
How to do a startup in your spare time - vanwilder77
http://blog.bellebethcooper.com/how-to-do-a-startup-in-your-spare-time
======
SandB0x
I have a list of concerns and questions as I am doing something similar. Would
be interested to see what you make of it:

What does your boss/supervisor think of your startup? How much do you talk
about it at work?

Are you worried that your full-time employer will think you're doing your work
on their time? Are you worried that you may be technically doing your work on
their computers (even by logging into Asana or a similar site)?

How do you juggle meeting clients, contacts, mentors, other cofounders, with
your day job? Not everyone can meet in the evenings and at weekends.

How do you send urgent emails related to your startup in your day job?

Will you consider leaving your current job/position to work full-time? Have
you set yourself goals or conditions for going full-time
(revenue/traction/funding/other?).

~~~
pc86
Not the author but I've done something similar before, so here's what I can
offer:

> _What does your boss /supervisor think of your startup?_

My boss had no reason to know, although she eventually found out through other
means. It didn't affect my day job at all so it was a non-issue. I had no
reason to bring it up and neither did she.

> _How much do you talk about it at work?_

Not at all. Work is for work.

> _Are you worried that your full-time employer will think you 're doing your
> work on their time?_

They knew me well enough to know that I would never do that to them.

> _Are you worried that you may be technically doing your work on their
> computers (even by logging into Asana or a similar site)?_

Do not do anything on work hardware, ever. In many parts of the US this may
actually entitle them to something (though IANAL and don't want to open that
can of worms). Just don't do it. There's no reason to.

Ideally, you wouldn't even do startup-related things on your personal hardware
(e.g. phone) during work hours or while at work.

> _How do you juggle meeting clients, contacts, mentors, other cofounders,
> with your day job?_

The job I had when I was doing this had an owner who was a butts-in-the-office
type (part of why I left). Because of this, the simple answer was "I didn't,"
unless it was over lunch. If the folks your meeting with know you're working
full-time - they probably should - then they'll know you can't meet for coffee
at 10 AM. Most of the time they will be impressed that you respect your
employer enough _not_ to use their time to build your business.

The job I have now is not so stringent on time. I could go have coffee with
someone at 10 AM if I had a really good reason (up to me to decide), and we
all put in enough hours that nobody is counting how long you're away from the
desk.

> _How do you send urgent emails related to your startup in your day job?_

As I said earlier, work is for work. It needs to be _really_ bad to require
attention from you when you're being paid by your employer to do what they
want.

I obviously can't answer the last point, but I'd like to leave you with one
thought. It would be great if everyone had the time, ability, and means to
bootstrap a business on the side while getting paid full time, but the
unfortunate truth is that some people don't. You may have a job that required
you to sign something prohibiting it explicitly. You may just have a job that
is too close to your passion such that any business would be a competitor. Or,
you may just have an asshole boss who makes you work 60-80 hours a week for a
2% raise and a $300 Christmas bonus.

~~~
rst
FWIW, some folks may have employment contracts with $dayjob which give that
company intellectual property claims on all technical work by employees
whether done on or off the job. The extent of those claims obviously depends
on the contract itself, and enforceability varies by jurisdiction. (California
is better on this than most US States, but even there, employers with a will
may have enough wiggle room to make trouble for an employee with a side
project that's taking off.)

So, if you're actually trying the "ignorance is bliss" strategy for managing
$dayjob relation, then consulting a lawyer up front could save you an awful
lot of trouble later.

~~~
espinchi
About this type of clauses, I've heard that "well, they are standard and are
almost always ignored, as long as you don't cross the line (e.g. code for your
side-projects in your day-job office)".

I know this depends on the company, but, as a general rule, are these clauses
really taken so lightly?

~~~
etsimm
I was running the engineering group of a VC backed firm when the side project
a couple of my people were working on nights & weekends got some great press
coverage. By the time it hit TC the Engineers' names were there along with a
quote about how their work was supported by their "day job" ... Our VCs took
notice and our boilerplate employee PIIA was trotted out to claim rights to
the side project. The project was completely unrelated to our line of business
BTW...but it didn't matter as the VCs smelled IP value in the press exposure.

I fought the good fight against some silly assertions such as "They could not
have built this in so little time without overlapping working hours" but lost
the battle when the VCs pointed to the timestamps of some support/feedback
comments posted by one of my Engineers on the project's website. He had
written those and posted during working hours while sitting in the office of
said "day job"

Project squashed, all the IP was rolled up and shelved. It was a bad day.

TL;DR these clauses are typically not enforced because your side project is
typically viewed as worthless. If on the other hand your project is seen as a
source of value... tread carefully.

------
edw519
Sorry to say but this post really rubbed me the wrong way. Let me explain...

Her important headings for "doing a startup in your spare time":

    
    
      - Managing tasks
      - Sharing links
      - Talking to other founders
      - Emailing customers
      - Blogging
      - Weekly catch-ups
    

All of this stuff sounds nice, but face it, it's all fluff. We really need to
talk about the elephant in the room, the single most important item in a part
time startup: _how to get stuff built_. If you can't get it built in your
spare time, none of this other stuff will matter.

Building anything of value tends to be difficult; doing it in your spare time
is _incredibly difficult_. Here's why:

\- In spite of you best efforts, you will be too tired after your day job.

\- When you're "in the zone" you won't be able to work on your start-up. When
your working on your start-up, you won't be able to get "into the zone".

\- You won't have long enough blocks of time to get large chunks done.

\- Your attention will more easily be diverted to other things (the day job).

\- It takes so much longer to have a deliverable, you will lose momentum and
interest and get easily distracted or drawn to something shinier.

So what should you do? 3 things, religiously:

1\. Determine your "Big Fat What". Have a precise definition of exactly _what_
you're going to build. That's right, you must write requirements to yourself.
Following the path of least resistance simply won't work for a part-time
start-up because you will never be able to sustain enough momentum. Writing
requirements forces you to have better discipline and better plan, and it's
also the kind of work that fits nicely into those 2 hour blocks of time you
have during the week.

2\. Determine your "Big Fat How". This is when you translate your requirements
into technical specs. You know, program definitions and flows, page layouts,
data base schemas, etc. Yes, again you will be writing specs to yourself.
Steps 1 & 2 are kinda like linear algebra; you'll spend a lot of time doing
seemingly mindless unnecessary steps to get to the where you really want to
be...

3\. Build it. You do this on weekends when you have large enough blocks of
time to crank. But your capability to build will only be as good as your
preparation. As you struggle with Step 3, you'll appreciate Steps 1 & 2 and
get better at them. Then you'll be surprised at how much progress you can make
building in your spare time.

Once you have something built (a true feat in any part-time start-up) then
(and only then) do OP's suggestions come into play.

~~~
startupjerkfest
Ed, you have the power of experience, and your suggestions are all good.

But I can't figure out why you even bothered to comment about her posting. If
you had to "educate" every startup hipster on what is wrong with their self
aggrandizing blog posts, you would never have time to produce anything. Were
you afraid other founders would take her musing as "law" and ruin their lives?
I think the less attention these interruptions get, the better chance they
will die out of pop culture, and more production can get done. I can't believe
i'm wasting my time writing this.

~~~
visakanv
Well, if it helps, I feel like I learnt something from reading both of your
thoughts on this. Thanks.

------
joshsharp
Co-founder here - let me respond to some of the concerns voiced here. Firstly,
I think if this was titled "what _we_ use to help us do a startup in our spare
time", it would make a little more sense. We are not advocating for any
particular approach. This is more a list of things that help us.

Doing a startup in your spare time is really, really hard. We could've
launched months ago but with limited time we're forced to keep pushing back.
There are benefits to this — it keeps you really lean, because you just don't
have time for all the little extras. But I'd still rather have more time,
especially in big blocks. Our main time is evenings and weekends, which limits
us severely.

Belle works full-time for Buffer doing content, and they're incredibly
supportive of us and Exist. Working for a startup who have been there not so
long ago is probably one of the points to mention which make this more
sustainable. Belle's time is flexible as she works remotely, meaning she can
make time in her day for meetings, emails, etc., and still be able to complete
her work for Buffer.

And I'm freelancing at the moment, meaning my time is just as flexible (in
theory — if you're flat-out, that doesn't mean much).

I think edw519's points are good complement in terms of actually building your
product and managing your time.

------
efesak
Mistitled. Using services is not way to do startup in spare time.

~~~
hatu
This is more like a how to be a startup hipster in your spare time- guide.
Just missing tips like where to order your single estate coffee for your
hacker space. Managing to juggle two demanding jobs at once is very difficult
and what tools you use are pretty irrelevant.

~~~
Dirlewanger
Even the start-up sounds like a joke. Just a bunch of semi-insightful metrics
on a flat dashboard...ugh...er, I mean, yeah there's definitely a market for
that.

~~~
jebblue
I thought a web app that lets users upload pictures was so easy there's no way
you could make much money with it.

------
drakaal
Doing a startup in your spare time is a good way to get fired. It is also a
good way to ruin your good idea.

Part time startups work only if you are trying to start a "home business" that
is very different from you day job.

You work at Best Buy, and want to start a new search engine. Great. That is
better than quitting you job to start a new search engine.

You work at Google and want to start a social network. You are going to get
fired. There is a good chance Google will own your code, and you won't have
enough time to get your social network off the ground, so now you are doubly
screwed.

You work at Google and want to start a business selling Clay ovens on the
weekend. Congrats you have a startup that won't break Google's moonlighting
rules.

~~~
AznHisoka
For the vast majority of people, their startups/side projects are vastly diff.
than their day job.

~~~
alok-g
>> "Vastly different"

This is not the case to the best of my knowledge.

See details in my older comment here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6245810](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6245810)

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k-mcgrady
Seems like a list of things most startups do/should do. Doesn't seem to have
anything specific to doing a startup in your spare time.

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stefan_kendall
Write this article when you've succeeded and quit your day job.

When.

