Tips for launching a startup while holding a day job

The point about not using your day job's resources is important. Not only could you lose you day job, but your side project as well. Many times when you start working at an organization, they have you sign an agreement saying something like "We own everything that is produced on our machines, network, etc."

I agree with everything beside the point "You can’t afford to hire three developers to add features and bugs.". You actual can, it just require a little of a financial sacrifice for you. Hiring my first employee was the best thing I ever done, especially when he can work during hours you normally can't.

I have found that the easiest way to keep my day job and startup separate is to have a separate laptop for both so that I'm not tempted to work on startup tasks on the company's computer while on the clock or off. Not too difficult to do during the day but it can be during the off hours when the company's laptop is better than your own.<p>I think the harder issue is trying to avoid answering emails that are startup related while on the clock. Even if it's webmail they still own the internet at work.

On a related note, is it okay to pick up skills related to your side project at work? For example, if my side project is building a application in Clojure, is it okay to learn about Clojure at work? Of course, not at the expense of getting actual work work done, but there's always time between builds, etc. So instead of playing Foosball or surfing the internet, can one actually do something more productive, even though it's unrelated to the current work you are doing?

From a legal point of view, this is actually really good advice. It adequately stresses the importance of making really, really sure that you are not bound by any anti-compete or IP clauses or what have you, or get released from them by your employer. To non-legal people, the advised measures may seem ridiculous; let me assure you, they are not. They are well within the minimum you need to do.<p>For your startup, it's not about if the courts will, after several months or even years, uphold your IP rights. It's about ever getting sued and game over.

More discussion over at the original link from Jason's blog: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1175416" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1175416</a>

So I have a friend (it could be true) considering starting a business on the side and he agrees with all of these points. After reading this article, however, he realized that he did sign some type of agreement saying anything he does is property of the company, even if it was at home. At the time he wondered whether this was normal, but as it was the standard company contract, he signed it.<p>How should he handle this situation?

What if I am a developer in the day job, but I don't code for the the startup, and the technology we use is totally different from my employer, will there be a IP concern?

This is a repost of Jason's post from his blog. Here's the HN discussion on that post. <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1175416" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1175416</a>

Number one thing that should be on the list - find a co-founder!