Should I accept a FANG contract or continue my entrepreneurship journey
I am in a weird situation. A lot of people would be the happiest to be in my position, but I feel a bit lost and in a need of crystal ball at the moment. Maybe somebody from IH was in my situation and can tell their stories, which might help me get a decision.
So, I received today a good job offer from Amazon as a software engineer. At the moment I am doing my last university year, and I did an internship at Amazon this spring. My experience was better than I expected, and I found out that Amazon is working like a bunch of small startups, everyone responsible for their small projects (from beginning to maintenance).
The problem is that I have a huge entrepreneurial drive, and I will not be able to settle and be ok with the status quo, and I won't be happy until I build something meaningful of my own. I failed a startup. Then I opened a software development agency and we grew pretty good in the first year, but after that I didn't feel happy as I was feeling that I am building someone elses dreams, and wanted to build something of my own. For that reason, I put the agency on hold. The last 2 years, I am working on another startup as cofounder and CTO and we have a team of 5 people. We didn't raise money and we are not generating any revenue yet. Recently I started a youtube channel.
I know that my final success and happiness will come from the entrepreneurship, and I don't intend to stop soon. It might take 10 failed startups, but one will work. I have the patience and work ethics, and I feel that success is around the corner.
One more detail, is that I am not in a urgent need of money. I have saved up for more than a year of living, and I have a modest lifestyle.
My options are:
-
Take the Amazon job as a safety net, and continue working afterhours and weekends on my personal projects, until the projects will bring enough profit that It can replace amazon salary.
Pros: I get more technical experience from a professional environment. I start building a bigger savings account, that will allow me to start a business later without VC money.
Cons: I fear the most that I will get comfortable and I will lose the hunger and the drive for success; Time that I could invest into my projects; -
Reject the offer and continue pursuing the entrepreneurial journey until I get out of money or I become profitable.
Pros are obvious.
Cons: I still have to do a 5 months internship as I want to finish the uni; The savings account will reach 0 one day. And the obvious risk involved with the entrepreneurial journey, because I believe in myself, but I am not that delusional.
So, awesome people, have you been in similar situations?
What would you do in this case?
First of all, congrats on landing the Amazon job!
It's definitely a great position to be in. Don't know if you've made your decision, the decision would be very personal and situation-dependent (ex. your age and risk profile). I suggest you assess the risks and potential of the startup and decide if you are willing to bet on it. But personally, I'd take the Amazon SWE job, because as the options you've listed, it gives you the freedom to do what you want later on. It's not like you are not professional going to learning to learn anything from job. And you don't even have to be there that long;) But it matters when you need that safety net -- whether that's money saved or the resume value you get -- down the road. Don't forget: most startups die.
You obviously love entrepreneurship, so as long as you never forget what you truly want, you should be able to come back rather quickly. Work on projects on the side or whatnot. You can still be an indie hacker with the Amazon SWE experience under your belt. There's basically no down side unless your startup really takes off (even then, you now have the experience of working at both big corp and startup).
Hey Howsun,
Thanks for your time and objective advice.
I had the same opinion until the last day, and everyone was saying that I should accept it. And during the last day when I had to give an answer, I (tried) took a 20 minutes nap, and then woke up with the idea that I am going to reject it. I had a deep feeling that it would be better to do so. I have always been involved in a lot of entrepreneurship projects, but I have never had the chance to do this full time. I feel that I did not have yet a chance to spread my wings. Also, I feel that now it is the perfect time to be risky. I do not have a lot of commitments, I do not have kids, I can live way below my means. The decision to go all-in into the entrepreneurship world, with 10% probability of success and no income for a long time will be harder when there will be a family to feed.
That's was my thought process, and I hope I will not regret it. I did what I felt best.
Thanks again for your recommendations.
Congrats Vadim on your decision. As a Amazon employee who is looking to build my own product, I can say you made a good decision. Unfortunately you would not have been able to work nights/weekends on your side projects as firstly you wouldn't have the time and because the employment contract that you would have to sign, states that anything you develop would be property of the company regardless of when/how it was developed.
All the best and wishing you the best of success!
I think that part of the contract isn't really too important because Amazon's lawyers will only enforce it if you build something big, so it's almost like a good problem to have. I'm sure there are good ways to say that you weren't involved in building something too.
But how has building your own product been so far? I'm also an Amazon intern and am looking to build my own product and it would be cool to hear how it's gone for you.
Hey, hearing this from someone in my shoes is encouraging. Yeah, the contract clause of the company owning all my project was one of the biggest reasons that I influenced my decision. I talked with the HR, and they said that they might be able to sign a waiver, but that's based on each individual project. I don't want to be in a situation when I build a fast MVP in a weekend, and then wait 3 months for Amzn to sign a waiver for the project.
Thank you very much for your advice and kind words. Wish you all the best :)
If you have thought it through, then it's the right decision for you. Yes, your young age means higher risk tolerance and less responsibilities. There is not a perfect time to start anyway -- you can make it work! Focus, and you shall not regret. Life's short, it's all just a game anyway.
I'm doing the same thing as you -- indie hacking. Good luck with your journey! You've earned a follower!
Yeah, exactly. If not now then when? :D
Thanks for the support and recommendations :)
Glad you made the right decision for you, it definitely doesn't look like an easy decision. I know I'm 4 years late but so far I haven't seemed to be able to find anyone who is also looking to escape 9 to 5 at Amazon so that's another reason to not go for Amazon.
Hey, that's a good point. I chose the second option and went all in with my youtube and educational business, and there are no regrets