
Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur? - ced83fra
I am a wantrepreneur. For over 7 years, I have wanted to start something. Really hard, wanted.
Surely, I have tried to find an audience for a twisted &quot;Come Dine With Me&quot; (but who would host 3 others random unknown people in their own house??), have started some websites (extractemailaddress.com, linux-commands-examples.com) in the hope to get a big enough niche audience... But all I can get is an average of 8€ per month of donations, which barely covers my hosting costs.<p>I am trying to get new ideas done. But after one day of programming for my job, I am exhausted and I cannot extract any brain-juice any more. And if I try to work during the week-ends, I can&#x27;t rewind enough for the next week. And my progress are damn slow. It seems I would need a year to achieve what a good programmer could do in a week.<p>It seems to me impossible I would be one day a Takuya Matsuyama who makes enough for a living with its app (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18216783), let alone be a Mark Zuckerberg.
Even if I have some theoretical knowledge of starting things, as I have read news, stuff, feedback on HN and other sites for years.<p>Creating a successful business seems to me like the only viable career path to me. I don&#x27;t see myself as a good developer (maybe it is due to the First month in a new company imposter syndrome, https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18257767). So this is not a long-term plan. And I have nerver learned to do anything else. So the only thing left is to create some things, and be successful enough in at least one to make a living out of it.<p>What should I do?
======
john_moscow
Just my 5 cents on making linux-commands-examples.com into an actual business:

1\. Do a Google Trends research on the Linux commands people search for (and
get trouble with/get confused with). Pick ~5 most popular ones.

2\. Find 2-5 pages on the Internet for each command where people asked for
help and didn't get a 100% satisfying reply.

3\. Write a description page (or article) for each of those commands,
explaining the stuff people struggle with. Publish link on pages found at #2.
Unless you write something cheesy there, people will actually be helpful and
won't ban you.

4\. Install Google Analytics. Set yourself a proxy goal of 1000 users per day.
Start analyzing: how many views per day do you get from a Linux command with
score of X in Google Trends with Y links on it from other forums? Back-
propagate your goal to actionable items: write N more pages on topics A,B and
C, M links for each.

5\. Once you get >1000 visitors/day, you can start monetizing it. A very rough
ballpark estimate is $1 per 1000 views (give or take, more like 0.1$-10$
depending on a plethora of factors).

6\. Once you get a flow of at least $1/day, do your back-propagation again and
make a system for yourself when you can look at a topic in Google Trends,
quickly search relevant forums, and know exactly how many $/month would an
article on this topic bring you. Then compare this income with your effort to
write and promote an article and decide whether this is a business you want to
do.

P.S. You can also get traffic on writing articles like "did you know those
rare time-saving features of commands X, Y or Z" and publishing them on
Reddit, HN and other similar sites. Once you figure out the right style to do
it so that people will consider it helpful advice and not spam, you can get
decent traffic.

Disclaimer: I use those techniques to advertise my paid tool for developers.
It may not pay off for a purely ad-monetized content site.

~~~
landon32
This is a great process for becoming a nice-cashflow side project, but I doubt
there's enough people searching for linux commands for this to ever be huge.

Not saying this isn't a great idea, just saying that it's wise to hedge
expectations and not expect this to be a get rich quick scheme.

I think if you wanted to turn it into a larger business, the next step would
be to determine an adjacent niche that your readers would also like. E.g.
maybe a lot of software engineers at tech companies read linux-commands-
examples.com, so you could sell them "new hire 1-sheets" for basic linux
commands or something. Could help to get more in depth analytics on who's
using your product there.

~~~
earenndil
A friend of a friend owns and runs google ads on linux.die.net (linux
manpages). It pays his mortgage.

~~~
adetrest
I never realized there were ads on this website. Always though it was someone
doing it for the love of it.

~~~
EADGBE
They certainly do it for the love. And the mortgage.

------
keeptrying
I've seen Mark Cuban use "wannapreneur" many times on his show and I've heard
others use this term.

I spent a good week trying to figure out what they meant because the term
never seemed to correlate to the size of the success of the pitch they were
hearing.

At one point someone came in who has built some kind of underwater propulsion
device which was the culmination of 3 years of work. He had a pretty polished
prototype too and was currently working as an engineer for one of the big 4
tech companies making a large salary. This guy had never tried to actually
sell his product to anyone. He just kept building. And I remember again Cuban
calling him a "wannpereneur".

At that point it struck me that the apparent definition of wannapreneur is
"Someone who wants the trappings of an entrepreneur (ie the social capital,
the identity etc) and goes to all the entrepreneur conferences but doesn't
actually _find customers_ and try to _sell_ a product to them." Its a
threshold of actually putting yourself out there with a product and selling.
Thats the line.

By this definition you definitely aren't a wantapreneur. You are an
_entrepreneur_ but you haven't found your audience and product yet.

\----

You have to remember that becoming good at entrepreneurship means being decent
at finding cofounders to complement you (ie being easy to work with) and/or
being good at a few of the things to do with business: building, marketing,
sales, hiring. If you're trying to do evertyhing on your own you have to be at
least average in all these areas. Are you at that point?

If you aren't then find books/courses in those areas and try to become good in
those areas (very hard to do) Or find co-founders to complement you.

You're on your way. Keep your income and keep trying with different ideas.

Best of luck!

~~~
Alex3917
You're a wannapreneur if:

\- You talk to people about your ideas, but never build anything

\- You build something without first talking to people

\- You build something and never try to sell it

If you build something that people say they'll pay for and then they don't
actually pay for it then this is problematic, but also normal and doesn't make
you a wannapreneur. At that point it's just part of the struggle.

~~~
bored
Or if you fall in love with the initial idea and never iterate.

~~~
Alex3917
True, but hard to adjudicate. The problem is how do you differentiate between
people who don't pivot because they think the next feature will make them
successful and are justified in doing so, versus people who do the same thing
but really should pivot? It's tricky because we have all of the following
examples:

\- People whose initial idea isn't working, but who pivot and immediately hit
product market fit.

\- People who launch the exact same thing once a year and it finally becomes a
huge hit after the fourth time.

\- People who pivot quickly and fail, whereas they would have probably been
successful had they pushed the original idea to its logical conclusion.

\- People who pivot after five years and become wildly successful, but where
it's unclear if they would have been as successful had they had pivoted
sooner.

\- People who pivot and become successful when they would have been better off
shutting down and starting over. (e.g. Derek Sivers)

This hits home a lot for me because I always strongly favor the strategy of
building _some_ optionality into the product, both for my own startup and when
doing consulting, on the assumption that we're probably directionally correct
but may be wrong on some specifics (e.g. how a feature should work, who the
early adopters will be, what the economy will be like in the future, what the
cash flow of the business will be like on any given day, etc.) And I take a
lot of shit both for not committing 100% to one specific product and go-to-
market strategy, and also for not pivoting fast enough when something isn't
working. Go figure.

------
sixhobbits
The most important thing is consistency. Pick one idea and stick with it (I'm
a hypocrite here), and work on it every day for years.

It's hard to keep anything going only during weekends as you spend 90% of your
energy just trying to find momentum.

Re "But after one day of programming for my job, I am exhausted and I cannot
extract any brain-juice any more. And if I try to work during the week-ends, I
can't rewind enough for the next week" \-- I had exactly this problem too. It
depends a lot on your other commitments, but after years of failing to do
anything productive in evenings and weekends (evenings, too tired; weekends,
too easy to procrastinate), I partially solved this by spending 30-60 minutes
every _morning_ on side projects. Waking up earlier was hard, but I managed to
get into the habit of spending some time in a cafe on my way to work. The
change in environment (not home) and the very limited time (often I only have
one well-defined goal for a morning session) makes me super productive.

I still battle with consistency, but I create a lot during these times. One
thing I'm working on is a guide on how to start your own company in 30 minutes
a day. It's still at idea stage, but there's a (currently partially broken)
website slowly being pieced together[0]

[0] [https://startyourown.co/](https://startyourown.co/)

~~~
jschulenklopper
> I partially solved this by spending 30-60 minutes every morning on side
> projects. Waking up earlier was hard, but I managed to get into the habit of
> spending some time in a cafe on my way to work. The change in environment
> (not home) and the very limited time (often I only have one well-defined
> goal for a morning session) makes me super productive.

This is a great tip... for every important goal that you would like to pursue.
I started to run twice a week at 6:00 am, and the habit to get out of bed
early provides an opening for other activities to spend an hour on the other
three weekdays (whether that is reading, writing, meditating/praying,
exercising, journalling).

BTW, it helps that I've got some running friends waiting at 6:00 am on
Wednesdays and Fridays. That 'social obligation' to show up is also a good
reason to get out of bed, knowing that some friends are waiting for me.

------
Thriptic
Get domain expertise in something other than programming and make things to
solve real business problems for people that aren't technical. Alternatively,
partner with people who aren't technical. There are a million developers
working on programming tools / knowledge aggregators and very few are ever
successful because the community wants everything to be FOSS and they won't
pay you. Far fewer people are working on annoying, unsexy, everyday business
problems because the problems aren't interesting and the developers lack the
domain xp to know that the problems exist or the scope of the problems. Non-
technical business people are also very ready to pay money for simple
solutions to real problems.

~~~
maxander
Seconding the "learn a new expertise" bit. Many fields that _aren 't_
programming are full of untended problems that are ripe for automation; these
opportunities stay un-taken because outsiders _never realize they exist_.
Learn something new, the practice of some other profession or even hobby, and
even if it looks cut-and-dry when you're starting out you'll find that there
are complexities and difficulties that, potentially, could be calling for some
new kind of service to fix them.

~~~
peterhunt
Or team up with a domain expert.

------
throwaway837914
Forgive me if my reading is off, but it sounds to me like one of your current
stumbling points is "inner game".

Reading between the lines a little, you seem to beat yourself up or go within
yourself in response to failure. This is a common trait with perfectionists,
who often want to feel like they are without flaws before they open themselves
to the world.

I'm basing this on this post and the post you linked to about imposter
syndrome, although that post appears to be from another user.

If my description seems accurate, I would recommend dealing with
anxiety/perfectionism/self-esteem first by learning about it. If you want,
throw up an anonymous website that tracks your journey. Self-help is certainly
a profitable market. Developer self-help might be an interesting niche.

Without being centered enough to weather failure with grace, you're going to
have a hard time being a successful entrepreneur. Once you have it worked out,
you'll be a different person with a better sense of who you are and what your
strengths are. And then you'll be in a stronger position to build a product
that really connects to people.

~~~
imdsm
I beat my inner perfectionist with the old adage "strive for excellence, not
for perfection."

Perfection cannot be realistically achieved, you'll find yourself in an
asymptote of diminishing returns. Excellence, on the other hand, can be
achieved.

------
superasn
There isn't much info on how you're doing it but since you're just starting
out my advice to you is to keep it simple stupid. To elaborate don't get
sucked up too much into new technologies and shiny objects.. If you can make
it work with PHP and Vue (or even jQuery) just make it happen.

I had this fatigue when I started learning too much about technology and
devops like hosting a site using Docker and stuff and I soon realized that
instead of working I was just playing with technologies all day and getting
fatigued over nothing. My lesson, there is stuff for big companies and then
there is stuff for the solepreneurs.

Also one more piece of advice is there are technologies offered these days as
SaaS. You don't have to do everything. A lot of the times you can just buy a
service for $30 / mo and get going. Don't wander around too much trying to
reinvent the wheel. Need authentication, use auth0, need a file uploader use
uploader.win, need to deliver mail use mailgun. This can save you a lot of
time and headache.

~~~
CoolestBeans
Conversely, go down every rabbit hole and write off your time as a learning
experience. If OP is committed to starting a business, focus on the business.
But there's value in being in an "open mode" if you can get it thru to your
brain that it's ok to not get anywhere quickly. The really valuable
innovations are going to be in the overlooked areas.

------
brainless
I have been a wantrepreneur for a very long time. Like yourself I have tried
and failed multiple ideas. I have worked with about 10 startups (including
some my own). I know (and have had honest reflections from others) that I have
caliber to work things out. But I have realized the biggest issue is lack of
perseverance - I jump ideas too often. Any idea (unless I am super lucky) will
need years of patient hand holding. I give up/get bored easily.

So on Jan 1, 2018 I promised myself I will stick to one of my ideas. I did,
now we are a tiny team seeing traction. Not revenue though. I had already
started a second idea in between, that is how fickle my mind is. But I dropped
it after detecting my brains own devil. So I am still sticking to the one I
started this year. As a team we have good goals till Dec 2018 and then first
quarter 2019. We have not planned beyond.

What I mean to say is: stick to one. Things may not go well, but keep trying
solutions in the same product, experiment a lot. Give yourself at least 2 or 3
years of "honest" effort. I do not over work, strict 8 hours a day. I consult
to raise the funds for our product. I have promised myself time till end of
2020 to see where this goes. I am 35 years old, been into startups since 22.

The bare minimum as of now: [https://travlyng.com/](https://travlyng.com/)

Edit: I used the wrong year 2017 instead of 2018. Sleepy head.

~~~
jschulenklopper
> So on Jan 1, 2017 I promised myself I will stick to one of my ideas. I did,
> now [...] So I am still sticking to the one I started this year. As a team
> we have good goals till Dec 2017 and then first quarter 2018. We have not
> planned beyond.

Which is a great idea - I tried to do the same, but it continues to be hard to
suppress other nice/promising/interesting ideas that surface every once in a
while.

BTW, perhaps it's because of our hyperfocus on that one idea, but in the mean
time 2018 has already started some while back, and we're close to Dec. 2018.
Plan accordingly :-)

~~~
brainless
I have a lot of attention, focus or hyperfocus issues. Plus poor social life
for many years and also mild-depression.

The only way through has been the hard one - string discipline, pushing myself
into building good long term friendship, traveling, having hobbies (learning
drums now).

It is very easy for people like us to lose focus and jump to the next nice
idea. I have lost so much time this way.

Sorry the timeline in my post was incorrect, had just woken up :P

------
eastdakota
What you sound to me is lonely. I say that not to be flip, but trying to
create something on your own is exponentially harder than doing it alongside a
partner. My 2¢: throw yourself into work at your company. Learn as much as you
can. Meet colleagues. Make friends. Don’t see it as the place you’ll be
forever, but as a place you can build resources. Hang our outside of work with
the colleagues you feel inspired by. Talk about plans for the future. Riff on
eachother’s ideas. When something seems interesting to a group of you, take
some time to build it out as a fun experiment or hobby. Think of these as play
not work. At some point one of these hobbies will inevitably find an audience
and get some traction. You’ll know it’s right when you and your “cofounders” —
though if you’re doing it right you won’t even think of each other that way
yet — can’t stop thinking about it and working on it feels invigorating not
exhausting. Once you’re there the path to creating a business will get a lot
clearer. But trying to get there on your own, while not impossible, is very
lonely and very hard.

------
harel
How about this (just throwing some ideas out there):

1\. Create more niche "properties" that provide a small to medium services.
focus on something people might need, be willing to pay a small amount for,
and ideally can run with minimal supervision.

2\. Rinse repeat #1 until a few of those are ongoing. 8 euros per month
becomes maybe 800 and growing over time.

3\. Don't try to be Zuckerberg. There is only one of him, thank all the gods.

4\. Don't even think about the words "startup", "exit", "investment" etc.
Focus on stuff that will provide you with a lifestyle of your choice.

5\. Try to make each "property" the best you can. Focus on making a "Good
Product" (tm). Good products have better chance of being used. Give each one
the love it needs. Stay focused. Complete the project. Take it slowly, there
is no rush. You have no Boss here. No deadlines.

6\. One of these days, one of those niche idea becomes semi-niche, broader
audience. Go with it.

7\. Remember there is no magic formula, no secret sauce, luck is a huge factor
and there is no guarantee for anything.

8\. Aim for lifestyle. It's a good aim.

------
mindcrime
There's an Alan Kay video out there, titled something like "How to Invent the
Future" (or something close to that). It's in two parts, and it should be
available on Youtube. In that video there's a part where he talks about good
ways to come up with an idea for a new business. I'd try to describe the
process to you, but I really can't do it justice. I'd say go find the videos
and watch them and consider giving his approach a shot.

You'll know you're at the bit I'm talking about when he starts talking about
the book _Human Universals_.

~~~
tacon
I liked that video, too. Kay suggested that there is a very long list of human
universals, that almost all of them can be translated into a human need or
want, and that very few had yet been mined for their business potential. I
went looking for the list when I first watched that video:

[http://willsull.net/resources/HumanUniversals.pdf](http://willsull.net/resources/HumanUniversals.pdf)

[https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/afc6/be60ad8e6995e98dc77093...](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/afc6/be60ad8e6995e98dc77093c3e779a9d00478.pdf)

------
klein0891
I was in your same shoes until 4 years ago. I wanted to be an entrepreneur so
desperately. I developed websites which solved technical problems imagining
users would flock. I tell you it was heart breaking to see one or two hits
every week. I tried 3-4 different applications and had zero revenue -
docverifier (a document formatting and verification software for students),
inqvest (a platform for angel investors) to name a few which have all been
dissolved. In 2014, I was finally able to create a niche software product -
www.legistracker.com which now creates some passive income. It is not a real
business yet but it helps me pay off some of the bills. I was able to do it
because realized I was looking in the wrong direction. The problem is that I
never ASKED any potential customer what would be a good problem to solve.
Without a paying customer, you have no viable product. What I would suggest is
that you target small business owners what would help them in a. increase
their sales or b. increase their productivity. <shameless plug>I wrote a small
e-book [https://payhip.com/b/VdmH](https://payhip.com/b/VdmH) exactly
outlining how to find your first target paying customer if you are
interested</shameless plug>. Don't lose hope. Good luck!

~~~
milescrabill
From what I can tell your site is only served via HTTP, including your login
page. You're sending people's passwords in the clear - please fix!

------
ccantana
First of all, I respect your self-awareness. I’ve been in a similar rut.

I disagree with some suggestions here that you should watch things like
Startup School. Those videos, while well-intentioned, can make you feel even
more inadequate and “behind” when you feel stuck.

If you’re losing a game of basketball, it’s not terribly fun to watch somebody
else make dunk after dunk.

I currently run one of the largest newsletters in tech
([https://techloaf.io](https://techloaf.io)), which I started purely as tiny
side project to force me into action while in a similar rut. It started with
just me writing up satirical jokes and sending out and email to a few friends
each week, to now a project with about a dozen writers and a wide following.

As unhelpful or vague as this might sound, I’ve found that just doing
_something_ can have a snowball effect. Pick the smallest possible task for
the easiest possible side project and start doing. For me, that was literally
just telling a few people that I’d send them a funny email each week.

Best of luck, you’ll look back on this and smile once you’ve got your next
project off the ground.

------
glangdale
I have met a few people who are determined to be entrepreneurs and don't seem
all that picky about the _content_ of their entrepreneurship. It doesn't seem
like all that great a path.

IMO it's a bit of a cliche, but you should find an idea that you're passionate
about (that's also a plausible business plan, naturally :-) ) and follow it.
Deciding you want to be an entrepreneur first, then casting around for ideas,
seems desperately contrived. I know it's worked for some people, so there's no
hard-and-fast law, but I personally can't see how one gets through the general
grind of a startup motivated only by an abstract and rather extrinsic goal of
"being an entrepreneur".

~~~
tonyarkles
I’ve seen this go both ways, and I find it really interesting. I’m,
personally, solidly in the “passion” camp. I’ve got a few friends though where
“building the business” is the passion for them, and what the particular
business is doesn’t matter all that much. Seeing the business grow and knowing
that they’ve got staff that they’re providing a good life for... that seems to
be enough for them, even if they’re not particularly passionate about the
specific businesses.

------
ilamont
To me, "wantapreneur" is synonymous with the people who are big on talk or the
trappings of startup life without actually making anything _or_ are constantly
looking for someone else to build out their big idea. At least you're building
something on your own!

Of the many pieces of pg startup wisdom cited or linked to on HN, the one bit
that sticks with me is just five simple words, from one of his early essays
(1):

 _Make something that people want._

If you can figure that out, you'll be on the right track. You've made some
mistakes; learn from them and make something better that customers truly want.

1\. [http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html)

~~~
nojvek
I’ve always resonated more with a slightly modified version in a much more
powerful way.

“make and sell something people want”

It’s not a business unless money is getting transferred!

~~~
nl
I think PG was very careful and very precise about the advice he gave there.
If you look at the context he specifically addresses and discards the idea of
trying to make money from it straight away:

 _About a month after we started Y Combinator we came up with the phrase that
became our motto: Make something people want. We 've learned a lot since then,
but if I were choosing now that's still the one I'd pick.

Another thing we tell founders is not to worry too much about the business
model, at least at first. Not because making money is unimportant, but because
it's so much easier than building something great.

A couple weeks ago I realized that if you put those two ideas together, you
get something surprising. Make something people want. Don't worry too much
about making money. What you've got is a description of a charity.

When you get an unexpected result like this, it could either be a bug or a new
discovery. Either businesses aren't supposed to be like charities, and we've
proven by reductio ad absurdum that one or both of the principles we began
with is false. Or we have a new idea._[1]

It's fine to disagree with that advice of course. But I think _in the context
of YC_ it make sense. If you aren't doing YC and can't raise capital as easily
then maybe not.

[1] [http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html)

~~~
nojvek
I believe apart from being in Silicon Valley, raising capital in other parts
of the world is significantly much much harder.

In SV, you can go “I’ll worry about funding problem later, if I have good
growth and retention, raising money will be a breeze and I’m fairly confident
of it as there are tons of VCs in this economy blowing cash”

In other parts of the world: “It could mean the death of my company if I can’t
raise money and using up the little I have. Bootstrapping and being profitable
is a much more saner route”

------
projectramo
You can only control your efforts, not the outcome. A writer writes, a singer
sings, a creator creates.

So long as you’re actually putting businesses out into the universe you’re a
full fledged entrepreneur.

I can’t tell you why you haven’t been as successful as you want to be. That
kind of advice is all over the place. Perhaps the comments here are right:
figure out what the customer wants first and make a minimal first product.
Perhaps they’re wrong and you should incubate them for longer or perhaps some
third thing (partner with someone else? It’s not bad to be the drummer in the
Beatles).

But I think self-doubt is a natural part of creativity and maybe even a sign
you’re on the right track.

------
segmondy
Go watch all the videos at www.startupschool.com

Writing code and starting a business are different activities. You need to
learn how to start a business, figure out what product you want to build, find
out what market you want to target, merge the product and market to get a
product/market fit. Then figure out selling/marketing/funding and all the
rest.

Ideas are actually the easiest thing, execution is the hardest.

You might not want a startup but a small business that can make more than you
currently make, then head over to indiehackers.com

You can do it. Have you considered partnering up with someone else? It's
really hard to go at it alone. Not impossible, but really tough.

~~~
tzhenghao
> "Ideas are actually the easiest thing, execution is the hardest."

This. I've seen many people with "good" startup ideas, but doing always >
talking.

~~~
rckclmbr
Most programmers see the opposite, actually. Every one of my friends want to
do a startup, but "dont have any good ideas". Any tips for finding the right
idea, or do you have any good ideas :)

~~~
LeonB
Start by identifying your market (which people can you connect with easiest).
Go where they go and see what problems they talk about. Take notes. See if you
can solve one of their most common problems, completely, and see if your
solution resonates with them. Package it up and put a price on it. Done. (I
literally wrote the book on it)

------
wimgz
1) Don't judge yourself after one month at your company, it takes time to fit
in an learn the ropes

2) Don't be too hard on yourself. Your brain needs some rest. Rest as long as
you need. Don't ever compare yourself to Zuck, you see a billionaire now but
he was a student when he started FB, and probably as lost as you are.

3) Not much time? Focus on the essential: find a real problem to solve. Maybe
a problem you have, maybe a friend's. Maybe something related to your hobby.
Don't focus too much on coding, maybe you can solve problems with a simple
spreadsheet for now, and build a site when you have your first customers

------
DoreenMichele
_Surely, I have tried to find an audience for a twisted "Come Dine With Me"
(but who would host 3 others random unknown people in their own house??), have
started some websites (extractemailaddress.com, linux-commands-examples.com)
in the hope to get a big enough niche audience... But all I can get is an
average of 8€ per month of donations, which barely covers my hosting costs._

This sounds to me like you are looking at the "skin" of what other people do
and trying to replicate that instead of digging into the guts behind why their
thing was successful.

I talk a lot with my sons about how dragons in fiction are "the red dragon"
and "the blue dragon" and "the green dragon" etc. And maybe the red dragon
breathes fire and the blue dragon breathes ice and the green dragon breathes
acid, but they all look essentially identical except for the color, like you
took a stamp and stamped out three dragons and colored them all differently
with crayons.

In reality, if you have three species that are that fundamentally different in
function, they will look vastly different. It won't be the same body, but with
different skin.

You can see this readily in nature. Penguins are birds. But they are birds
that don't fly, live in a very cold climate and swim. They look vastly
different from most birds that live in warmer climates and fly instead of
swimming.

So, no, it isn't sufficient to replicate the "skin" of a successful business.
You need to do research and find out what the hidden parts are that make it
actually work. This is sometimes called "the secret sauce."

No matter how much public data is available about a business, there will be
things the public doesn't know -- The working guts of the business that
happens behind the scenes. This is what you appear to be missing.

In my thirties, I was doing similar things. I was pursuing the trappings of a
business without actually accomplishing anything.

The crux of all business is you need _paying customers_. You need to figure
out a thing of value that people will pay you for. If you can't figure that
out, the trappings aren't going to do anything. If you have that, layering on
some trappings of business can improve things.

But you have to have that piece first and foremost. And from where I sit, you
don't seem to be doing that piece.

------
onlyrealcuzzo
You're definitely not a Wantrepreneur. You're trying things. So I think you've
definitely got what it takes to build something great.

As a developer who has built a few decent side projects and turned down some
investment money -- if I can give engineers any advice, it's:

Stop trying to build services on your own.

Sure, if you're REALLY passionate about something SaaS-y or if you're REALLY
determined to be a billionaire, I guess starting your own VC-funded SaaS is
the way to go.

You seem to be like most people who just wants to build/run your own thing and
make a decent living, maybe a living a bit better than what you have
currently.

If that's the case, I really recommend trying to sell a product instead (and
not a software one). It's not quite as satisfying, but it's much less time-
consuming and the odds of generating a meaningful profit in a reasonable
amount of time are MUCH higher.

------
PhilWright
A common mistake I see is developers often view a big and well known service
and assume that means the entire market is fully catered to. For example,
'Firebase' is a large Google service that handles backend-as-a-service (BaaS).
Does this mean the entire BaaS is now off the table for others?

Of course not! Maybe you can create a specialised BaaS that works great for
the unique demands of Ruby developers, with a seamless SDK for them. There
will be multiple specialised niches that Firebase does not cater to because
they are so large that small niche areas are not worth their effort. But that
niche might make a nice little lifestyle business for a developer! Do a good
job of it and you become known as the go-to place for the Ruby community.
(This is just an example, I have no idea if the Ruby community needs a
Firebase BaaS)

~~~
nstart
On this note, without mentioning names, I'm going to share two real world
examples of people I know turning businesses into profitable side projects in
very very crowded markets.

One is so profitable in fact that the side project is about to become his full
time business. He built a tool to do link tracking using social media pixels.
I mean that's a suuuuuper crowded market, but he fine tuned it enough to serve
a particular customer base of small to medium businesses and with a primary
focus on managing retargeting pixels in one place.

The second business I know of was built in the market of checking cron job
success/uptime and doing alerting on failures. Again, there are other products
that do exactly this thing. But humans being humans don't connect purely with
the feature sheet. From pricing to overall experience his product and customer
service was different enough that people are paying for it. And while it was a
slog to get his first 10 paying customers, his next 10 took only 1/3rd of the
time that it did for the first 10.

This is just a supporting statement for the above comment. Have courage in
yourself. Go forth! :)

------
goatherders
The act of creating is entrepreneurship, not the result.

To add even more advice to a lot of good advice already posted, I would
encourage you to learn about sales and marketing as much as anything. The
building is just the start. If you build something you still have to sell it.
Also, set some goals. If you havent had much success to date I would suggest
setting a goal of $100 to $1000 a month or whatever suites you. Now, do the
work with that goal in mind. Are you going something that moves you closer to
that goal or just writing more code?

------
nb1
Read The Magic of Thinking Big. You're not a wantrepreneur - you've tried
something and been paid for it, and that's a big step that a lot of people
don't get to.

Changing your mindset is the first step. Don't think that because you only
have five hours a week to work on your project, that it is forever relegated
to "side project" status and capped out at $100/month.

It sounds like you want to focus on web apps, many of which are heavily
dependent on organic search traffic. The first thing that I'd do after reading
the book is to get a SEMRush free trial - a lot of affiliate sites have 30-day
free trials. Look at how many people are searching for your target keywords,
the keyword difficulty score, what advertisers are bidding for the keywords,
and traffic of comparable sites.

If everything checks out, look at how you can improve on the comparable sites.
Everything has potential for improvement - even if your tool works exactly the
same way as a competitor, just optimizing the website copy (do a ton of A/B
tests and talk to your users) could yield impressive results.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

------
demircancelebi
You may try to maintain a positive attitude before anything else. There are
definitely many different career paths.

You've said yourself that people have paid for the things you've built in the
past, so you are definitely more capable than you think when it comes to
building stuff.

If the money you make barely covers your hosting costs, this might mean two
things: 1) Not many people know about your solution, 2) you are not solving a
big problem. 1 should be correct, if you've managed to make 8€/month, it'd be
really odd if all the money you can make with your solution is capped at this
amount. There should definitely be more people willing to pay you, you just
have not managed to meet them. Maybe you should spend more time about
distribution. I also think 2 might be true, too. Maybe instead of building
ideas right away, you may spend more time evaluating ideas, talking to people
to understand what's important.

Last of all, I think defining characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
include resourcefulness and perseverance.

------
flashgordon
Couple of things Id love to clarify:

1\. Why do you _need_ to be an entrepreneur? If your day job is exhausting
have you tried changing jobs to a more balanced work place? If it is a matter
of skill/expertise have you tried investing in upskilling yourself?

2\. If you dont think you are a good developer (imposter syndrome or
otherwise) what makes you think you would be a good entrepreneur? I am not
saying being a good dev is the _only_ prerequisite but if you are going into
be in some kind of software startup space there will be a _lot_ of coding/dev
ops/engineering/debugging/prototyping across the stack. I hope you were not
looking to be a biz-guy-looking-for-a-coder.

Now despite the above if you truly truly want to be an entrepreneur (and revel
in #struggleporn as suggested in another thread) try the following (YMMV):

1\. Take a vacation and just unwind without thinking about work. Given your 7
years of experience I am assuming you are young and have less number of
"responsibilities" and I am assuming you are living in Europe (from your
donation currency) so you may not have to depend on employment for basics like
health insurance.

2\. If you can afford to take time off (say for 6 months) go on a
reading/learning spree without actually working on potential ideas. You will
be amazed at realizing that the things you dont know are not magical (they are
just unknown and vast) and be pleasantly surprised at how each fibre of
knowledge builds N^2 connections between your other threads of knowledge.

3\. Build relationships with people in different areas outside of your
immediate interest/work. Again do this purely for learning rather than hoping
to turn it into a business venture.

The common thread across the above three is you are letting your brain do some
garbage collection which is a powerful way to put it to good use in the
future.

------
com2kid
YCombinator Startup School heavily emphasizes leaving your day job and
committing 100%. I'm trying to start something similar to your Come Dine With
Me, but out in public instead of at people's house. (plug:
[https://www.thawd.net](https://www.thawd.net) coming to Seattle soon!)
Devoting 100% of my mental energy to it means I have been able to iterate on
the idea itself quickly, spend time talking to people about it (which is
itself exhausting!) and completely engulf myself in the startup community.

There are people who devote 100% of their mental energy to whatever they are
doing right now. Those people are not going to be successful with side
projects. When I am building something, it is on my mind 100% of the time,
waking up, showering, getting dressed, driving, eating, all the time.

I cannot do 2 projects at once.

In regards to coding, being a good programmer is only a small part of running
a business. Marketing, managing a team, working with designers, and inspiring
others with your idea are all skills that are incredibly important.

The code needs to work, sure. And hopefully it is reliable, but just as
important, the business needs to work. You need to be able to send cold
emails, handle rejection, and be able to put a smile on your face on demand at
any time of day at any place meeting with anyone.

Of course before you quit your day job, make sure you have an idea that people
want. Throw some marketing $ at it and see what your conversion rate it, even
if it is to a "sign up for more info" form.

Go out and talk to people on the street, one of the most difficult things I
did, which was step 1, was literally go to different neighborhoods, walk up to
people, and ask them about my product idea. Especially for mass market
products, this is a quick, and painful, way to cycle through ideas really
quickly.

Also, for your email address extractor, have some sample input there. It'll go
a long way towards explaining your value prop.

~~~
DoreenMichele
_YCombinator Startup School heavily emphasizes leaving your day job and
committing 100%._

A. This is a luxury many people do not have. For example, most women are
unable to do this, in part because they can't get the same financial support
for their business ideas as men.

B. I'm a fan of YC, but "consider the source." They are an incubator who only
funds people doing this full time, not part time. That's their business model.
So that's what they know. That doesn't mean it is the right answer for
everyone all the time.

~~~
com2kid
Both statements are true, which is why I talked about people who can and
cannot split their focus.

Some people are great at having a side hustle, but it sounds like OP isn't one
of them.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Yes, but leading with that statement suggests it is "gospel," not "the right
answer for some people who can't split their focus."

~~~
com2kid
True, unfortunately I'm on mobile now and not really able to reformat
everything.

Hopefully this thread serves as a disclaimer!

------
herbst
Before I even knew I could consider myself entrepreneur (or Wantrepreneur) I
tried years of everything and it was lots of fun and learning. I never made
more than a few dollars these years, even when I tried, but when I did I was
happy.

Then I finished my education, did my years of professional work (which I think
is kinda relevant to do) and realized I hate work.

Only then I found all these phrases and tips around being entrepreneur. And
well it didn't help at all.

Only when I started to make things out of pure passion and being able to let
go when things sucked I started to get things that stick.

And fuck most projects I start still go nowhere. However some do. And i am
cool about that.

Don't give up. But give up trying to make money. Make great things that you
need. Recreate things that you know you can do a lot better, and never stop.
Things will eventually work out.

------
enygmata
If you want to get money from donations you need publicity because most people
who visit your website will never donate. If you are someone who releases/has
lots tools I would recommend setting up a single domain with dedicated pages
for each tool (e.g. tool.domain.com or domain.com/tool) and setting up a
Patreon in addition to the donation button.

Honestly I would put ads on the extractemailaddress.com website and work on
improving it's position on the search results. In addition to that
localization to one or two other languages would probably be nice to boost the
views. That "make a small donation" button really put me off.

------
mancerayder
I've seen lots of superb responses in here but the, "I'm tired after work at
night and on the weekend I'm burnt and want to slack to unwind" is a
complicated one. I've had a similar issue, especially as I've one 40 hr
consulting gig while picking up a small second one, and hoping to invest
effort to find new ones over time.

I don't know what the answer is. All I know is, my friends with families and
young kids have so little free time, they're envious of my freedom. This has
given me the motivation to push myself a little even if it takes a bit of
willpower and I'm sleepy.

------
tomasien
Creating a successful business is DEFINITELY not the only viable career path
for you or anyone. I'm not sure where you're getting that idea but, luckily
for you, it's super super wrong.

------
wizwazzle
Entrepreneurship can be boiled down to one command (don't crucify me): Find a
need, or make one, and fill it.

So start by learning the problems that people have and truly validate that
problem's existence and significance in their lives.

The second thing I would consider are your execution abilities. Looking at
your websites, it's clear that web design isn't your strong suit; it seems
your strong suit might be having deep knowledge of the linux ecosystem (taking
a guess here). Then again consider your market size.

------
ra00l
I've been where you are.

Here are some things that worked for me:

1\. Get some time off. Don't work, just relax, read things, try to find real
problems from people around you.

2\. Start a project with someone. Anyone. Accountability works really good.

3\. Try to concentrate on one things, making it good enough.

4\. I've found that listening to entrepreneurship podcasts works wonders for
motivation.

And to end this comment: the moment you've got $1 in your account you stopped
being a wantrepreneur :)

------
Codesane
Hello! I'm currently working with my own startup full-time and it is a lot of
work. I feel like I resonate with what you have written here and would love to
get in contact with you if you want, if only for moral comfort or maybe work
together with something in the future. If this sounds appealing to you please
let me know and we can exchange details :) It is always nice having someone
likeminded to speak with.

On the context of one of your ideas: I'm going to move to Denmark for a while
and I was actually recommended checking this facebook page out:
[https://facebook.com/copenhagenjumpingdinner/](https://facebook.com/copenhagenjumpingdinner/)
to get to know people in the city. I'm sure that this could be made into a
popular app if it is executed correctly, might be interesting for you to check
it out in case it contains some valuable information that you can use for
inspiration.

------
Skeletor
Everyone is faking it until they make it. I think a deciding event is when
someone takes on no other employment for 1 year at a time and works 110% all
in on their startup, then they are definitely an entrepreneur and have made
the leap from the sidelines.

One idea I didn't see listed elsewhere: Try to go and work for an early stage
startup if you are having trouble getting a startup off of the ground
yourself. You will learn a lot more as one of the first 10 employees as you do
as one of the first 10k. If you tell startups founders you eventually want to
do your own startup they respect that and will try to give you opportunities
and can share a lot with you about their startup experience.

Also hopefully if you are part of a successful startup exit you will get some
street cred and some money to live off of. If it's a failed startup even
better as you will learn even more from that experience.

------
psiozos
Pick one of the niches you are knowledgeable about, create an online course
and go out and sell it.

An online course is a very versatile type of product, much easier to create
than an ebook (or an app for that matter), much easier to promote, easier for
people to consume, and much easier to monetize. Online courses are a booming
trend. And you don't need any infrastucture to sell it, just a stripe account
and a platform like [https://www.learnworlds.com](https://www.learnworlds.com)
(disclosure, I am a co-founder there).

You would probably need a couple of hours to create some nice screencasts with
the top linux commands. Make this a free course and share it across social
media. Much easier than building an MVP app or site. If you see traction then
double down and go for the paid "premium" course

------
CyberFonic
You are being too hard on yourself. The people you mention are outliers, one
in a million or more.

Without knowing more about your skills, experience and interests it is hard to
make suggestions. But I'll try anyway ...

Instead of focusing on your desire to be an entrepreneur, why don't you stop
and look about you and see what problems, challenges, etc exist (there are
literally hundreds if you look empathetically). Look at those problems that
resonate with you and sketch out how you could address them. Not all solutions
involve computers, programs and websites. Eventually you could stumble across
a problem that you can see a solution to and can see how you can focus your
knowledge, skills, experience and connections to implement the solution. Often
times, the solution will involve reaching out to other people, etc.

------
martin-adams
I can relate. Here is how I would/do handle this situation...

1\. Use my own time to learn new things while building a startup. This means I
get less fatigued after s day job.

2\. Focus more on solving a passion problem than being an entrepreneur. I’ve
found I’m a lot happier building the right solution to a problem than figuring
out how to make it a business. I won’t taint the right solution by putting
business needs first.

3\. Learn to enjoy the act of creating than the art it produces. This means
you’ll sustain being in ‘the dip’ for longer.

4\. Listen to audio books and mix it between entrepreneurship/startup topics
and self decelopment. Some of my biggest improvements to happiness have come
from books that help me enjoy the moment more.

5\. Do one thing at a time and focus on doing it well. A fox can’t chase two
rabbits, so you can’t chase building 5 parts at once. No. 3 and 4 help me do
this.

6\. Consider finding a cofounder who can do the bits you don’t enjoy. They
should also be obsessed with solving the same problem.

7\. Don’t let imposter syndrome get to you. Some people let it affect them,
others don’t even consider it. It has nothing to do with ability. Learn to
enjoy learning, and explore No. 4 to build your resilience to feeling anxious
and how to deal with other people in a more enjoyable way.

8\. Be okay with the discomfort you are felling and believe that a set of
actions can solve it. You just need to experiment with different actions and
see which ones fail and which ones succeed. You have a lifetime to explore
this.

I was in your shoes for the past 10 years. I get distracted too easily. Since
then I found a great couple of co-founders, we’ve released a beta but are
completely obsessed with the problem area we’re solving. We love what we are
doing and aren’t in a rush, but are hungry for success. You too can get there,
it won’t happen overnight so thinking in terms of smaller wins is the best
approach. The big wins are a product of lots of smaller ones.

------
falco925
I am/was in a similar situation where I really wanted to start something on
the side. I spent 6-mo trying out new ideas and experienced all the same
problems you did (i.e., tired after work, can't devote enough time to build
the product, sucked at marketing, etc).

After 2 years, I finally have a nice SaaS business that's giving me some
passive income. What did it for me was that I created a solution that solved
MY problem. If you're trying to solve your own problem, turns out you'll spend
time on it and most likely many other people have the same problem.

My side project keeps me a bit busy (usually 5-10 hrs a week) but it's really
not bad considering that I'm saving time by solving a problem I had.

Just my two cents, as it seems that coming up with the right idea is half the
battle.

------
nevertoolate
You ask this question and you are already doing what you should. Asking
questions.

Maybe these are not the ultimate questions you want to get an answer for but
are a great start.

Also be aware that everyone will start to realize their limits at some point.
As children we could improve by endlessly repeating whatever we saw. After a
while we need to work on finding the things from which we can learn and
improve in a better rate. Also finding a balance between work and regeneration
is key. Work efficiency and regeneration speed can be increased - thus
allowing for better rate of learning. Also by not stressing over needless
things you can save a lot of energy.

The more stable a system is the harder it is to rewire it - so we must
sometimes start over and make things a bit unstable to find new paths.

Good luck!

------
harrisbarnes
I feel the same way about leisure time and attempting to become fully self-
employed. This, or creating other cash flow streams. I have to work full-time
to keep my head above the water, although never seem to have enough time to
get to the next safety boat. I did create and close a business, the whole way
through. Although, I didn't have enough time to actually perform the tasks
needed to produce a profit. I find it hard to find anyone willing to take a
risk with their time/job in creating other enterprise. They are either too
busy, or above their heads. Also, finding a person to partner in a business
with you is a tall ask. This person is going to have to be willing to go into
battle with you.

------
sigfubar
This may not be what you want to hear, but you should nevertheless consider
that perhaps running your own business isn't for you. Other respondents here
have pointed out the vast amount of work that goes into starting up something
new. It's really, really difficult. If this were an easy thing to do,
absolutely everyone would be doing it, because who wouldn't want to be their
own boss?

Don't take this as criticism of you. On the contrary, this may be the
opportunity you need to leverage your true strengths instead of attempting
repeatedly to embark on a gambit that seems to be a poor fit for your
personality.

------
dejv
First, it is just very hard to make money from ad/donation supported niche
content sites. I am running few sites like this for half decade and my income
is basical half of what it was last year every year, even with 20%/year
increase of traffic. It basically went from being able to pay my mortgage to
paying for nice dinner each month.

I like what is described as The Stairstep Approach:
[https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approach-
to-...](https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approach-to-
bootstrapping/)

------
anonu
My advice is never give up. You have a deep introspection on your life which
is a double edged sword. On one hand it's very important to learn from your
past and your mistakes. On the other hand you need to believe in yourself to
succeed. Don't short change your skills or ability.

I think the thing with the most value you can build in your life is a company.
One off websites can be very successful, but it's rare. You'll have higher
success building a business that solves some problem for a big audience.

Come back when you've failed ten times. I'm sure even then you won't be asking
that question.

------
codexon
An entrepreneur is a more difficult job that requires you to be good at more
than just programming. A capable entrepreneur imo, would not be churning out
random super niche websites like the ones you just listed, hoping that one of
them sticks.

Market research takes time and effort, just like programming does. If you do
not already have an idea you know will make you money, you will need to put in
the time and effort to find one instead of using that time making random
websites. Some people do get lucky and find a niche without much effort, but
that is likely not the case for most.

------
paulie_a
If you are an entrepreneur, coding will be a tiny detail. Selling it will be
your first priority, making the customers happy is second, then a bunch of
other things, more sales calls, then coding is 99.

------
dmitripopov
Some people are just not good for entrepreneurship, even if they do want it
very hard. Desire alone is not enough. Success is a multiplication of factors,
not a sum, and if you are bad at just one aspect you fail. I think you should
find a companion or two and take a couple of shots on short-term projects with
them. Not a big-deal-out-of-garage, just a project to check things out. The
idea is to complement each other's drawbacks and form a team that is good at
everything.

------
andrewstuart
You're just not working and trying hard enough to get your ideas off the
ground. It's s vast amount of work.

Yoda knows:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_tYQRP4QWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_tYQRP4QWM)

------
DrNuke
No, you aren’t. I can see two patterns here: first, you do not throw enough
sh*t on the wall you choose (market research, content, lots of content,
package) and as a consequence, second, you are unable to dig deep enough to
make something stick (sales).

------
andersthue
For whom do you want to be an entrepreneur, what is your mindset?

If it is for yourself, then it will be hard.

If it is for the possible customer, then it might be a little bit easier.

Read “Leadership an Self Deception” for help in changing your mindset.

------
kluck
\- Concentrate on one thing.

\- Make something you need and would pay for. If it already exists somewhere,
find a good reason why you need to do it at all (and not just use the existing
thing).

\- No donations, let people pay for it.

------
kukabynd
Keep at it, it takes time and perseverance. Learn by doing mistakes and
falling just to get up once again. There‘s no other way. No one gets it the
first time.

------
huxflux
Wantrepreneur! I've been looking for a word like that for so long.

------
antoineMoPa
Same. I started a multi-user calculator (now dead) hoping to get users and
eventually offer paid plans. It never got more than 5 monthly users. Started a
blog (now dead). Not much traffic. Made some contract work for people, but the
projects are too damn boring so I'd rather focus on university. I think I am
happier when I code free side projects without any capitalist aspiration.
Still, the desire to stop having a boss is strong. But then, the clients
become the boss, which can be as bad.

~~~
datavirtue
Worse. Much worse.

------
pkamb
> donations

There's your problem.

------
jungler
I don't think it's the lack of trying that is doing you in, so much as it is a
linear approach to entrepreneurship like what they will teach in business 101
classes: you are going through the motions without having the underpinning
philosophy to animate them usefully.

A key part of this puzzle is knowing what you want to focus your mind's effort
on: product design, coding problems, sales, etc. When you actually meet a
market, you aren't just doing whatever you want and they buy it: you are
engineering the specific thing that they actually buy, whether it's
stereotypical "service with a smile" or "value for money" or "niche high end
for discerning tastes". And advice about finding and optimizing performance
metrics is _exactly what this accomplishes_. You have to consciously decide
which metrics you want to optimize and throw all your leverage around their
improvement, which tends to also throw you outside your comfort zone.

If you don't want to do that kind of sales-and-profits hustling, you're being
an entrepreneur in a more speculative, "build it and they will come" sense,
which has a much lower hit rate. But that doesn't mean you can't do it at all:
you still have to decide on metrics for success, you just aren't using the
surface ones now. It is in avoiding _any_ kind of deliberate improvement that
you trail off into having a non-functional business, and there are plenty of
companies around that are alive, have employees and turn profits, but are in a
zombified state, not really showing ambition - and that's definitely not
entrepreneurship.

For example: you are in the business of manufacturing and selling crowbars.
You decide that you will sell "the world's strongest crowbar". OK, now you
have goals that produce a lot of activity: how strong are the existing
crowbars on the market? What tests should you use to determine strength? Which
materials and manufacturing methods will make your product stronger? What
marketing materials will demonstrate the results most effectively?

At the end of that work, you may discover that there is no market for your
crowbar, but there are opportunities for adapting the process to rebar
instead.

When companies grow really big, the entrepreneurial process turns to one of
creating a "machinery of people", vs proving that the market for employing
those people exists. It's a different skillset, and is utilized only
occasionally, when the stars are right and you happen to have a business that
can scale. But it's still ultimately about setting the metrics that are right
for that business at that moment.

If you aren't involved with fitness/sports/athletics, it's worth doing so just
to get a taste of what focusing on performance and growth mindset day after
day will do.

------
kentuf
You sound like me stuck in my wantrepreneur fase. Identify your entreporn:
startup podcasts, hackernews posts, influencers on Twitter, meetups. Either
turn it into a real relationship (which means become a producer, instead of a
consumer, stop talking, start doing) or cut these bad habits entirely: Like
people who obsess over lotery tickets, because they really want to be rich,
but don't have the patience to set up a solid plan. They give their brain
something related to occupy itself with (the minute potential of winning the
big prize) and call it a day.

Also realize that the game is rigged and not fair at all. You think Zuckerberg
had to worry about covering hosting costs?

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Latteland
Nit: It should be "wantapreneur" instead of wantrepreneur.

And I'm in the same boat you. I am so tempted to go off on my own.

edit: fixed my typo or your term :-)

~~~
meowface
"wantrepreneur" sounds way better to me.

