OK, you've convinced me. I'm coming to join you.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=52580

by cubicle67 • 19 years ago

43 73 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm 36, married with numerous kids, career blub programmer with BigCo, and I've had enough.

Friday I notified my boss I would not be there come March, and this weekend my wife and I started work on our new project (I'd forgotten how well we work together). This gives us six months to prepare our family for life beyond BigCo, and I can't wait.

For the first time in ages I'm relaxed and excited about the future. Thanks to everyone here for the inspiration and big thanks to my awesome wife.

rms• 19 years ago

Congratulations!

webwright• 19 years ago

Woot. What are you going to build?

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

Nothing too fancy. We're taking something that's been done hundreds of times before, but all very badly, adding a bit of a twist and making it usable. Our aims are fairly modest, just to generate enough income to support us. I have no (well, not many :) grandiose visions of selling for millions.

abstractbill• 19 years ago

Congrats, keep us posted.

blored• 19 years ago

pg, this is all your fault.

omouse• 19 years ago

At least it isn't a 10 year old kid or something :P

staunch2• 19 years ago

#9. Family to support

http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html

nostrademons5• 19 years ago

Though he did say "I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm saying that I don't want to take responsibility for advising it."

PG is wrong when he says "You'll never found the next Google this way", though. IBM was founded by someone who had a wife and kid to support, and had just been convicted of antitrust violations, fired, and had a 1-year jail sentence hanging over his head (later reversed on appeal).

You do need to be hungrier for profits and less willing to trade growth for money. The strategy I'm using (try lots of stuff until I build something useful, then try to get lots of users, then figure out how to monetize it) won't work for someone with a family to support. But the strategy my boss is using (go to your industry contacts, talk to them about their problems, get them to pay you up-front for development while you solve them, reinvest the profits for growth) could work very well.

far33d• 19 years ago

The only reason having a family matters is because someone relies on your income. Hopefully, if you've had a job for a while, you have enough cash built up to live for a year or so.

That means you have a year to either:

1) quit the startup and get a job.

2) get some VC funding or enough revenue to live on.

Plus, big company boring jobs are always there for the taking...

portLAN11• 19 years ago

If you can get something together by Oct 11 for YC's deadline, you can be demoing to investors in March.

http://ycombinator.com/w2008.html

SwellJoe8• 19 years ago

Regardless of YC involvement, you can still be demoing to investors in March. It takes a little more effort--and you'll have to do the demo about 30 times to reach the same number of investors--but you can actually start a company without YC. ;-)

portLAN11• 19 years ago

Why don't you tell us how you did it?

    *cough* Virtualmin -- YC Winter 2007 *cough*

Are you suggesting in retrospect that you'd have preferred a different strategy?

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

I'd love to, but I'm outside the US (Australia)

reitzensteinm• 19 years ago

Where in Australia? I'm from Perth and living in NZ (Auckland).

vikram• 19 years ago

I think recently they changed the law a wee bit so its easier for Aussies to go to the U.S.

comatose_kid2• 19 years ago

Come on...which bigco? And which part of the world do you live in?

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

Think massive international co with a tla for a name. Australia.

greendestiny2• 19 years ago

So I guess you know quite a bit about linux then? :) What field is your startup going to be in?

steve• 19 years ago

Man it would be awesome to have a wife that I could work well with, I think.

gwenhwyfaer• 19 years ago

You might want to check how many kids you actually have. Just in case you forget to, you know, feed one or two of them.

ratsbane• 19 years ago

Now YOU are the inspiration. Good luck!

staunch2• 19 years ago

You'll probably fail, make sure you prepare for that. You definitely put to shame the very young single guys who don't want to give up their cozy cube jobs. Good luck!

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

Hence the six months lead time, not 'I quit now!'

I've been without income before and am acutely aware of how much it hurts. I'd like to say I have no plan B, that we will make this work, but I have to be realistic and I'm in no hurry to risk my family's welfare again.

We're doing all we can to minimalise the risk, but there comes a time when you have to be willing to take on some or spend the rest of your life in regret.

I too have a cube job - hence the name :)

prakash• 19 years ago

Good luck. Make sure you build something users want and something that has a business model.

Kids get cranky if you don't feed them :-)

nanijoe• 19 years ago

way to go man... What is a blurb programmer?

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

kinda like a blub programmer, but with more rrrrr

edw519• 19 years ago

Age has nothing to do with it. Marital status has nothing to do with it. Smarts has little to do with it.

Don't do it because you're moving away from a job you don't like; that's a bad formula.

Do it because you want it that badly. That's what matters most.

The decision has been made. Good. Don't hestitate. Don't wonder. Don't look back. Don't ever quit.

Use us for encouragement.

Looking forward to hearing about your success.

andreyf2• 19 years ago

Looking forward to hearing about your success.

Or your [failure, perseverance]*, and following success :)

Neoryder• 19 years ago

Good Luck!

Thanks for giving us fence sitters another kick in th a$$.

I feel each every post like this is going to push me to the brink and finally make me take the plunge.

Thanks Again.

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

Thanks.

I've been reading ycombinator about six months or so now and discussing ideas with my wife for about as long. It's reached the stage where we decided we may as well actually do something.

Tell you what, though. Gives you a whole different outlook on work when you can see the end in sight.

dean• 19 years ago

That's fantastic! Congratulations.

andreyf2• 19 years ago

I've been thinking of working on things with people I'm romantically involved with... what's the experience like? What are the ups and downs?

cubicle6710• 19 years ago

You know, I hadn't realised until I read your comment, but our tenth wedding anniversary coincides very nicely with our leaving the BigCo life.

The Downs: You don't always see eye to eye, and you need to be able to work things out.

The Ups: For me, my wife is not IT oriented, so doesn't try to tell me how to do things, but provides very valuable insight into how a normal user would approach things; her ideas are very good. Another point - You know your partner isn't an idiot:)

rokhayakebe• 19 years ago

O boy. Now you got two option. 1-Die trying (and as they say, if you do you won't care anymore) or 2-Become successful. I see you choosing option2.

geebee• 19 years ago

Hey Dude,

I'm 36 too, I have a wife and kid, and I left a boring safe job to work for what I'd describe as a late-stage startup. My wife works a stable job and brings in a better health lan, too. So while I'm not doing something quite as risky as leaving to start my own probject, I do understand the urge to try something a little more thrilling with a higher potential payout.

Truth is, you'd probably be able to get a big boring job again quite easily if you wanted one. The last time I looked for a job, I had two offers within a few weeks and a substantial counteroffer from my (now ex) employer. The market has its ups and downs, sure, but in the end, I doubt it would be all that hard for you to go back to a bigco and blub away if it comes to that. Which I hope it doesn't for you and for me.

It's excellent that you're giving this a try. Good luck. Do you have a blog or anything? Keep us posted!

jsjenkins168• 19 years ago

Congratulations on your decision. I know what you are going through, I did the exact same thing 2 weeks ago. Full time startup starts for me in just 2 days, I cant wait.

I'm sure you know this, but make sure your company is cool with you starting your project right now. Mainly, that you are not under any IP agreements. The worse thing would be if your company catches wind of your work and decides that they want to "own" it.

german• 19 years ago

Congratulations! I know this is a big decision, but working in something that you are passionate about is always great.

Hope it will work just the way you want. Good Luck.

dpapathanasiou• 19 years ago

cubicle67: I'm happy to report there is indeed life beyond the BigCo cubicle.

I made a similar move a few years ago, and haven't regretted.

Good luck.

OK, you've convinced me. I'm coming to join you.

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