[itake]

I spent about 2 years doing something similar.

I found a startup that couldn't afford a full time dev, but needed someone to keep the lights on and ship a feature or two per week while they looked for customers and fundraised.

I worked 15-20 hours per week for them. Their work actually was the foundation of my day. If I _just_ work on my startup, I tend to spend time going to the gym, relaxing, and socializing instead of actually working. Their 7am meetings helped me get up and get started.

They paid $100+/hr or ($7,200/mo pre-tax), which was more than I needed for my lifestyle.

One word of caution though is that if your startup fails, you are knee-capping your career. The 2 years I spent freelancing put me 2 years behind my peers that jumped directly into big tech companies. Meaning I was 1-2 levels below them and I missed some of the equity surge in 2021-2022.