The new "corner store"

I'm leaving my job as a startup CTO to go full-time on my own business this week.

This transition has led me to think a lot about the venture funding track vs. the self-funded lifestyle business track.

Compared with the ambitious, venture-funded startups I worked for in the past, my new company, Draft is so…simple. There are customers with a need, and I have a skill that helps them meet that need. If I’m smart, I’ll be able to operationalize it and get out of the day-to-day within a few years. To me, that sounds like a fascinating problem to solve, even if it’s not worthy of outside investment.

I see online lifestyle businesses like mine as the “corner store” of our generation. Our grandparents could lease a storefront, and (with a little luck and hard work) ride the wave of growing prosperity in their neighborhood to make a living. I’m not going to build the next Facebook, but there’s enough growth in the technology sector to make a living in lots of little niches you might not have expected.

What do you think?