[rubeng]

I built my startup while working full time at a corporate job. After a year and a half I quit because I was able to grow it to the point of where it was able to pay living expenses and support my family. Was it hard? Very. But there are many things you can do to make it easier for yourself.

Use your job to fund the building of your product. You rent your body out for 8 or 9 hours a day, make it work for you as much as possible and hire someone to write code while you work and sleep. This means you can spend your free time marketing (yes, before you launch) and you'll drastically increase your chances of success.

[kp212]

Just out of curiosity, did you let your employer know?

I read this a while ago:

http://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html

[rubeng]

I did not let my employer know. I understand that sometimes there can be risks from a legal perspective but given the context I felt the risk was extremely low. Plus, it was none of their business. I'm still blown away that in this country (US) people that work for others have to sometimes worry about their jobs going after them for what they do outside of that job. It honestly sickens me.

[polyfractal]

To be fair, it makes sense in some circumstances. Would you want your employees taking your algorithms, trade secrets, insider knowledge and networking contacts to build a competing business while you are paying them at the same time?