What’s so wrong with moonlighting?
I don’t get why most in the VC/Angel community (and even some founders) look down on other founders who hold full time jobs to pay bills and build startups (yes multiple) on the side.
It doesn’t make the founder any less entrepreneurial, or passionate or committed.
Sometimes an option to walk away from a paying job isn’t possible (family, other financial issues)
Why do they do this?
They want all the output of your brain and efforts, or at least the absolute maximum allowed by law.
Doesn’t always work for people who do better with distractions; I.e people with ADHD
For VCs, I can understand why. Building a startup is hard work, and they want someone who can commit to it full time. It's already difficult to convince them to invest, so if you say "By the way, I work 40 hours a week at my main job," I imagine they would walk away pretty quickly.
For others, screw anyone who looks down on you. You're doing what you can, and if building a startup in your spare time is what you want to do, ignore/block/whatever anyone who isn't trying to help you progress :)
Bootstrap FTW.
More important - why do you care what they think? 🙃
Making your own decisions is at the heart of entrepreneurship. What other people think and do - other than your customers - literally does not affect you. So ignore it!
I think it’s just more annoying than anything 🤡
I mean I think it depends on who you're talking about. I would wager that most people on this site are either moonlighting, or have moonlighted to a point where they could go full-time.
Different communities have different perspectives, values, beliefs, and opinions.
Nothing wrong with either -- just a different view of the world.
Do what makes sense for you; don't let others get you down.
👍
It's a philosophical/values difference -- VC's (and many angels) are looking for huge returns and billion dollar companies. That kind of thing is (very) hard to achieve if you're working 60+ hours/week, much less moonlighting. If a billion dollar company is indeed your goal, at some point you're going to transition from moonlighting to full time.
If you're moonlighting because you simply enjoy your projects and/or want to build bootstrapped SMBs, VC's are going to be uninterested in your vision and end game, hence the impression that they're looking down on you. You're playing a fundamentally different game, even if we tend to lump everything together as "startups".
I agree with everyone here who said you should do what makes sense to you -- pick your values system and goals, and avoid comparing apples and oranges with people (in this case, VC's) who have a completely different - not wrong, just different - worldview.
Great perspective. And yes, it’s basically a simpler qualifier - is it a billion dollar opp or not. There must be at least one billion dollar co that was from a side hustle - no?
I'm sure many unicorns could have qualified as a side hustle in the early days, but you're not going to find any that stayed a side hustle to a billion. In fact I'd guess you wouldn't find many if any that experienced any piece of the classic VC-style hockey stick growth until they hustled their way into being able to do it full time.
Building companies and writing software are complicated tasks/puzzles, not a long list of short repetitive boring tasks. As such, they stay in the back of the mind (or even in the front!) and can prevent a lot of people from being focused on the task of the moment (the day job).
Thanks for your reply; but in my opinion your statement is flawed. Many problems are solved during a shower or taking a shit - not when you’re spending 60 hours on it.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago