problem in the new job for which a solution is needed. One that really consumes a ton of people time. Something that would apply to more than just that company. Build that solution in your free time.

If you already have an idea as it seems you do, try to find a related job in that industry so you can continue to build out the idea in your free time.

2-3 months is not enough to float safely. You'll want a 6 month cache before you even think about taking time off, and even then only the time over that 6 months should you take off. That 6 mo cache is for emergencies.

Good ideas below, like meeting your customers and learning their problems before coding, also getting a job first and working on this on the side. If you got severance, or you can afford to not work for a while, take a few weeks off and enjoy life if you can. I sometimes have burning ideas and I like to explore them, but I think working in a real job while you do this new thing on the side is the most practical.

Not an answer to your question, but a resource that might interest you:

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/business-bootstrap...

Take a part time job (~20hrs/week) and work on your startup idea on the side.

i am in same boat. r u open to some partnership or so..

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