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i saw enough of a need for my idea to quit outright and just go for it (although i have some cash saved up and can live off a low burn rate). i think that if you have the right idea and are truly passionate about it, you just know that you will be able to make it work. i did my first company by bootstrapping/moonlighting, and thought i was passionate about it, but really in retrospect it was a stupid hedge (i didn't quit my day job, for example) and my reluctance to go for it should have just been a signal that i didn't really believe in the idea as much as i thought. as far as the new idea, i intended to leave outright back in january but instead reached an agreement with my employer to go part time for a few months (to finished a project/accrue some more stock) while i built a prototype for my idea. (in retrospect, another unnecessary hedge, but live and learn.) not being full time on my new idea quickly became very frustrating as i felt my attention was fractured, but i still got a lot done, and it was a decent compromise that allowed me to get a team and a prototype together and sanity check the idea with smart people/entrepreneurs/investors and secure seed funding. that said, i would be a lot further along if i had been full time over the past 3-4 months, so if i could do it again i would have quit earlier. in any case, my last day is this friday, and i had given notice before my yc interview (even though funding hadn't yet been secured.) it's helpful to have a cushion (6 months to a year) to tide you over until you'll have something (prototype, team, ideally even something more like a beta launch) that is attractive to angels or VCs. and add some elbow room because it'll probably take you 2-3x as long as you think! the cushion helps to save you from needing to have to scrap around for consulting gigs and dilute your focus, but isn't strictly necessary. but if you're good, your worst case scenario is just getting another job or taking another swing, so it's not as risky as it might seem. and hedging your bets/moonlighting/halfassing things (they're all the same thing :)) is more of a risk than just going for it unless you have some strange idea where getting to market quickly isn't absolutely critical. drew (http://getdropbox.com ) |