Poll: How many HN readers are working on a Startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=614281

by minus • 17 years ago

48 60 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

miphol• 17 years ago

Currently working on a Startup part time

TweedHeads2• 17 years ago

Currently looking for a partner to develop iPhone games.

Here you can take a look at the games I've been working on:

http://www.igummies.com

If you are interested in a joint venture let me know.

pageman3• 17 years ago

buzz me :)

TweedHeads2• 17 years ago

Didn't find any contact info in your profile.

Email me: spamback at rocketmail dot com

(after first contact I'll give you my real email)

cubedice• 17 years ago

Is it only considered a startup if you expect to make a living off of it?

lubos• 17 years ago

i think so, otherwise it's just a hobby.

zain• 17 years ago

Approximately the same number as when this question was recently asked: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=532814

oldgregg• 17 years ago

Nooooo, there are a WHOLE lot more full-time people now.

Meh. I suppose being terminated provides good incentive to go full time?

timtrueman• 17 years ago

Heh. I wasn't terminated but as of a few days ago I started full time.

nostrademons• 17 years ago

Bodes well for innovation as a whole. Bodes poorly for each individual startup founder seeking his fortune after being laid off.

badri• 17 years ago

working on a startup, besides having a day job as a programmer.

effektz• 17 years ago

I've working on my 4th startup, hopefully this one will pan out better than the rest :P

mahmud3• 17 years ago

You might be giving up on projects too soon, or you're not thinking hard about the market potential and income options.

It's hard to "start" a company, that's why it's better to keep all your resources and retool or specialize on a certain direction as the market dictates.

Or you might just be calling the wrong thing a "startup". Software developers might be prone to this error, thinking of any application project as a business (note the multitude of "iphone startups")

byrneseyeview• 17 years ago

What happened to the other three?

zaizhi• 17 years ago

currently working on some ideas for startups, hoping to go full time soon

rkowalick• 17 years ago

I honestly have very little to do with software development in any way. I just come here because the things people tell me to read on this site are very interesting and informative.

Oompa• 17 years ago

How many HN readers are working on a startup with someone else that reads HN?

alanthonyc• 17 years ago

I've been an independent consultant for about a year and a half now. I've been working on my "startup" idea part time for a couple of months. My day job is in IT, but has little to do with my startup.

raffi• 17 years ago

I'm full-time on my startup. I'm in my second (or third?) sprinting phase where I'm spending most of my waking hours working. I can't say this is healthy but I'm having fun in some sick way. http://www.afterthedeadline.com is me.

mahmud3• 17 years ago

I work 16 hours a day, and the other 8 I am on hold on the phone or waiting for bureaucrats and various types of desk-jockeys in several timezones to wake up and answer my emails or pick the phone.

Being a transnational startup is really hard :-P

pageman3• 17 years ago

I now have to agree with you on that one hehehe :)

davidalln• 17 years ago

I'm a high school student working on a startup in my spare time. I picked "part time", but with summer coming up...

Pascalzuta• 17 years ago

Are you great at product development or online Marketing and want to take part in founding a company? Dm me twitter.com/pascalzuta

mlLK• 17 years ago

I'm curious as to how those individuals working on a startup full-time are able to support themselves without receiving any compensation. Are you simply a student going to school and this is a non-issue? Or are you working form some sort of financial cushion you saved up from your previous job?

More bluntly, how do you pay for rent and food?

ispivey• 17 years ago

I saved money while working at my last job.

But I'd point out that working on a startup full-time does not preclude receiving cash compensation. Aside from the founders, the current employees of my start-up are earning competitive cash compensation.

coconutrandom• 17 years ago

Free rent (thanks sis!) and a small savings since I was laid off. I keep a vestigial social life and cook at home. This has been since January.

ajayjetti2• 17 years ago

"Free rent (thanks sis!) and a small savings since I was laid off. I keep a vestigial social life and cook at home. This has been since January."

Thats plain crazy, wont believe if i tell you that , i have a sis, and have got small savings, was laid off sometime back, and i keep a vestigial social life..

but im hating this

ajayjetti2• 17 years ago

im *not hating this...was a mistake

earl3• 17 years ago

There seem to be 4 routes:

1 have rich parents (not kidding)

2 work part time until you can get angel investment

3 a pre-angel incubator ala YC

4 live somewhere really cheap and use savings

In the two startups I've worked for, I personally saw routes 1 and 3.

cperciva2• 17 years ago

1 have rich parents (not kidding)

I'd broaden that category to "have tolerant parents". My parents aren't rich, but they have a basement which would be empty if I wasn't living here.

csomar• 17 years ago

"1 have rich parents"

They don't need to be soooo rich (you don't need millions to start), if they understand what you do, they'll support you. Also living within your family will reduce costs: rent + fooding + other things.

I'm doing it from home and starting slowly but surely

_b8r0• 17 years ago

Can I add another route? 5 Using an existing profitable business to incubate a startup within.

The consulting business I run funds the development of a number of skunkworks projects, and it looks like two of them will see light in their own right.

stevejalim• 17 years ago

1b could be 'have a decently paid wife/husband/partner' - that approach is working for me, so far, tho I am still doing some freelance dev to keep things relativley fair

endtime• 17 years ago

>More bluntly, how do you pay for rent and food?

I am working on a startup part time while a (grad) student, and I pay the bills by being a TA (which refunds tuition and gives me just a little more than I need for living expenses). Keeps me pretty busy. :) Don't think I could do it full time (i.e. drop the TA job) though.

quellhorst• 17 years ago

1. Get high paying contract work.

2. Live as cheap as possible, live with relatives, clients, whatever cheap thing you can find.

3. To keep you working hard, hire some part time help in areas you suck at. For me this is design.

4. Bum food, complain about lack of money. You'll get more pity and help these days.

5. Spend money wisely, don't get services that don't give back at least as much value as they cost.

matthewking• 17 years ago

I was able to sign up my existing contracting clients to my new product in a sort of paid private beta. That covers the business expenses 4-5 times over while I finish the product and can really push with sales, and other than that I live at home with the parents - gives me a nice runway, and I'll probably give my parents some profit share / equity for their support :)

intranation• 17 years ago

I don't think it's accurate to assume that all start ups have absolutely no money--my fulltime job came about due to part time work with friends after hours--when they raised just enough cash to pay salaries I came aboard. I'd still consider it a start up.

panotpon2• 17 years ago

I moved from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur and I can attest that it's quite an enormous saving on rent and food. I must preemptively qualify Malaysia as a fabulous location for a web start-up as it scores extremely well on my PEST analysis and other essential factors. Also being physically away from my "rock and roll all night and party everyday" friends indeed dramatically cut down on my socializing budget. It all rosy here, up until now that is.

mbrubeck• 17 years ago

Venture capital. I know it's not as hip as ramen but it sure pays the bills.

earl3• 17 years ago

Most of Scribd reads HN.

Oh, and I hope this isn't too forward, but if anybody out there would really like to be working on a startup and you're good at rails / flash / web dev, hit up me or us.

vivekamn• 17 years ago

full time on a startup

donniefitz2• 17 years ago

Currently working on version 2 of my startup and working full time as a freelance developer.

RK• 17 years ago

Currently working AT a startup part time.

It's a scientific hardware startup and times are very tough...

agrinshtein• 17 years ago

Currently working on a startup part time

cellis• 17 years ago

My question is; how many people of the people working on startups are of the type that will "change the world", vs. simply build useful and scalable products (e.g. enterprise software or indie games)?

panotpon2• 17 years ago

I believe mine will change the world. Fashion suicide will be the thing of the past.

zhyder• 17 years ago

Working on a startup full-time. Any non-hackers looking for a startup, please send me an email.

metallic_cloud2• 17 years ago

I'm currently trying to get an indy games company off the ground but I can't take the risk of going full time at the moment. Work 8 hours as a programmer during the day then do about 5 hours at night on my game. Been going for about 5 months now, probly another 4 to go.

wlievens• 17 years ago

Same here, except that I've been doing the off hours thing for a couple of years, but switch project every few months. That's not a good way to get anything done :-)

Also, 5 hours? How do you do that? I have way less than 5 hours if I subtract (sleep, groceries, cooking, housekeeping, work and commute) from 24 hours.

metallic_cloud2• 17 years ago

I get home at about 6. Eat Tea by about 6:45, then work for about 5 hours. I usually go to bed about 12:30 wake up at 8:30, rinse repeat. My girlfriend does the shopping and most of the cooking. On weekends I would probably do about 8 hours on my game, as well as housework, drinking etc.

resdirector• 17 years ago

How many HN readers who have startups have broken even?

Femur• 17 years ago

I am in IT but not involved with a startup at all (I work as an Oracle DBA) but I come to HN for the intelligent discussion and interesting topics.

braindead_in• 17 years ago

working full time on http://callgraph.biz

Poll: How many HN readers are working on a Startup?

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