Why I Quit My Job to Start a Tech Company
In this candid personal reflection (2011), @frankdenbow steps back to assess the lifestyle, mental health, and career tradeoffs of independent software craftsmanship.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Leaving high-paying Big Tech roles offers complete creative sovereignty, but demands high psychological resilience against loneliness and uncertainty.
Setting strict boundary lines between personal life and asynchronous bug reports is crucial for sustaining solo developer momentum.
Treating side projects and indie businesses as an ongoing marathon rather than a sprint creates resilience through dry spells.
Community Debate Themes:
Community members debated work-life balance, health insurance and retirement planning for solopreneurs, and finding meaning outside of traditional corporate ladders.
CATEGORY Founder Lessons →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 222 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 75 comments
Doing the opposite now. Spent the last year in a very early stage startup. Finally got fed up with the low pay ("but we're giving you equity...") and the lack of direction. It seemed like every other week we had a new direction. And the latest new direction was so bizarre that I'm tempted to make a mockumentary about the whole thing.
Finally had enough of the startup scene; I'm going to go to work for a very large semiconductor company getting paid 2.5x what I was making at the startup. Feels like I'm getting a real adult job again.
tl;dr: I learned that not every statup idea is worthwhile.
Similar position here! Spent 4 years working as a programmer for a few faceless corps. While some of that was pretty interesting (wrote a quant investing engine from scratch) the politics eventually took its toll. So I spent the whole of last year travelling, came back refreshed and am now in the middle of a startup with two other college friends. If anyone else is in a similar position I wholeheartedly recommend both ( the travelling and/or the startup)
Quitting to start a tech company is much easier when you have had 3 years of banking $250k per year. It reduces the risk and stress of possibly eating ramen daily. Also investors love when entrepreneurs are willing to invest some of their own money into a concept.
More people on HN, in my opinion, would quit today if they had enough money in a war chest to survive for year or more.
Related, but very different: Reasons to leave the corporate world to join a startup (and why you should consider it too) http://feefighters.com/blog/5-reasons-to-leave-the-corporate-world-and-join-a-startup/
Pretty motivational stuff! Props!!
1) As an aside, he says his job was Private Equity Investor. Does that mean we worked for a hedge fund?
2) How does one get hired as a PEI right out of college? I'm just curious what skill set is required. What do they do exactly?