Ask HN: Should i quit?

[throawaylife]

tldr; 23K € in the bank, minimal living expenses. 3-5 years runway. Should i quit my non-developer job now, and start working on a not-yet-conceived SaaS business or at least seek a developer job abroad? Or should i weather it out until i have something definitive going in parallel to my job?

Much more info here: http://pastie.org/private/fgdermsyhgjemx2otmwbpq

[mtmail]

Note, that you might not qualify for unemployment benefits if you left your employer voluntarily, which leaves social benefits. To get those you probably have to disclose any money you have on bank accounts. The job/employment office also forces you to actively look for a new job (go to interviews, maybe interview trainings, explain why you didn't take another lower-paying job they offered you, etc). Depending on country of course. You talk about severance. I thought that is only paid during larger lay-offs (if the company wants you to resign).

One option might be to look for a paid internship as developer in a company. The company I worked for has done that. You'd have to accept a lower salary, basically start at entry-level, for 6-12 months. It will give you contacts and experience in the field you want to work in.

[throawaylife]

All valid points, thanks.

In my case, it would be possible to arrange my resignation to appear as a lay off. Currently there are no eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits other than how long one has been employed.

Severance, at least here, is paid as long as one is laid off and has been working for the same company for a number of years. So, i would be getting some for sure, but i am also owed a few salaries so that would be a significant chunk of money in my bank as well (~5K). Severance could be another 4~8K.

A paid internship would be very interesting, unfortunately there are no programming/web dev jobs locally. At least not advertised. Even if there were, i'm not sure i would like to work on an anachronistic tech stack, which would most likely be the case. Food for thought though...

[chadkruse]

Don't underestimate the anxiety that monetary stress will bring if you don't win the SaaS startup lottery in your anticipated time frame (in my experience the rule that it always takes twice as long and requires twice as much money as expected holds true). I commented on a similar post on how I dealt with it when I left the cushy corporate tech world 12 years ago:

Note: I had more savings and it's easier to find a tech job in the US than the PIGS, so adjust the numbers a bit per your situation.

> Thought I'd share a simple budgeting tool I used to help alleviate/delay the inevitable monetary stress. I first decided how much of my savings I was willing to spend on the sabbatical. I then divided that amount into three buckets. The first was small and was my fun bucket (I think mine was b/w $3-$5k). I worked my ass off and it was time to have a little fun. The second bucket is the oh-shit-its-time-to-get-a-real-job-again bucket. I assumed it would take me at most 3 months to find the right job, so this bucket equated to 3 months living expenses. That leaves the remainder for your "core" second bucket. When I was spending from this bucket I never once thought about what I'd do AFTER the sabbatical because I knew I had that covered financially. I simply focused on the sabbatical itself and had an amazing experience.

https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=8053243&whence=item%3f...

[throawaylife]

> Don't underestimate the anxiety that monetary stress will bring if you don't win the SaaS startup lottery in your anticipated time frame (in my experience the rule that it always takes twice as long and requires twice as much money as expected holds true).

Thank you. I'd imagine my anxiety could very well be worse if things were tanking. On the other hand, i feel a sabbatical would greatly benefit my mental health. But the next step, after the sabbatical, would be uncertain.

[dandruffhead]

I was roughly in the same position as you couple of months ago. I was working in the banking industry for almost 2 years, but always had a thing for IT (start learning programming when I was 13+ but made a mistake when choosing career). What I did was I start planning for 6 months, and in those 6 months I try to improve my CS theory for interview purposes and start doing personal projects (finished projects, something tangible that you can show). The projects should have some sort of complexity just for the sake of telling the interviewer that you are capable of doing/learning whatever that you are applying for.

I don't have much of a saving at that time, roughly 4-5 months worth of saving and I did one freelance job at that time. I quit without having another job in line. It takes courage and some stupidity to be honest haha but I've got through and managed to secure couple of dev jobs. It depends on you, for the SaaS part I prefer to have some thing going first and quit my job as I've seen friends who've done that quit, and only start after that and failed. I prefer to have things going first and quit. Note that in my country, economic is alright and people are hiring so might want to take that into account as well.

[throawaylife]

> What I did was I start planning for 6 months, and in those 6 months I try to improve my CS theory for interview purposes and start doing personal projects (finished projects, something tangible that you can show). The projects should have some sort of complexity just for the sake of telling the interviewer that you are capable of doing/learning whatever that you are applying for.

Interesting, thanks.

[PaulHoule]

If you have trouble with anxiety and depression you should consider getting treatment.

The natural thing to do is get exercise. You should get the equivalent of at least an hour a day of intense cardio. Military organizations make soldiers do it because it helps them cope with the stress of being in a war zone, which is worse than whatever you are experiencing.

Another thing to do is to get into a "support group" of some kind. This isn't necessarily formal, but if you want to become an internet entrepreneurs you should be regularly meeting with developers, hustlers, or anybody who can help you get perspective.

Finally there are the SSRIs and related drugs. These actually work when used properly. Used properly means your doc intelligently selects one for you, you keep in touch with your doc to make sure you get the right dose, and if it doesn't work, you get something else.

Try these things BEFORE you quit because your SaaS business may increase your stress level even more.

[wise_young_man]

I've seen two of these in Ask HN in the past week. I just want to say it's not as easy as building a SaaS and then customers will come knocking at the door to hand their giant stack of cash. We've been working on it or 5 months and are just now getting traction and we are in an established space. Marketing and getting people to sign up has been the toughest part of it all even with better/more features and easier to setup. Just something to be thinking about from our experience.

Even living frugally (I've been doing the same), that seems like a very long runway with the modest burn rate. I think ultimately you should figure out what will make you happy and go with your instincts. Some people are happy being employees for most of their lives while others such as myself have the entrepreneurial fire always eating at them and can't be satisfied in corporate environments.

[throawaylife]

Thank you for your insight.

Building a profitable SaaS is very, very difficult, and can be soul crushing, i am aware of this (that's why i find people like @patio11 very special). On the other hand, working at a dead end job can be equally soul-crushing.

> ultimately you should figure out what will make you happy and go with your instincts

I'm slowly driven towards the same conclusion, but it's easier said than done. Stepping outside the salaryman nest, especially when jobs aren't easy to come by locally, let alone paying well, is scary.

[sameernoorani]

Really depends on your personal situation. 23K goes away pretty fast especially in non-funded ventures. But then again, doing something in parallel rarely takes off.

Ask yourself: - How much do I stand to gain (whats your share of equity) - Who will seed fund the venture (23K is not going to be enough to live and fund even your prelaunch activities) - How quickly will you make your first sale. Better yet can you book pre-sales. This leaves you with a much cleaner milestone/deadline. In that case you can take some unpaid leave instead of quitting and see if you can hit that milestone.

[hpagey]

Find customers first, atleast 10 paying ones. These customers should be non related (no family, friends, close contacts). Then you can declare some sort of product market fit. Depending on your market, this could take anywhere between 3 months to 2 years. Once you have had you have to concentrate on building a repeatable sales process. If you are non developer trying selling first and building later, and don't leave your job until you have some confidence in product/market fit.

[Seb86]

A "developer job abroad" may be just as bad and soul crushing as the job you have now, even though it may pay more money; so be careful about that.

Quit the job, go travel around, stay in youth hostels, make friends etc. Find a country ( or even better, a city in your own country ) that you like. Have a good time. Most important is to make friends though.

[sharemywin]

I would wait until you have something worth quitting for. Not sure why your not looking for a developer job if you can develop though. or start freelancing at night until you have some good skills and contacts for a business.

[mknappen]

Work on your project on the side AND take that developer job abroad.

A SaaS can take years to build to a point where you can even get in to see a real, live seed or angel investor. Live now and keep coding for your future.

[NameNickHN]

Being the cautious type, I myself would reduce working time and start developing in my spare time until I have something to show potential customers.

[Alex-Galapagos]

do it while you're working..