Ask HN: Founders who were established engineers. How did you make the change?

21 points by koudos 7 years ago | 12 comments

I am currently engineer/manager running a fairly large team in a stable well paying job. How did you guys make the jump? I find myself running into several problems

- Golden handcuffs - Legitimate problem/product - Cofounder

It is really easy to say "just quit and make the leap" but I am cautious about diving right into that. What are some little things you did that eventually got you there? I am trying to figure out a plan to get me there one step at a time.

ttul 7 years ago |

Find an experienced cofounder who can hustle. Your technical depth and managerial experience will lend credibility to his or her efforts to secure funding.

Finding legitimate problems is not hard. Finding novel solution approaches is hard. Universities are often brimming with innovative solutions and innovators who could not sell beer to an alcoholic. Maybe find a great idea at a university and then you provide the engineering while the hustler does the fundraising and selling.

iKSv2 7 years ago | |

"Universities are often brimming with innovative solutions and innovators who could not sell beer to an alcoholic"

This hits home

koudos 7 years ago | | |

How would I find out about these? Attend pitches? Talk to grad students?

slededit 7 years ago |

You either want it or you don't. If you haven't been laying the ground work for years it's not likely to work out. Have you saved enough? Structured your living situation so you can move to wherever is most optimal?

Not only will you not be making money, your business will need capital to prove product market for before anyone will even offer seed money. Can you put up the cash?

This isn't just another job it's a lifestyle change. A lower paycheck is the least of your problems. Is your family 100% invested? Your work will look like fooling around to them when you have no office or product in the early stages. Subtle hints about "maybe it's time to get a real job" will sting. Partly because you won't be 100% sure yourself at times.

My advice is don't do it.

koudos 7 years ago | |

The financial aspect is definitely something that I've been saving up and working towards for a long time now. The path of transition is really what's not clear in my head. Your advice on the investment of my family is a good point.

slededit 7 years ago | | |

The path to transition is pretty easy, you quit, go home and figure it out. You'll end up working on something different than what you planned anyways unless you've already been talking to customers.

troydavis 7 years ago |

Regarding the question in the title:

1. I got as much experience spotting problems that I had and coming up with solutions to them as I possibly could. Build things, even tiny things, then see how well they solve your problem and how well they solve anyone else’s problems.

2. I had a fair amount of experience with the presales and sales process, and had a strong opinion how I’d want to purchase what I made. Try to charge money for something. Even if it’s just consulting services, going through the sales process with a handful of customers is incredibly helpful.

Finally… the golden handcuffs are a different story. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17286939 and https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/, if you’re employed at a very large tech company (with the compensation Dan described) and want to maximize your risk-adjusted/likely income, stay there. If you want to make something that no large company will pay you to make, a startup is probably the way to do that.

So… when you leave, your expected income will be less, not more. Only do this if you care more about creating something, or solving a specific problem, or testing your own skills than about maximizing risk-adjusted income.

stealthmodeclan 7 years ago |

1. Golden handcuffs

I saw it a high risk/high reward investment.

The money was not available to me in short-term but I could enjoy the compounded returns after sometime.

It's about giving up short term gains for long term gains and more control over your direction.

I never used much money from my compensation. Traveled a bit until i got bored, bought more toys untill i had enough.

Then the paycheck went directly into investment accounts.

So, attachment to money wasn't a problem for me.

Companies only paid me low millions annually. With that money, I can't control a major corporation and its future direction, though i might be able to influence some.

So there is no use of money for me, it helps pay bills and that's all about it. I don't know how more money will change my life.

koudos 7 years ago | |

Definitely not generating income at your level and so probably why there's a bigger need for a plan on my end. The risk/high reward advice makes a lot of sense. Sometimes it probably is just the way you view it.

jmheinkle 7 years ago |

> golden handcuffs

There's no way you won't feel like you're taking a major salary hit. You want to save up enough for a year of expenses basically, and reduce expenses. This hurts and is hard.

> legit product

This is critical. You should absolutely believe in and find working on your product to be better than anything you can do in your job

> cofounder

Not sure other than usual networking. Note that cofounders are like marriages, its a damn committing relationship.

Your questions are excellent, but overall based on them you seem far, far off. I would try to look for entrepreneurial situations in your work or try to hop onto a startup you like, versus founding.

alain94040 7 years ago |

Been there, done that.

>Golden handcuffs

That's the toughest question. Depending on your age, grab your chances.

>Legitimate problem/product

If you use your experience and start something in a related space, you are a lot more likely to succeed.

>Cofounder

That should be some previous co-worker with whom you worked great and have tons of respect.

koverda 7 years ago |

1. Start networking to find a co-founder.

2. Think about problems in your life that you'd like to solve. Talk to potential customers to validate.

3.Transition slowly from one thing to the next. Use the golden handcuff money to fund the initial steps of your venture.