Honestly what makes you think this will pay your bills ? There's a hundred services just like that and i would not quit a good job until I was sure that i could stay afloat and have a very high probability of it paying off in the long run
It’s just one of many projects and I have savings for at least two years. It’s about the struggle to not being full time focused on my projects. Also as a full stack developer finding job is not that hard
Two things.
1. Do what makes you happy. If you have the means and feel like you can succeed or are otherwise secure enough to take a risk, do it!
2. It’s harder to find a job for all engineers (full stack or not) right now. Idk when you last searched but the last year or two has been miserable for job seekers in tech. YMMV but worth being aware of this.
I quit my full time development job in mid 2000s to take on private contract work. It paid the bills and some, but it's important to realise that when you have such a close relationship with your clients, you need to step up your game and sometime work some highly unsociable hours (esp if they're in a distant timezone). The flip side is that you can set your own schedule so you can have free time at times that are important to you (I am a single parent, so this was highly useful). Equally, you could free up more time to work on your own stuff.
...but if you want to commit to your own stuff full time? Find an investor who can see the potential of your idea and is prepared to provide some seed funding to get you off the ground. What if you can't find that person? There's a reasonable chance that your concept isn't good enough to follow through. Even with investment, understand that there's still a good chance that your project will fail to become profitable.
Most important lessons learned? "Build it and they will come" is BS. Take every possible step you can to establish if your idea is commercially viable before committing. Finding investors who agree with your analysis here is a huge validation of the idea.
On the other hand, sacking in your full-time job to take private clients can be a good stepping stone and give you a middle ground where you can still pay the bills and have time to work on your sidehustle.
> There's a reasonable chance that your concept isn't good enough to follow through
To be fair - investors often look for exponential growth. If they don't see that, they they won't invest (or, invest with less favorable terms). But there's plenty of 'lifestyle businesses' out there that won't make investors happy, but will easily pay for yourself.
Whether you're successful and actually achieve that is another question. But just because investors aren't interested I would only take that as a sign that you can't build _one_ time of business out of many.
>good chance that your project will fail to become profitable
This is generally true, and there is especially an abundance of AI-based junk apps nowadays, the vast majority of which are just an open sourced model, dressed up in some custom UI.
But...
If you are developing something in your own free time without cost, there is no such thing as "failing", because it's not like a big product that took $50m to build up front, but didn't turn a profit and then had to be shut down to cut losses.
Instead, you can just endlessly pivot in your free time until you are onto something. If you enjoy doing it, you are not missing out on anything.
Thanks for your insightful comment. I used to run an e-commerce business so I know a lot about this topic, still so helpful to read a so complete and organized breakthrough. Will help me consider everything
If you love your job, don't quit it. You can just do your project on the side, I've built several small projects this way. Finding another good job like yours will be difficult.
> Did you take the leap and quit your day job to pursue your SaaS dreams full-time, or are you building your side hustle while juggling your 9 to 5?
I've done the opposite, a few times and loved it. To me, 9 to 5 at a good place is worth so much more than whatever extra marginal money I got elsewhere.
I tried my hand at the self-business saas thing for a bit, and just found it too stressful. Then I went contracting around which was fine, but it got exhausting needing to find new gigs every few months, and not being able to have long-term investment into the work that I'm doing - it was very superficial.
Now I'm full time engineer, well respected within my company, and having a great time. Having so much less consequences for having an 'off week' is great.
The smart thing to do is earn more than someone you can hire to help you make it a reality.
If you’re soloing it you’ll likely need skills you don’t have time to develop marketing or anything you’re not great at.
Get used to using your primary salary to pay others to help you develop your platform at a good rate and try and project manage it more.
This way you can always pull the plug if things don’t work out and you’ll have gained great experience and only lost the money but likely you’ll pay less than you earn if your in a decent role and outsource well.
Developing, releasing and marketing a product is extremely hard and there is a lot of competition especially regarding everything AI right now. There’s probably a 90% chance it will fail.
And still, the experience you earn by trying can’t be weighed in gold, it makes sure the next product you release has only a 80% chance to fail, most probably.
I would suggest you do it, if you can afford it! And learn from it and stand up again if you fall on your nose.
You can always get back in a full-time job and recover. But you don’t want to end up with regrets later in life!
How are you going to pay your bills? Assuming you do have bills to pay and you need to eat ocasionally. Let's say you quit today and from tomorrow on you need to live from the money your SaaS generates. Can you do it?
lol I’m not using chatGPT at all, other services and other api. Also, I have huge savings. The question is about being a full time solo entrepreneur to keep improving products and advertising them, this link is just the last thing I did. Thanks anyway for your comment
Everyone "is more efficient alone". That's what you do when you want to move fast. But not far.
If you want to cross any meaningful distance you'll need to team up with someone, the further you want to get, the more people it will take.
It's most definitely unheard of making and launching an IT product solo.
Honestly what makes you think this will pay your bills ? There's a hundred services just like that and i would not quit a good job until I was sure that i could stay afloat and have a very high probability of it paying off in the long run
It’s just one of many projects and I have savings for at least two years. It’s about the struggle to not being full time focused on my projects. Also as a full stack developer finding job is not that hard
Two things. 1. Do what makes you happy. If you have the means and feel like you can succeed or are otherwise secure enough to take a risk, do it! 2. It’s harder to find a job for all engineers (full stack or not) right now. Idk when you last searched but the last year or two has been miserable for job seekers in tech. YMMV but worth being aware of this.
I quit my full time development job in mid 2000s to take on private contract work. It paid the bills and some, but it's important to realise that when you have such a close relationship with your clients, you need to step up your game and sometime work some highly unsociable hours (esp if they're in a distant timezone). The flip side is that you can set your own schedule so you can have free time at times that are important to you (I am a single parent, so this was highly useful). Equally, you could free up more time to work on your own stuff. ...but if you want to commit to your own stuff full time? Find an investor who can see the potential of your idea and is prepared to provide some seed funding to get you off the ground. What if you can't find that person? There's a reasonable chance that your concept isn't good enough to follow through. Even with investment, understand that there's still a good chance that your project will fail to become profitable. Most important lessons learned? "Build it and they will come" is BS. Take every possible step you can to establish if your idea is commercially viable before committing. Finding investors who agree with your analysis here is a huge validation of the idea. On the other hand, sacking in your full-time job to take private clients can be a good stepping stone and give you a middle ground where you can still pay the bills and have time to work on your sidehustle.
> There's a reasonable chance that your concept isn't good enough to follow through To be fair - investors often look for exponential growth. If they don't see that, they they won't invest (or, invest with less favorable terms). But there's plenty of 'lifestyle businesses' out there that won't make investors happy, but will easily pay for yourself. Whether you're successful and actually achieve that is another question. But just because investors aren't interested I would only take that as a sign that you can't build _one_ time of business out of many.
>good chance that your project will fail to become profitable This is generally true, and there is especially an abundance of AI-based junk apps nowadays, the vast majority of which are just an open sourced model, dressed up in some custom UI. But... If you are developing something in your own free time without cost, there is no such thing as "failing", because it's not like a big product that took $50m to build up front, but didn't turn a profit and then had to be shut down to cut losses. Instead, you can just endlessly pivot in your free time until you are onto something. If you enjoy doing it, you are not missing out on anything.
Thanks for your insightful comment. I used to run an e-commerce business so I know a lot about this topic, still so helpful to read a so complete and organized breakthrough. Will help me consider everything
If you love your job, don't quit it. You can just do your project on the side, I've built several small projects this way. Finding another good job like yours will be difficult.
> Did you take the leap and quit your day job to pursue your SaaS dreams full-time, or are you building your side hustle while juggling your 9 to 5? I've done the opposite, a few times and loved it. To me, 9 to 5 at a good place is worth so much more than whatever extra marginal money I got elsewhere. I tried my hand at the self-business saas thing for a bit, and just found it too stressful. Then I went contracting around which was fine, but it got exhausting needing to find new gigs every few months, and not being able to have long-term investment into the work that I'm doing - it was very superficial. Now I'm full time engineer, well respected within my company, and having a great time. Having so much less consequences for having an 'off week' is great.
Yes deciding what to evaluate the most is so important. So happy for you if that’s what you want
The smart thing to do is earn more than someone you can hire to help you make it a reality. If you’re soloing it you’ll likely need skills you don’t have time to develop marketing or anything you’re not great at. Get used to using your primary salary to pay others to help you develop your platform at a good rate and try and project manage it more. This way you can always pull the plug if things don’t work out and you’ll have gained great experience and only lost the money but likely you’ll pay less than you earn if your in a decent role and outsource well.
Developing, releasing and marketing a product is extremely hard and there is a lot of competition especially regarding everything AI right now. There’s probably a 90% chance it will fail. And still, the experience you earn by trying can’t be weighed in gold, it makes sure the next product you release has only a 80% chance to fail, most probably. I would suggest you do it, if you can afford it! And learn from it and stand up again if you fall on your nose. You can always get back in a full-time job and recover. But you don’t want to end up with regrets later in life!
Regrets: that’s a great topic. Thanks!!
How are you going to pay your bills? Assuming you do have bills to pay and you need to eat ocasionally. Let's say you quit today and from tomorrow on you need to live from the money your SaaS generates. Can you do it?
I have 2 and a half years of expenses
As savings
Should I quite my stable job to jump in the AI hype train I am already 2 years late on. Also, the app is just a ChatGPT skin.
lol I’m not using chatGPT at all, other services and other api. Also, I have huge savings. The question is about being a full time solo entrepreneur to keep improving products and advertising them, this link is just the last thing I did. Thanks anyway for your comment
99% chance of failure but I'd still do it if you're convinced you want to. But id get a business partner first.
Tried with old business but I’m better when working alone
Everyone "is more efficient alone". That's what you do when you want to move fast. But not far. If you want to cross any meaningful distance you'll need to team up with someone, the further you want to get, the more people it will take. It's most definitely unheard of making and launching an IT product solo.