

Ask HN: I quit my job .. now what? - veyron

So I had this idea, and I want to bring this idea to reality. In this process, I realized I would need to devote a chunk of time to this end, and as such I quit my job in finance [which paid a pretty penny].<p>So here I am now, at home.  Day 1.  And for some reason I feel paralyzed by the lack of a clear pathway [finance makes sense, startups for some reason does not].<p>I feel like I have everything I need to proceed, but I guess I'm not used to not having a roadmap.  To those who have quit their jobs, how did you make the mental transition to a 'startup' mentality?
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bhousel
First.. Let's assume you have enough money to get by for at least 6 months.
And provide for anyone in your care. Including health insurance for
emergencies. If you don't have money saved up, well, I'd try to get your day
job back or something else, because you could be setting yourself and your
family up for catastrophe.

That said, the first thing you need to do is to get your ideas down in writing
somehow. Take a day or two if necessary. It's really important. _Don't just
"start coding" like other people are suggesting._ Get organized first. If this
idea was so good that you quit your day job, you should have no trouble
writing down a few pages about what you're trying to accomplish. Call it a
"business plan", or not, at this stage it doesn't matter. But at least write
down what you want to do, who will buy it and why, and who your competitors
are.

I started to write a bunch of stuff about how to plan out your business, and
then I realized that it would be easier for you to just get _Four Steps to the
Ephiphany_ by Steve Blank - it's full of worksheets that will help guide you
through these early stages.

It sounds like you might need to meet some technical people to help you build
your idea. You can meet them here on Hacker News, but it's far better to go to
meetups in your area and meet real developers in person. The best developers
will want to take some ownership in this part of the business, rather than
just being told what to build.

Try to build relationships with people and tell them about your idea. If it's
in a space that they're interested in, you'll find people who want to work
with you, and at this stage it will be helpful to be able to bounce ideas off
of others. Seek out the kinds of people who will tell you what's wrong with
your idea or poke holes in it.

Hope this was helpful, and good luck!

~~~
veyron
Such a long comment deserves a reply :)

Personal finance issues are tucked away for some time, and I'm still eligible
for my parents insurance [thank Obama].

Too bad B&N doesnt have a copy .. will have to wait for amazon :/

Can you point me to some NYC meetup groups?

~~~
bhousel
NY Tech meetup is the biggest: <http://www.meetup.com/ny-tech>

NY Founder Dating: <http://www.meetup.com/new-york-founder-dating>

NY Hacker News: <http://www.meetup.com/NYHackerNews>

There are many many more.. It's very easy to get caught up in going to meetups
in NYC. Don't let them become too much of a distraction.

~~~
veyron
The second one does not exist (maybe wrong URL?)

~~~
bhousel
sorry, it should be: <http://new-york-founder-dating.meetup.com/>

------
mindcrime
_And for some reason I feel paralyzed by the lack of a clear pathway [finance
makes sense, startups for some reason does not]._

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but... buy and
read Steve Blank's _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_. That's step one. Step two
is "do what Steve says." Seriously, he lays out a very detailed methodology
for going from "an idea" to "a validated and profitable market for your
product." Note that he's only addressing the customer / market side though...
You'll have to figure out how to get the product built. If you're a coder
yourself, you can play both Customer Development and Product Development
(that's what I'm doing, for example), or if you're not a coder (or just need
more help) you have to start looking at how to acquire help with the coding
side.

~~~
veyron
I presume this is the book: [http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-
Blank/dp/09...](http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-
Blank/dp/0976470705)

~~~
mindcrime
Yes, and just in case you think I'm kidding (or exaggerating) about how good
it is... look at the Amazon reviews. 79 reviews, and almost all of them are 5
star. It's an excellent book; at least in terms of content. The production
qualities leave something to be desired, but that stuff can be ignored. It's
basically his class notes from his class at Stanford, printed through Cafe
Press. But it's excellent material.

~~~
norova
Via Google: [http://www.stanford.edu/group/e145/cgi-
bin/winter/drupal/upl...](http://www.stanford.edu/group/e145/cgi-
bin/winter/drupal/upload/handouts/Four_Steps.pdf)

Would you be able to say if this PDF is the same as the $40 book on Amazon? It
is freely available on Stanford's site.

~~~
mindcrime
Looks like that's just the first 33 pages of the whole book. That said, that
would make a fine introduction to Steve's ideas, and then one can decide
whether or not to buy the book, after reviewing that bit.

There are also a lot of videos on Youtube, where Steve talks about this stuff.

------
will_lam
Congrats and props to you for making the jump. First get your finances in
order and get a rough idea of your runway (how many months you can live off of
your savings or other sources of income).

Some other ideas are to get a mindmap of the possiblities of where you can
take this idea.

Use the business model canvas to sketch out your initial business models and
the possibilities of your idea (<http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/>).

Start an action plan - I use Tony Robbins "OPA Method". Ask yourself, What's
your desired Outcome (O), What's your "Purpose" (P) - why you're doing the
idea and write doing all the reasons, and finally what are the concrete
Actions (A) you specifically need to do to turn your idea into reality.

------
gspyrou
Check Peldi's talk from Business of Software 2010
<http://blogs.balsamiq.com/peldi/2011/03/13/bos2010/> tl;dr Stop worrying ,
start developing.

------
bcrawford
Congratulations, man! I'm transitioning to this sort of thing myself (going
from 6 figures to a pt gig, 2 days a week).

My suggestion: get a whiteboard, now. Don't do anything but decompress for the
next few days (i.e.. fuck off) and write anything that comes to mind about
your startup.

One of the most important processes for the human brain is externalization:
it's why talking about problems helps as you can't think feelings... but you
can write them down and later think about them.

I'd wager you're quite emotionally charged right now, hence the paralysis, so
just start writing (don't erase anything) and sort it out next week. Things
will be much clearer then.

Best of luck to you!

~~~
veyron
> Don't do anything but decompress for the next few days

Decided to enjoy the great weather here, drive around a lot and play with
legos :) The real work starts tomorrow

~~~
bcrawford
Where is here? Legos rule... Mindstorm?

~~~
veyron
Here = union square.

Legos: decided to spring for the new lego trains 7938, 7939, 10194, and 10219.
For some reason the train crashes arent as satisfying as i hoped ...

The new mindstorms aren't as satisfying as I remember (and maybe the trains
are more enjoyable because I didn't get them when i was younger ...

------
Gobitron
You should read Vinicius Vacanti's blog, "How To Make It As a First Time
Entrepreneur" (<http://viniciusvacanti.com/>). He quit a prestigious finance
job to do his own thing, and it took him a while to figure his way around. I
recommend reading his whole story from the beginning, I think it will inspire
you.

------
centdev
Take a deep breath. Realize that your startup will consume you so look to
surround yourself with 1) people that you can get advice from 2) people who
you can use for feedback and 3) if it requires more than just yourself, so to
find a team to work with.

Jumping from something stable into the unknown is probably the hardest in my
opinion. The road ahead is going to at times seem unclear, just remember to
put together a plan of being able to accomplish something, anything towards
bringing your idea to reality.

------
Gorm-Casper
I sort of did the same thing and occasionally get the same feeling.

I committed to lifting weights 3 times a week though (in the morning), as a
way to keep myself going as it makes me get out of the door and I come home
refreshed, ready to get to work.

Other than that, eat healthy, get proper sleep, and meet people!

Works for me :)

------
dvfer
Do some research, decide what you want, then proceed. Along the way, pick up
some talented guys to help you achieve your goal. One thing though, if you
were not satisfied with your previous work, why didn't you just protest and
get a better deal before quitting it for good, since you gonna quit anyway? It
just seems weird to me.

~~~
veyron
"why didn't you just protest and get a better deal before quitting it for
good, since you gonna quit anyway?"

My reasons for leaving were strictly nonfinancial. I've socked away enough
money to cover me about three years in NYC. I'm 24 now, so it makes sense for
me to take some time off and figure out exactly what I want to do :)

------
ian_cyw
I left my job back in 2009 at the dumps of the financial crisis. Take a 2
months break, do something you've always wanted to do. I went to Hong Kong and
partied for 2 months, recharging, before preparing for my current startup. No
need to hurry, your next startup will consume you.

------
keeptrying
I quit one day after you. :)

My email is in my profile, if you want to contact me. I'm ex finance too.

~~~
veyron
congrats :)

------
realgt
I used tools to help me focus and organize my work, such as google tasks,
remember the milk, and especially RallyDev community edition (free).

at some point it hits you that 'you are your own boss' means you have to _tell
yourself what to do_

------
rakila
Recommended reading: "Rework" by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, and
"Getting Real". Both by 37 signals-the ruby on rails guys. Best of luck!:)
trust me, they are well worth the buy...

------
Muchi
You could always try creating a high-level roadmap for yourself. However,
unlike your previous jobs, this roadmap would be more of a guideline than a
detailed point-to-point execution plan.

------
MatthewPhillips
You might have jumped the gun a little bit. But what's done is done so now you
have to put your head down and barrel through it. I would take gspyrou's
advice, just get to work.

~~~
veyron
For posterity's sake, when would have been the right time to leave? Keep in
mind that the nature of my previous work is such that I did not have spare
time on nights/weekends to continue working -- hence I just cut the umbilical
cord :)

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Then maybe you did leave at the right time and are just having a window of
uncertainty. It will pass. What's important is that you have the savings to
survive what could be a lengthy process. I couldn't have done the same but we
all have different situations.

------
iterationx
Make a list of what needs to be done, if any item on the list seems difficult
to start, break it down into smaller items until the way to proceed is
obvious.

------
gharbad
If you feel you need to have a roadmap to proceed, then you already know the
first thing you need to do.

------
imechura
Hey veyron, where are you located? You can email me from my profile.

~~~
veyron
I'm in NYC. How does one email from a profile? I dont see your email address
in the /user?id= page ...

------
joebo
I'd also suggest putting your contact info in your profile.

~~~
veyron
Done. Intransigence123 at gmail dot com

------
Mz
Didn't quit my job but very recently and very suddenly moved to a new team at
work -- by "new team" I mean one that didn't exist before and is doing work
without clear parameters. It's been a bit stressful, not knowing how
performance is going to be measured and so on. One of our first priorities is
determining how we will measure productivity. I suggest you do something
similar. "Wishcraft" and similar books by the same author might help in that
regard.

Best of luck.

------
truthsayer
Uh oh.

~~~
noahc
Please add value in your future posts. You could have made a valid point or
given great advice with a bit more effort. I see you're new to the community
so welcome and I look forward to seeing you add tons of value in the future.

------
stray
It doesn't much matter what you do right now. Just do something. Anything that
moves you toward your goal.

The more trivial the better, imo. You just need to get some momentum. Now move
out smartly, troop.

