[karjaluoto]

My friend and I did something like what you propose (selling services and working on a product). It was hard and slowed us down a lot.

Consulting work is a business all to itself. Tacking a startup on top of that just complicates matters. Got a family? Well, you won’t see them much.

If I were in the same situation, I’d keep my day job and spend my spare time working on the product. This approach would cover living expenses, compartmentalize my tasks, and allow me to put all of my non-job hours into the product.

Like you, we tried to start our company the “right” way. That too was a mistake. If I had it to do over again, I’d skip the lawyers and accountants and just try to make a product people wanted to buy.

If you can achieve product-market fit, funding and all of the business stuff can get sorted out reasonably easily.