
Ask HN: Is it realistic to launch a product if you have young kids? - mijustin
Many product people are able to launch products because they don't yet have kids. Simply put: they have a lot more disposable time with which to launch a product.<p>For those of you with kids: is it realistic to launch a product if you have young children?<p>I imagine that certain types of products (like e-books) are more realistic than a full-blown SaaS app.<p>I'd love to hear from those of you that have successfully launched paid products while you've had young kids. What worked? What didn't?
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charliepark
It depends on what you mean by "launch." I started a web-based personal
finance app (PearBudget) and launched it five years ago (2008/01/02). I had a
three-year-old and six-month-old twins at the time.

It's gone relatively well, and has essentially been my sole income since then.
BUT. I already had a small audience on it (we'd had 100,000 downloads of a
free spreadsheet version of the tool; what would now be considered an MVP), so
I wasn't trying to forge a new market for it.

It was a pretty brutal time, but I made it through. (It followed a year where
I acted as the general contractor for the house we built, which was horrific,
so I was kind of in a world-of-hurt groove at the time.)

Honestly, the flexibility it gave me to be home with my family — especially
when they were so young — was an amazing gift.

What worked? Getting up very early. Having an understanding and supportive
wife. Having parents who were willing to support us with money to live on
while the subscriptions built up. (As I mentioned,) having a product that I
knew had some traction already.

I'd be happy to talk more. E-mail is charlie@pearbudget.com.

Also, listen to Dan Benjamin's new podcast, Quit, especially the most recent
episode: <http://5by5.tv/quit/5>. It's great.

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mijustin
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. 3 kids (including twins!) wow.

I especially appreciate your comments on "what worked".

I've been listening to Quit since episode #1; loving it.

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Mz
I would also say it depends in part on the particulars of your personal
situation. For example, a kid who sleeps through the night and is generally
healthy is going to be more launch-friendly than an insomniac child with
health issues and other special needs. And a two parent home where your spouse
is the one primarily doing the child-rearing will also be much more launch-
friendly than a single parent home or two career couple.

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nathanbarry
I launched two ebooks with a 1 year old son. You just need to set aside a bit
of time to work on it every day. Now working on a SaaS app. We'll see how it
goes!

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mijustin
Nathan: I'm eager to hear what you learn!

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j45
It's very realistic. You may have to be realistic about what you launch and
ensuring maybe that you have a business model in hand on the first one.

Chances you are a little old fashioned and like businesses, that actually,
like, make money.

If so, there's lots of communities geared for you already. Micropreneur.com,
and 30x500 are two that come to mind.

Ideally, work on finding and building an idea that there is already measurable
demand for (but little or no competition).

This way -- the idea may not be sexy, but the business model is very sexy. Use
the first product to "get off the grid" of working to chase things with longer
runway if you like -- or not.

At risk of offending some (none intended), you should maybe spec out the HN
demographic to realize many of us are unmarried, others are likely in their
20's without many responsibilities or interests beyond spending their time how
they like.

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mijustin
Are you saying I should "spec out the HN demographic" in terms of the
questions I ask? (as in this one) ;)

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saluki
Definitely . . .

I think most people in this economy have a lot of irons in the fire . . . with
good reason . . .

Over the past 4 years I've been working full time, free lancing full time,
transitioned to working part time, consulting part time, then consulting
fulltime and working on a SaaS product. All with a young family.

It will take some planning and hard work on your part.

Make sure you have blocks of family time and product work time setup and
agreed on by everyone.

Balsamiq's founder had some good info on this in his mixergy interview. I
think he had a set amount of time blocked out for his app that his wife agreed
too . . .

<http://mixergy.com/balsamiq-peldi-guilizzoni-interview/> you can track it
down on iTunes.

Listen to StartUpsForTheRestOfUs.com . . . good information and you can email
them questions as well.

Good luck in 2013.

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mijustin
Thanks.

I agree: it seems like blocking out a specific amount of time, and focusing
during that time, is key.

I'm a big fan of Startups for the Rest of Us. They answered one of my
questions on episode 111.

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ishbits
I left a full time (somewhat secure job) to go full time with my startup when
I had an 8 month old at home and plans for a second child, which happened
about 6 months later.

Yes, it was a little scary but I had the full support of my wife. And I knew
if it all failed, it would be relatively easy to get a job again, probably the
same job I left.

A couple of items that made it easier to do.. Living in Canada. I didn't have
to worry about health care. Also, I knew my parents would help provide should
things really go bad.

So I think you have to weight the reward you will get from the risk, plus what
you have to fallback on.

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DataCatalyst
It's definitely doable, although ultimately there are only so many hours in a
day. You have to choose how and when to spend them carefully, with the support
of your partner, as it can place additional load on them. Also, writing code
on 4 hrs sleep after night feeds is no fun!

Young kids tend to sleep quite a lot relatively (if you're lucky) - so when
they sleep, daddy works. It might mean shifting to 2-4 working session per
day, somewhere quiet, instead of the more traditional 1 working session per
day approach.

From my experience defining boundaries/rules that allow for constant,
incremental progress on the product while keeping partner, kids and yourself
happy is the key. It's very easy to just work all the time and burn yourself
out.

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Hawkee
Not only is it realistic, but sometimes necessary. I have a 3yo and have been
managing my own product since before he was born. I wouldn't be able to
support him if not for it. So to answer your question, yes.

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mijustin
That's great! Does your product provide full-time or part-time income? How
many hours a week do you dedicate to it?

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Hawkee
It's provided full time income for the past several years and I work anywhere
from 10-40 hours/week on it.

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mijustin
Is this your only product? Or do you have multiple streams of revenue? (BTW:
is your site ad supported, or membership supported?)

