

Ask HN: Launching a startup and work on your previous company at the same time? - technology

I have a small affiliate company which generates decent amount of revenue as commission for selling someone else products.<p>I'm now thinking of launching a startup and I am not sure if my startup will succeed. So is it a good idea to work at my affiliate company and do a startup at the same time ? People say to quit your previous job and then only you can succeed in your startup, why can't you work on 2 things at once ? Because I would be just betting on this startup which I'm not sure if it will succeed.<p>Any thoughts ?
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frafdez
Although you'll need to spend 100% of your time on your startup, at some
point, you don't have to start that way. Just make sure that you do whatever
you can to fully switch context when working at your job or on your startup.
Trying to do both, switching back and forth during the day, will drive you
crazy. So in short, yes it can be done.

BTW: if you haven't read it already, read "REWORK" by the guys from 37signals.
They talk about this misconception.

Also, starting your startup this way is incredibly hard. But, if you are
really serious, you'll find a way and all of the sudden you'll find yourself
spending more time on your startup that at your job. Good luck.

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technology
awesome, thanks for the book name

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orangesoda
To some extent, it depends on the context . Personally, I think you should
give your startup 100%. I've had to make a similar decision before and chose
that route for a few reasons:

1\. for most startups, except with the exception of some lifestyle startups,
it won't succeed if you give it 50%.

2\. it matters to you, personally. leaving the comfort zone was, to me, a
statement to myself that I'm committed to this and have no fallbacks. With
this point, I was really influenced by that one HN post about how Alexandar
the Great would burn the ships they used to go somewhere for war, basically to
say "theres no retreat"

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steventruong
I've been down the same road albeit everyone is different and the general
scenario you painted isn't enough for me to warrant giving any advice off
hand. If you'd like to get in touch, my email is my username at da google
famous email domain.

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gcb
Just do it.

It's all case by case. If you think it will work, make it work.

