[tonystubblebine]

Sure, people definitely do it even though a lot of folks think it's easier to take the plunge 100%.

I built CrowdVine in the first half of 07 while doing contract jobs on the side. It was definitely hard to manage both at once, but not harder than everything else that came after it. Starting a company is hard, period.

I had slightly different options than you do since I spent six years after college working for other people, paying off debt, and building contacts that I could go to for contract work.

I'm happy I did it this way, because now the company is 100% privately owned and profitable. My major disappointment with working for other people was how much of my work went nowhere, either canceled mid-project, launched and then canceled, launched with to no traction, or launched with great traction and then abandoned. After that I couldn't stomach the idea of someone else in my business.

One thing I think is important if you bootstrap by doing side work is to have a plan for moving completely from one revenue stream to the other with no ramp-up. I did it by building a product that I could build a consulting service around. We launched with break-even revenue for two people. A lot of other people want funding, so your goal would be to build a product that can get you funded. I don't think you want to spend a lot of time with a live product and a full time job (although del.icio.us did it that way).