

Ask HN: I'm resigning soon, any suggestions what to build on my own? - cousin_it

This summer I decided to take some time off - the last two weeks of August - and spend them at home doing nothing. The experience of freedom from office work was so wonderful that I want more of it!<p>This Monday, immediately upon returning, I told my boss I'll be resigning in about three months. (That's a reasonable grace period because the job happens to be my all-time favorite - http://kosmosnimki.ru - plus I happen to be the lead client-side dev, and the boss happens to be my schoolmate.) Same day I told my landlord I'll be moving away in a month to find a cheaper apartment. There's some money stashed from previous odd jobs that will last me several months at least.<p>So freedom is ahead, now what? Starting a startup would be the logical course of action... except I've never had a burning desire to make a lot of money, and business ideas don't pop into my head by themselves. So I'm turning to you for suggestions.<p>(Personal background: the HN community may remember me from my project http://openphotovr.org that was discussed on HN a year ago or so. I know my math and can program passably well in most languages used in the industry and some exotic ones.)
======
flooha
I know exactly how you feel. I was recently laid off for 5 weeks and worked
full-time on my startup. Working from home was so awesome...
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=641400>

With that said, here are my thoughts.

First of all, you're lucky if you enjoy your job and work with friends. I
would strongly suggest that you see if you can work part-time while you "do
your own thing", with a possibility of coming back full-time, should you ever
"come to your senses".

With no plan, no idea, no help and no anything, I don't see how you can
support yourself past "several months at least". One remedy is to find a
fledgling startup to join. It's risky without knowing the other founders well,
but it could be good experience.

My #1 recommendation for you is to read the following links:

[http://www.slideshare.net/venturehacks/customer-
development-...](http://www.slideshare.net/venturehacks/customer-development-
methodology-presentation)

[http://steveblank.com/2009/08/27/the-leading-cause-of-
startu...](http://steveblank.com/2009/08/27/the-leading-cause-of-startup-
death-the-product-development-diagram/)

[http://steveblank.com/2009/08/31/the-customer-development-
ma...](http://steveblank.com/2009/08/31/the-customer-development-manifesto-
reasons-for-the-revolution-part-1/)

Basically, the idea is to verify that your idea can actually make money before
you write one line of code. Since you're probably heavy on tech and light on
customer development, use this time to learn and experiment. I'm not telling
you this as a know-it-all, I'm telling you this as someone who wishes they
would have done it years ago.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

EDIT: spelling

~~~
cousin_it
Thanks a lot! This is precisely the kind of answer I wanted. Don't want to
stay for part-time, though; I'm terrible at switching from project to project,
this takes days.

------
ashishk
Here's a serious idea.

An SMS-based/ mobile app that will help me and my family encourage each other
to work out.

For example, when I come back for a run, I would text in "just ran 5 miles"
and my parents and sister would get the text /email/ twitter update and
perhaps be encouraged to exercise as well!

Some other functionality could be showing me trends of my workouts (think
Nike+ on iPhones) vis a vis my other family members, or SMS updates ("your son
said you should go for a run!").

The problem is that people in this country are getting fatter every day, and
could use motivation to work out. Support and ecouragement from family and
friends might be the most effective source of motivation.

Thoughts?

~~~
cousin_it
That may be a good idea, but I live in Russia and practically no one around me
is fat, so it'll be hard for me to muster the startup enthusiasm. :-) Anyway,
thanks!

~~~
dtf
Here's some useful marketing intelligence:

[http://www.food.gov.uk/healthiereating/advertisingtochildren...](http://www.food.gov.uk/healthiereating/advertisingtochildren/promotion/issues/obesityratesworldwide/)

Probably best to target the merely overweight than the hopelessly obese. In
which case Russia (or perhaps more urgently my native England) actually looks
like a fair bet!

------
int2e
Here's 30 ideas: <http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

~~~
cousin_it
Good list. Three years ago I made a working demo of #22 but then got
distracted by personal problems. Thanks for reminding me.

------
BigZaphod
Having never done this myself, I have to ask: Shouldn't the normal order of
process be: 1) have an idea, 2) quit job to work on it full time, 3) profit!
It seems to me like your #1 and #2 are swapped. That doesn't mean it won't
work out for you, though. :)

~~~
amirnathoo
Isn't a more common order 1) unsettled in job, have an idea 2) quit to work on
it full time 3) realize the original idea sucks and zero in on a new one
through trial and error 4) profit!

In which case, skipping step 1 doesn't seem too harmful to the process.

------
imp
Like others, I'm not really going to answer the question you asked, but
instead offer unsolicited advice on the decision you've made.

Being at home doing nothing is fun, but realize that you'll be at home working
your ass off. If it was the "doing nothing" part that was most interesting to
you then a startup may not be as much fun as you're currently anticipating.

Also, I don't know what your financial situation is, but "several months" of
savings doesn't sound like a whole lot if you're just starting from scratch
now. It could likely take longer than that to get ramen profitable.

Just some background, I was in a somewhat similar situation last year. The new
startup/project I quit my job for was something that I had been working on
part-time for 3 years before that. Even with that head start, my initial
revenue was only about 10% of what I had projected/hoped for. It's still
steadily growing and could be ramen profitable in the next year or two, but I
just wanted to share my experience to let you know that financially it could
be harder and longer than you think. It was for me.

~~~
cousin_it
So ramen profitability will take you five years? That's pretty depressing - I
don't want to think about that scenario :-)

~~~
imp
Yeah, it was very depressing when it first hit me. Great learning experience
though.

------
edw519
_the job happens to be my all-time favorite_

What are you crazy?!?

I've had many jobs and I've liked few of them. If you have a job you love
working for a schoolmate, why would you want to leave? You don't even have any
plans. I'd understand this a little better if you had a project you're dying
to work on full time, but that's not the case.

Why don't you just keep your job and find a side project. If that side project
gets big, go part time. If it gets so big, you're _burning_ to work on it
full-time, then quit, but not before.

Good jobs are hard to come by and jobs you love are almost impossible to come
by. Also, don't discount all the data you get from your job to feed your
startup plans. Lots of people would love to do a startup, but don't know what
to work on. People with jobs don't have that problem as much. The job can be
the source of lots of great ideas for things people actually need right now.

I'm the last person to discourage anyone from doing their thing, but job vs.
startup is not a binary decision. You _can_ do both, at least for a while.

Keep that all-time favorite job for now. You can always leave later once
something else has wings.

~~~
icey
No matter how much I've liked any job I've had, I always knew I was working
for someone else.

~~~
redorb
you say that like working for someone else is bad - do you think your startup
will have no customers? (for whom you'll be working_for harder than your boss)

~~~
icey
You're overparsing my intention. When you work for another company, there is
always someone else who ultimately has to sign off on your decisions; I'd far
rather be the person with whom the buck always stops.

~~~
nostrademons
That's not necessarily true. I can code basically whatever I want. I just
can't _launch_ it without Marissa's approval. But there are more potential
internal users at Google than most startups ever get anyway, and anything with
significant internal traction will likely get launched regardless of the
decision-makers' opinions.

~~~
icey
With my day job right now, I determine our release schedule, what features go
into the product, how things get implemented, what tools we use, what
languages we use, what hardware we purchase, what development methodologies we
use, how we build, how we test, how we handle user training, how we deal with
bug reports, what candidates we hire, which people we fire, and I don't have
to ask for permission to do any of these things.

But, it's not my company; and what I can and can't do could change instantly
if the guy at the top of the org chart decides on a whim that things are going
to be done differently. While I don't think it's likely to happen, it's still
a possibility; and you have a lot less of that when it's you at top of the
chart.

[Edit: I just want to preempt some other angles if I can; I know that things
get muddy when you deal with investors and and boards of directors, and when
you deal with partners and staff and all of those things. There's a bit of
nuance here that I'm somehow not conveying. I guess at this point you either
get what I'm saying or you don't.]

~~~
nostrademons
If the guy at the top decides on a whim that things are going to be done
differently, you can just keep doing what you're doing. If he doesn't like it,
he can fire you, and then you're in exactly the same position as if you'd quit
to pursue a startup. Except that you probably have a bit more savings, a bit
more experience, and a bit more of a desire to prove him wrong.

------
maxklein
Make an app in your favorite language with just a red button on it. Then just
figure out what the button should do when pressed, and you'll be fine.

~~~
tsestrich
A modern day version of:

1.Quit job

2.Ask HN

3\. ???

4.Profit!

Love it :)

------
Kaizyn
Seriously, do not quit your job UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE YOUR KILLER IDEA!!
Apologies for those who can't stand the all-caps. If you have a good job now,
what you should do is move to a cheaper place to live and get your bills down
to as low as possible. In the meantime, do some market research and really
think about what kind of business you want to build or what kind of service
you can provide. For this to be good, it needs to accommodate both your needs
for doing something you enjoy and the needs of being a realistic profitable
business. To do this well, you will want one to two years worth of savings in
the bank, not a couple of months! Best of luck to you in this endeavor.

------
didip
Are you bored with <http://openphotovr.org> and its time to find a new
project?

You did a really good job on it. Maybe you can create a business around it?

~~~
cousin_it
I'm not bored with it and will definitely continue doing what its users ask me
to do, but it was started explicitly as a non-profit: all photos are Creative
Commons licensed and the code is GPL.

~~~
UpFromTheGut
<http://openphotovr.org/> is really cool, good work! I uploaded a small set,
and it was very easy to make a 3d scene.

I'm sure people would be willing to pay to be able to host a viewer on their
own site. For example, companies may put a 3d scene of their office on their
jobs listing page. Or restaurants, museums, universities, and so forth would
do well to have one on their site.

~~~
cousin_it
Thanks! Actually you can already host a viewer on your own site for free, see
the help page for how.

------
Ixiaus
Just start building something and let it evolve - sort of like _stream of
consciousness writing_ when you have writers block.

Just start building something simple and your mind will begin moving.

I've done the same thing you have with my life, congrats on taking the leap :)
You might find it worth your while to pick up a weekend part time job too so
you can have some fun money (having fun is necessary when you are cooped up
all by yourself working in an intellectual space).

GL!

------
TravisLS
I would love an app that could keep an inventory of the food i have on hand in
my aparment (based on what I've ordered in the past and my own inventory
revisions), allow me to order more when I run out (from freshdirect.com or
whatever the local equivalent is), and provide me with recipes that I can make
with what I have on hand. Kind of complicated to orchestrate the whole thing,
but would be obscenely valuable.

~~~
kls
. Build a grocery list for a mobile app.

. Finds coupons

. Integrates with bar code scanner to inventory all items

. Integrates with weight scales to measure consumption to predict future
usage.

. Integrates with grocery stores and online vendors for call ahead packaging
and delivery.

I could go on and on on this one. If someone get funding for something like
this let me know, I would be in.

------
nazgulnarsil
build something to alleviate annoyance in your everyday life. even if someone
else already has a product in that space, do it better.

------
zackola
I think you should have already built something else - at least a prototype -
in your free time while staying gainfully employed and then quit later when
you can at least guarantee yourself and any dependents a lifestyle full of
roofs and ramen.

------
alexmacgregor
Contact me, alexander dot macgregor at gmail dot com, if you like. I am
working on a project that might interest you.

I'd also be happy to discuss any ideas you might have. :)

------
ptn
Scratch your own itch: build something you either need and doesn't exist or it
does exist but sucks.

------
mooted
Ouch! You seem to have fallen in love with laziness.

>You are leaving a job you like, with no idea of what to do next.

>You are leaving a job you like, _inspired_ by vacation.

Thats you being lazy.

