Need advice - what would you do?
TLDR at bottom
Hey IndieHackers,
To provide some context, I'm 26 and recently graduated with a degree in Software Engineering. I've been working professionally in IT for three years doing development, a bunch of things in Azure, and now doing some DevOps in a junior position.
I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset, which was the whole reason I got into software in the first place. Being able to develop an app once and sell it thousands of times, while working on your next app was very enticing.
My ultimate goal is to develop a product that pays my bills. I want to be my own boss so I don't have to answer to anyone else, a sentiment that I'm sure is shared by essentially the entire community here.
However, this isn't an easy path. Developing, designing, and marketing your product is a lot of work. Something you're paying for with time or money, or a combination of both. Once again, since we're in this community, we're using time and not money to pay for these endeavors.
Once I finished uni, I decided to dive into app development by learning React and I made Tibble. It's a super simple app that I created to get a feel of what it would be like to try and bootstrap. The process of learning React and making my app took about three months.
That, and being on this forum, has made me aware of my lack of skills in many areas. There is so much you need to know and have to do to get your app off the ground. I want to improve on these areas, but it's going to take time.
I've also come to realize how important it is to build an online presence. If you have an audience and a positive reputation, you can leverage that in many ways, namely being able to distribute apps that provide value, or have a better chance at securing freelancing and consulting roles (where you're more in control of your work/life balance). This is also something that takes time to build.
As an aside, I'm not completely new to taking a risk and starting a business. I identified an opportunity and successfully started a ecommerce store several years ago selling items in Australia that were only available in America. I bought them at wholesale prices from the sole manufacturer, then sold them here. The value add was that I express shipped them so Australians would get the item next day instead of next month from America.
Not sure why, but after a year the provider decided I could only use next day shipping from America. I would buy $2000 worth of inventory, then have to pay $2000 for next day shipping. Completely eliminated margins and I never got a reason why. I suspected it had something to do with taking their profits in Australia.
After that, I became busy with uni and focused on that until I graduated, which brings us back to now.
Building my skills and online presence so that I can freelance or launch a product is going to take a while, a few years at least. I'm planning on working at a company during this period.
The salaries at top tech companies is so absurd that I'm considering studying algorithms and what not so I can get a job there, and then build my skills up at the same time I'm earning an insane amount of money.
If I do this though, it's going to take time away from my main goal until I get the job and settle in, and who knows how long that could take? The difference I'm considering is that i could be building my skills at $x salary or 3*$x salary (possibly 4* or 5* after a few years). But preparing for the interview is detracting from my main goals of being autonomous.
TLDR: Should I keep trying to bootstrap products to be my own boss (a process that is going to take years due to missing skills in many areas) , or prepare for a job at a top tech company (a process that could take up to a year or more, the main problem being that it doesn't help me in achieving independence in that I'd still in the 9-5)?
I would love to get some advice from people who have already lived this experience: people who have successfully or unsuccessfully bootstrapped for several years, or from people who chose to build up wealth before going down the bootstrap path.
I know what you're going through. I lived through it over a decade ago and came out on the other side where I wanted to be.
What worked for me is heavily investing in education in a few different ways.
Sure, I took a pay cut for a number of years, but the education was well worth it.
I continued to hustle on side projects and consulting during weeknights. This allowed me to pick up new skills, practice what I learned during the day, and experiment. To be successful with this, I needed to learn how to manage my time, even when I was tired. This is an important skill to have when you're running your own business, since there will be no one nagging you to get shit done.
I feel in love with non-fiction books. Many people try to use internet articles and content to gain their knowledge on important topics. While there is good content out there, it's hard to come by and most of it is low quality. You'll find more comprehensive content, that's higher quality in books. If you've got a local library, you might be able to get it all for free!
Now the great thing about these three is when you use them together, they begin to feed off each other. For example, if you learn a new skill during your weeknight hustling, you'll be able to show it off at your day job, which of course can help you get a promotion. Even when things didn't immediately work out the way I wanted it, I've always found that the skills I've learned either at work, at night, or through books has payed off at some point further down the road.
Is this a path you decided for yourself early on because you knew exactly where you wanted to be in the future?
How did you find clients to do consulting for? Was it word of mouth referrals or were you establishing yourself online?
What are your top three non fiction books?
This has become a mini interview :P
I always wanted to build a company that made a product and was profitable from a young age. That had been my goal since I got out of high school.
Anytime I've done consulting over my career, I've gotten clients either through referrals or building relationships with people. For example, my wife and I met a couple during our honeymoon. The four of us had a blast during an activity. That connection later turned into a number of jobs I did for the wife's web development company. Sometimes you never know where contracts will come from.
If I wanted to do consulting again, I'd most certainly let my personal network know and past clients. If that didn't work, I'd use LinkedIn to do cold calling and probably do some contracts on a freelancing site just to make connections.
That's a tough one, as there are so many good ones in categories I've dove into. Here are some general ones that made an impact.
If there is a specific category you're interested in gaining a deeper knowledge of, let me know.
Why can't you do both?
Because if I decide to go for a role at $big Tech for the purposes of an incredible salary, I may as well go for it as soon as possible, then keep going on bootstrapping.
More concretely for example, I could earn $50k one year, then $70k (a generous raise), then $150k if I try to do both for a total of $250k over three years. Or I could earn $50k, $150k, then $200k (https://www.levels.fyi/) for a total of $400k over three years. $150k is a significant enough amount, such that going straight for it makes sense. A conversation regarding the power of compounding fits in here somewhere as well.
Get what you are saying but it sounds like you are playing the short game and not the long one.
Entrepreneurship is a VERY long game, with better pay-offs as time goes (hopefully) offset with more risk. I prefer to think in 3-5 year increments. And your first round may be a wash financially.
Having a solid job is a great way to reduce the risk early on and allow you to play the long game for a longer period of time. If entrepreneurship is truly what you want.
In what way specifically do you feel like I'm playing the short game vs the long?
Also, are you saying that I should take a shot at working at big tech so that I can properly finance myself?
Its simple: What do you want your days to look like? What do you want to be doing on a daily basis?
Do that starting now or build towards it starting now.
I agree with @SEOguy, do both.
Or, the middle ground might be take a position at an early stage company that might offer equity and a small salary. Honestly, I believe people are pretty transparent so starting a business to make money or simply serve yourself will show through. Find a passion and/or a problem you can genuinely solve and start with that. Your passion will be visible making people more willing to help you and customers more will to support you.
Long story short, if you're not currently enjoying your job, change it. You'll never have the spare mental RAM to learn/build anything if you're in a job you hate. If you find a job for someone else that you're passionate about, you enjoy, and they treat you well; that's great. If you find something that you don't hate and pays the bills then do that and learn/develop the things you are passionate about in your personal time and eventually that'll pay the bills.
All just my opinion thought, not fact based.
I'd definitely love to find that sweet spot where I can work on something I genuinely enjoy that also brings in the dollars.
I should've noted that I don't hate my current job at all. It's just that I could be earning much more at bigger tech companies, and I'd probably be just as happy. I'm assuming my work-life balance would be the same.
That reminds me, I've heard rumours that big tech often burns employees out then moves onto the next. My wife likes to say "Google provides food and games so you never have to leave, Google's the only winner there".
Often the smaller companies will be more flexible. They might support you taking courses. Or, they may even support you starting a business if there's value in it for them. There may also be people in a smaller company who can mentor you and get you the breadth of experience you desire. Certainly worth talking to you superiors about.
I should have also said, I survived a near-fatal crash 3 years ago. Before that I was a workaholic with goals of being an insurance company CTO and successful founder. Now, in hindsight the hours and sacrifice and impact on those you love is not worth it to get to a C-suite position.
When the road is long and there are many obvious areas to improve then what's the use of pondering too much? Going to work at big tech company is good because it gives you skills and fund. Start a business is also good because duh! Albeit it is harder at the start and going to take longer for you. Both are good options, I don't see the point of hesitating.