I'm 24 and worked as a developer for a consulting company working on custom enterprise apps. I got tired of watching the startup world from the sidelines, so I took the plunge and quit my job to work on my own projects.<p>I don't have paying customers, thousands of Twitter followers, a large presence here on HN, or even a cofounder. I'm starting from absolutely nothing and will be building from the ground up. All I have is 12-15 months of savings and my hacking skills.<p>I moved back home with my parents to save some money and build the product out, but will hopefully be moving out to San Francisco sometime this year.<p>I started a blog (www.itschris.me) if you would like to stay up to date on what I'm up to or get in touch.
Firstly, best of luck with your startup! That's an exciting move. I'd also recommend moving somewhere like New York, SF, Boston, Austin where there is an active community of technologists with whom you can bounce ideas.<p>I wanted to point out though that your startup's name brings forth strongly negative connotations.<p>Your startup is photo sharing site called Hard Candy.<p>There's a movie called Hard Candy about a 32 year old pedophile photographer who gets castrated by Ellen Page's (Juno) character and then kills himself.<p>Something to be aware of as people see your site.
Congratulation. Good for you to save up 12-15 months for expenses. Try to stretch that out to 24 months. Enough financial reserve will give you peace of mind to pursue your startup goal.<p>Spend your biggest asset, time, wisely. Block off HN/Reddit/Facebook/etc. Turn off IM and set your email polling to a hourly basis. Try to contract yourself to do the work. Set up a hourly rate for yourself and bill yourself to do the work. It's easier to see the value of time once you translate it into money. But don't get burned out either. Exercise. Jogging or walking in the park or along the beach is free.<p>Try to work at home, or go to library and cafe if need to go out. No need to rent office space or share-workspace. Most libraries and cafes have free net connection. Get a Google Voice number as your work number and route it to your phone.<p>If you are in the SF Bay Area, there are events you can go to for learning and socializing.<p>Hackers-and-Founders, <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Hackers-and-Founders" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/Hackers-and-Founders</a><p>BAYCHI, <a href="http://www.baychi.org/program" rel="nofollow">http://www.baychi.org/program</a><p>SFBayACM, <a href="http://www.sfbayacm.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.sfbayacm.org</a><p>ETL, <a href="http://etl.stanford.edu" rel="nofollow">http://etl.stanford.edu</a><p>Android Developers Meetup, <a href="http://www.android-android.net/events/" rel="nofollow">http://www.android-android.net/events/</a><p>Search the web or wiki for other interest groups.<p>Good Luck!
Are we seeing "The Rise Of the Solo Founder"? Being solo myself, I wonder if we, solo founders, should build a league? "The League of the Solo Founders".<p>As a solo founder, I feel like an "only child", there is always that suspicion that something might be wrong...
Hey Chris,<p>Good luck! I know where you are coming from. Normally I'd suggest you read my book on the topic (LFF - free on www.hunterdavis.com), but it sounds like you're already over the first hump (saving for the startup). I'm 29, and last June along with a co-founder quit my 9-5 to start www.discursivelabs.com. We've got some upcoming products and some sites in active beta. The best three pieces of advice I would give you:<p>1. Be open to contracts when they come up. Seriously, just being open to the possibility of contract work and attending appropriate trade shows can get you through the lean times.
2. Betas. Always beta, beta often. Don't rush to go public with your beta. We've gotten so much valuable insight into our product from our beta testers It's staggering the difference in quality feedback between 100 motivated private beta testers and 10000 mediocre public ones.
3. Build your word of mouth with useful information and verify it exists with site analytics. I was lucky in that I had a fairly active community of programmers and hackers reading my personal website, but I had a fairly good number of folks email after a good StackExchange reply I posted. People appreciate useful information, and it's a good chance to mention your product.
There's an increasingly-active startup community in DC -- consider staying here and saving money staying with the rents.<p>Here's a quick overview of the major spaces to meet-up with other tech folks in DC:<p>Best Resources for Web & Software Product Startups
<a href="http://www.socialmatchbox.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.socialmatchbox.com</a>
<a href="http://dcstartupwiki.com" rel="nofollow">http://dcstartupwiki.com</a>
<a href="http://www.meetup.com/DC-Lean-St.." rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/DC-Lean-St..</a>.
<a href="http://meetup.hackernewsdc.org/" rel="nofollow">http://meetup.hackernewsdc.org/</a><p>Best Resources for Social Media & Consulting Startups
<a href="http://www.techcocktail.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.techcocktail.com</a>
<a href="http://www.meetup.com/socialweb/" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/socialweb/</a>
<a href="http://www.meetup.com/DCSPOTTER/" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/DCSPOTTER/</a> (also misc. startups)<p>General Networking
<a href="http://ngagedc.org/" rel="nofollow">http://ngagedc.org/</a><p>Best place for events all around:
<a href="http://www.meetup.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com</a>
<a href="http://www.dctechevents.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.dctechevents.com</a>
<a href="http://www.baltimoretechevents.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.baltimoretechevents.com</a><p>Note: this list came directly from Quora. Be sure to follow and keep updated with any new groups/sites: <a href="http://www.quora.com/Business/Im-24-living-near-DC-working-full-time-and-want-to-be-involved-in-the-entrepreneurial-community-Whats-the-best-way-to-get-started?__snids__=13704336#ans381629" rel="nofollow">http://www.quora.com/Business/Im-24-living-near-DC-working-f...</a>
I'm 29 and thought about quitting and doing my own and was talked out of it by my older peers at my corporate job. I was about 24 for then. In hindsight it was by far one of my regrettable decisions. I see products and ideas being created that were all in my personal incubator. Not to mention they are all profitable. So I say this, if you have internet, time & a mind anything is possible. Good luck on your ventures. I'm sure success will find you.
Good for you.<p>I promised myself I would give notice today. I don't think it's going to happen. Maybe it's just because I'm older (28) and have more inertia (wife, dog, a bunch of stuff to pack or get rid of and moving) to overcome.
You should've really started on a project without quitting the day job. But since you did, try and work as if you have only three months left instead of twelve. A year of carte blanche is a LOT, it will entice you to sidetrack and spend time on stuff that doesn't matter. So assume you are already running out of time and set your priorities based on that.<p>In any case - good luck. It's going to be interesting :)
Hi Chris. I must say you are doing exactly what I did 5 years back. I would like to share my experience with you.<p>Starting up my own company was my dream since my college days but I worked at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. as a SAP ABAP Developer for 2 years after completing my graduation. It was a nice job with smart people around me and interesting work to do, not to forget the high salary SAP consultants get. It was good for 2 years but then I felt my job was dragging me away from my dream. The whole corporate environment started to suck. It was time to leave the shores and get into the deep sea.<p>I had some good ideas related to web. My plan was to work together with two of my college friends and they both agreed on this thing. I never asked them to quit their jobs but to just work on weekends. One of them backed out at last moment.<p>Lesson learned - Don't make your plans dependent on others. Make sure you alone can handle it if required.<p>Its getting long so I will just point out other suggestions I have for you:<p>1. Have a fail back strategy for everything.<p>2. Get a co-founder but make sure he is as committed to your idea as you are. Some of them will try to tell you how you need to do something else to get some quick money and then use that for your project. Those people are interested in earning money and not in your idea.<p>3. Spend as little cash as possible.<p>4. Focus on only one project - your dream project - as early as possible. Don't waste your time on random projects for learning or to earn quick cash.<p>5. Choose a technology platform early and stick with it.<p>6. Release your Version 1.0 as early as possible.<p>7. Don't work 24/7/365. Its not good in long run. Give 8-12 hours per day and take a day off on Sundays. Important thing is to be consistent.<p>8. Network with people who can help you - other hackers, designer, entrepreneurs, etc. Use your weekends for this.<p>9. Stay away from your friends or family members who discourage you. Stay away from their negative energy. However you positive or sure you may be it will affect you. Good thing will be to have a limited contact with such people.<p>10. Don't get involved in love relationships unless your girlfriend is supportive.<p>Best of luck.
First, good luck and hope you do well.<p>My startup Socialblaze is in the social/analytics space, and it looks like you're entering this space as well. Good luck! It's a fun space to be in (and moving very fast).<p>Here's a few things I think you should figure out before starting to build your product:<p>- Are you really aware of your customers' needs? Have you talked to any that would use your product? Would they pay for it? (Also, a customer saying that he/she would loves that product and would pay for it is very different then keeping them as an active user with an active subscription for 1+ months).<p>- Small businesses, musicians, and influencers don't have much money, what's your pricepoint? Would they be willing to pay?<p>- What's your customer acquisition strategy? Have you tested it? Do you know it works? What's your backup?<p>- If you're providing analytics, make sure your customers actually get ROI from it. It's possible that a white-label twitpic with 10 new features won't increase engagement at all or not enough to justify costs, making your analytics prove that your product isn't useful.<p>Honestly, I suggest that you first move to the Valley and join a funded early stage startup as employee #3-5. You'll learn a ton and have the experience + connections (these are so important!) to do your own startup in a few years.<p>And startups aren't as glamorous as you think or read on Techcrunch, read Suster's post on the startup lifestyle: <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/30/should-you-really-be-a-startup-entrepreneur/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/30/should-you-really-be-a-star...</a><p>If you still want to do it: fail fast, fail early, and iterate. Also, find amazing advisors as quickly as you can.
Thanks for sharing Chris, great last blog entry on your site, very honest and to the point. I worked at BigCo for 3 years, quick BigCo, consulted for 7 yrs, started an Agency for 5 yrs, then sold it last year.<p>Now I'm back to consulting, taking a breather, as those 5 years were many 70hr/weeks of blood/sweat/tears.....get ready for the same :)<p>Good luck to you man!
Best of luck to you. We are a bootstrapped startup here in the SF Bay Area. It is true that living expenses in this area can be higher, however the opportunities you would get is also better, IMHO. From what people who live in SF the city told me, food is actually cheaper than the suburban cities.
Once you are here, start networking (you can start by looking for suitable meetup groups in the meetup site) because in general people are very willing to help.
Once again, good luck.
If you're looking to save some money, there are a bunch of hacker houses in the Bay Area that tend to be pretty friendly to having people crash and live on the cheap while doing the startup thing.<p>There was an HN thread about this a while back (<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1536822" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1536822</a>) but no current information. Anybody have connections?
I admire your dedication! You don't have too much to lose, but a lot knowledge to gain. Your bootstrapped approach is great and your time-frame reasonable for a smaller project. Good luck!<p>If I should ever do a start-up again, I'll go for boot-strapped as well. If people give you big wads of money they often try to influence your business too much ... sometimes even beyond recognition. Aw... ugly memories.
Good luck to you! I previously worked at Booz as well. You may be surprised but your experience (and connections) in consulting will help down the road. A friend of mine (Booz alum) is also transitioning from software development at a consulting firm to the start up world - he is in b-school at the moment.
I noticed you worked at Booz Allen Hamilton, is that the consulting company you recently quit from?<p>I am 23 and worked for Booz Allen 4 months ago before I quit myself to work on my startup.<p>Best of luck my friend! It is a much better feeling to be working and struggling for the things you love than having it easy with the things you don't!
Excellent! I did the same thing about a month ago (although I left another startup, not a BigCo).<p>Haven't decided whether or not to move in with Mom & Dad though. The savings would be nice, but I live in Santa Clara already and they're an hour south of that. The connections in the valley are worth more, IMO.
Good on you for having the foresight of having enough runway for yourself in terms of savings. Moving back home was definitely a good call too.<p>It really depends on what side of the fence you're on. While you "can" start an awesome company outside of the Valley, it can be challenging (not impossible) to raise money for a pre-revenue company that has a sole founder. Starting something in a major metropolitan hub be it NYC, Boston, Seattle, (insert major US city flush with VC money) can afford you advantages such as connecting with a supportive and entrepreneurial community. It'll allow you maybe even find a co-founder as well.<p>And don't forget to signup for the www.startupdigest.com to be in the know of all things startup in whatever city you may decide to settle in.
Congratulations on starting out!<p>I'm 24 as well and working on my own ramen-profitable startup.<p>This is a good time in your life to risk it all. My suggestion is to try and go for revenue as soon as possible. Even if you just get to making $1-2k a month, you can live on that at this time in your life.
Awesome to hear you're taking the dive, especially when coming from a consultancy. My co-founder is from Accenture and he's looking to take a LOA in few months as well. I did a similar thing 3 months back when leaving my job as a head hunter. It just dawned on me one day when I had to grab lunch with a candidate I was placing vs a meeting with prospective alpha user who was calling about the idea I was conceiving over a paper mock-up. Being the business guy it was the best move for me. Before that move I had trouble recruiting co-founders outside of my friends. My co-founders are now all people I've met through networking in trying to achieve a similar vision rather than simply being a friend and convincing people to join up with you. More importantly, my co-founders are now 3 other engineers to complement my business skills. Going full-time put me fighting right in the arena rather than commentating from the stands.<p>I think I've come a long way even in the last 3 months going full-time when thinking about the stupid things I did 5 months ago. Basically I was about to pay with my initial co-founder/roommate $20k to prototype the mock-up. Instead I've picked up coding (even at what I consider the old age of turning 27 but what the heck i'm in this for the long-haul) and found 3 other engineering co-founders who are all contributing to bootstrap and have instead $20k surplus to start with now.<p>Strangely enough, I offered equal equity as well but they said I should keep more of it since I'm full-time and invested more time into it up to that point. Furthermore, even though I never pushed it on them, two have approached me already to go full time starting the summer to pick up the pace as they've begun to get more excited about the idea. Now we're on our way to launching an alpha in 2 weeks!<p>Oh, and to note the paper mock-ups did wonders. If I had paid to outsource the project with all the iterations I had done up to that point based on the usability testing I would have easily paid triple. Thankfully, we haven't had a need to pivot yet from the responses, but we definitely have iterated a whole bunch since even three months ago which I could never have imagined I would have found out if I never left the job.
If you ever wish to chat and exchange ideas/stories email me anytime. Best of luck!
Congrats on taking the leap.<p>Having worked on startups with co founders and currently as a soloist here are a couple of tips that may be of use;<p>Investigate your Market size and typical search traffic thoroughly.<p>Begin your seo campaign as early as possible, now would be great, if your new to this ping me a mail and I will point you to some good starting points and resources.<p>Be very selective with your choice of co-founder and try to avoid the attraction of teaming up with business people who promise the world, absolutely demand a track record.<p>Finally, have fun, build something that interests you, there is nothing worse than having to drag yourself to a pc for a project your not enthused by.<p>Good luck.
I wanted to say good luck with your startup/move. I once had a nice big corp job on the east coast but I always had a startup I wanted to take to silicon valley.<p>I quit the job, moved out to San Francisco, started a small but successful consultancy doing what I love (SEO) and am using half my time and the bulk of my consulting revenue to fund the startup.<p>You don't even know how right you are about finding like minded people out here. Everyone is interested in tech, excited about new startups, supportive of new startups, and there is a ton of talent and $ throughout silicon valley.<p>Best of Luck.<p>Mike Coughlin
Hey, Boa sorte !<p>I like thousands here am planning to do the same but with Rails.
Your Idea seams nice and the site already looks good.
Would be if you post info about the site, when it happens so we can follow.<p>Cya later !
Bold move and congrats! One word of advice: Don't underestimate how difficult it is to get customers. Hacking skills are great but if you want to be successful you will want to spend at the very least 50% of your time worrying about getting customers for whatever it is that you build. Either that or partner with someone who is really great at this.
I'm doing the same thing, except leaving my corporate job (moving to half time there, to keep bennies/some money). I have spent 3 years on this startup, but only my last pivot got me to where I'm willing to take this move.<p>It's part scary, part exciting, but mostly I'm pleased at making a major change that I believe will move my life in the right direction.
Good luck, I hope you succeed! I'm in a similar situation, although I have a couple of products bringing in modest revenue. I found that there's always heaps of things to do when you're a solo founder, and it can be overwhelming. Also, things <i>always</i> take longer than you expect.<p>Would be happy to exchange thoughts (email in the profile).
Good luck! Have you decided what you want to work on yet? Look me up if you want someone to bounce ideas off of, maybe we can hack something together.<p>I've got an invitation to Sparkmuse (about to enter beta) for you if you would like to discuss some of your ideas there too.
I'm in almost exactly the same boat, except you'd have to transpose the digits of my age. I almost quit my job today. I have about the same amount of "runway" in savings. I'm planning on moving to Austin instead of San Francisco, though.
I just quit my job too, but I did it to join an existing startup. I've started many little projects on the side before. I feel watching someone else do it first, learning from them before doing it myself is far safer. Good luck.
Congrats, Chris! It was a blast grabbing dinner with you a while back and I look forward to seeing what you've got in store.<p>All, Chris is the real deal; bright, motivated, and a real "product" guy.<p>Excited to potentially room with you in the future :)
Great job and good luck to you! I'm also a single founder but don't have the courage to leave my job just yet (nor the financial means either) so I'll definitely watch out for your progress.
Hi Chris,
I have added my story after reading yours, its here
<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2222501" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2222501</a>