Has anyone actually done it and care to share their experiences?
I am not the sole founder, but I venture to say I have done (and continue to do) my fair share of the work. I work on the design, sales, the user interface, programming, support, server maintenance, maintenance, accounting - nearly everything.
The key to success? I try to make the product a little better each day, even if the changes are tiny (code comments, etc.). I am not able to sit down and bang out code all day due to family obligations, but persistence, focus, and making smart, calculated changes, over a longer period of time can make for a pretty fantastic product.
Also, doing your own support + programming puts you in a unique position to listen, work on, and fix issues that cause the most problems.
Rome wasn't built over night, so they say.
If you want a concrete example though, I know both the founders of Omniture had kids on the way to their IPO and eventual $1.6 billion acquisition.
Was going to throw in "while keeping your sanity", but there are a few people who's loved ones already knew they were crazy to begin with ha-ha.