Ask HN: How to get started with a sustainable bootstrapped business of your own?

3 points by romanovtexas 59 days ago | 4 comments

Experienced Software Engineer working in Big Tech since the past decade. I'm at a point in my life where I'm feeling pretty done with a daily 9-5 job especially because of the overwhelming demands and random priority changes that expect you work beyond scheduled hours.

I could do this in my 20s and before I had a family but I've realized that it has become increasingly hard for me lately to manage everything especially raising a family. I'd like to spend time daily with my kids and don't want to pull 40+ hour work weeks anymore.

I feel like a sustainable pace would be working 3-4 hours a day and building something. I love building things so that always excites me but I'm not so excited/challenged by the people aspect of a job where you are required to be influential across orgs especially in as a Senior engineer in BigTech.

Anyway, all of this is just context for what I've been thinking since long: to quit my BigTech job and build something of my own on the side that generates just enough income for me to sustain and help raise my family. I'm at a stage financially where I have some cushion but not enough to be fully FIRE'd so I will need some income to sustain mortgage + kids + lifestyle.

Where do I start? What ideas do I explore? If any of you did it, what was your experience like?

4lx87 59 days ago |

Don't overcomplicate it. A business sells products or services for more than it costs to provide them. A product needs sales, but sales don't need a product: selling first is cheaper and less risky than building first. Sell what people want to buy (not what you want them to buy). You can sell and build without leaving your job.

> I'm feeling pretty done with a daily 9-5 job especially because of the overwhelming demands and random priority changes that expect you work beyond scheduled hours.

Have you tried actually working 9-5? Literally. Be at the office at 9am, leave at 5pm. Don't respond to anything outside of those hours. You might be leaving hours on the table that you can take back starting tomorrow.

badcryptobitch 59 days ago |

There is no business that's only going to take up 3-4 hours per day of your time without having spent 3-5+ years building it out. Bootstrapped businesses are hard and a lot of work.

codingdave 59 days ago |

> because of the overwhelming demands and random priority changes that expect you work beyond scheduled hours.

Bootstrapping your own thing will give you more of that, not less. It takes an established business to be stabile to the point where the surprises are minimal, the processes are standardized, and the team is built to absorb whatever is thrown at it to handle things without putting in extra hours.

It sounds like you need to find established companies who need some part-time help.

rboyd 59 days ago |

buy an existing business and scale it up