
OK, you've convinced me. I'm coming to join you. - cubicle67
I'm 36, married with numerous kids, career blub programmer with BigCo, and I've had enough.<p>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.<p>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.
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edw519
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.

~~~
andreyf
_Looking forward to hearing about your success._

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

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jsjenkins168
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.

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geebee
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!

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staunch
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!

~~~
cubicle67
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 :)

------
blored
pg, this is all your fault.

~~~
staunch
#9. Family to support

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

~~~
nostrademons
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.

~~~
sanj
"try lots of stuff until I build something useful, then try to get lots of
users, then figure out how to monetize it"

Seriously, would you consider business with anyone who worked like that?
Stumbling around blindly for an idea, followed by hoping that you'll generate
a set of expenses, and then finally hoping that you'll be able to earn
revenues.

I worry more about you than the bloke with the family to support.

~~~
nostrademons
Consumer web. People don't visit websites based on who developed them. They
visit them because they want to.

It's often difficult or impossible to figure out what consumers want, other
than putting lots of ideas in front of them. Usually if you ask them, their
responses will be wildly different from what they actually do. (I maintained
that Reddit was a failure long after I started using it on a regular basis,
and did the same with LiveJournal.)

It's not a business model that works in every field - in particular, you
absolutely don't want to try enterprise applications this way (really, nobody
will buy from you if you try it, as you remark). But it does work.

~~~
sanj
I wasn't intending to imply that people care who developed a website.

But I disagree that you the best approach is to throw things at the wall until
you see if something sticks.

~~~
hacker64
That's exactly how it works with consumer Internet projects. Consider that
even Google didn't realized how valuable what they had was. They tried to sell
their search technology in the early days, but only because nobody would buy
it, they had to continue running the company on their own. The forumla seems
to be:

1\. Build a basic version of something you think people want.

2\. Try it.

3\. If people don't like it, modify and try again. Do that for a few times,
and if it still doesn't work. Go back to step 1.

------
Neoryder
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.

~~~
cubicle67
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.

------
gwenhwyfaer
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.

------
german
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.

------
ratsbane
Now YOU are the inspiration. Good luck!

------
prakash
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 :-)

------
portLAN
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>

~~~
cubicle67
I'd love to, but I'm outside the US (Australia)

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

~~~
cubicle67
I'm from Perth but living in Canberra

------
rokhayakebe
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.

------
andreyf
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?

~~~
cubicle67
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:)

------
dean
That's fantastic! Congratulations.

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

~~~
cubicle67
Think massive international co with a tla for a name. Australia.

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

~~~
cubicle67
> So I guess you know quite a bit about linux then?

No, the _other_ big three letter IT company. Hint: was started by a prior US
presidential candidate.

~~~
greendestiny
Oh rightio, not even I can miss that hint. Yes good idea leaving them, they
can be a bit stifling I hear.

------
dpapathanasiou
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.

------
webwright
Woot. What are you going to build?

~~~
cubicle67
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.

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

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abstractbill
Congrats, keep us posted.

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rms
Congratulations!

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

~~~
cubicle67
kinda like a blub programmer, but with more rrrrr

