Question for founders who have worked on a startup on top of a FT job

[gratefulnyc]

I’m currently a founder working on an AI SMS tool for businesses - the MVP’s fully built out, and my co-founder and I have been trying to sell over the last couple of months.

The problem is that both of us also have full time jobs (the WLB is okay, but we can’t really slack during the 9-5 time period and we also have to be in office most days). It feels extremely challenging to sell and really talk to customers when we’re unable to cold call or go out in person from mon-fri, and many of our potential customers base seem hard to reach on weekends.

Is it supposed to feel this hard? Startups alone are extremely difficult, and it just feels extra tough when we are unable to reach customers during normal times (9-5 on weekdays).

I know the obvious answer is to quit my FT job, but it’s honestly really scary to just drop my FT job without real traction or funding (maybe though if my risk tolerance isn’t high enough the startup space isn’t for me).

Would really appreciate any thoughts or advice

 

[john007]

@gratefulnyc My recommendation would be to define a point where you would feel comfortable going all-in. This could be via revenue, investment, or even just customer traction.

For example, make a plan to get to 100 paid customers who love your product and then quit once you get to that point. It'll still take a leap of faith but if you make a plan beforehand you'll have higher conviction. Or if you need a certain type of traction to raise, make that your goal.

 

[gratefulnyc]

@john007 This makes sense, I think part of my struggle is that I feel I can’t really get out there and sell (to gain traction) because of how I’m limited by my FT job

 

[siphosethu]

@gratefulnyc Can you have more of a PLG motion?

I’m also a founder with a 9-5, and just ruled out certain GTM motions because I also can’t really take calls during 9-5

• PLG / self-serve motion
• async sales (email, DMs)

Do you work east coast or west coast time?

 

[jamesc]

@gratefulnyc I’m in the same boat, also juggling a family. I built bannerbox.io on nights and weekends. I’m using cold email outreach to get customers. I’m using Apollo.io to scale my outreach. It’s not cheap if you want to do this at scale but I’m ok because I’m using money to supplement for not having enough time to do things manually.

 

[mikeydb]

@jamesc On mobile the site UI is broken

 

[jamesc]

@mikeydb Yeah the product doesn’t work on mobile. Try it on the desktop. Feedback?

 

[bj10]

@gratefulnyc Concentrate your efforts outside of your timezone and hope for the best

 

[rhemajoy]

@gratefulnyc Apart from scheduling cold emails ahead of time, I regularly attended after-hour events to meet new people. I also took time off work to attend events where I felt I could connect with people relevant to my startup's space.

 

[radiantjedichica]

@gratefulnyc Hire out the cold/warm outreach and demoing for $1,500-$2k a month + commissions. 1,000-2,000 calls a month. Hit me up if you need a referral.

 

[futantagenda]

@gratefulnyc Get a marketing person consultant/cofounder to take up the load.

 

[meki]

@gratefulnyc Priority 1: Family
Priority 2: Current Income
Priority 3: New Income

Make the switch when you have the runway to swap Priority 3 and 2.

Another thing to consider, direct customers are sugar, but agencies supporting customers can be just as sweet testing your product and exposing it to multiple customers at once.

 

[beastnate123]

@gratefulnyc You have income coming in, I'd agree in this climate it's scary to get rid of that to go FT but you've got to sacrifice something to move forward and you just get to choose what it is you sacrifice.

If it were me, I'd rather sacrifice an allocation of money on the below than my FT job at this point:

Why don't you and your co-founder allocate a sum you'd both be comfortable with putting towards hiring someone as fractional head of sales/partnership in a FT or contract position. Plenty of ways to additionally incentivize them - small amount of equity, commission on sales/closing quotas. So many good sales people are out of work right now from layoffs.

 

[acsula]

@gratefulnyc As other have said, you need to decide what metric will make it certain that you decide to quit the full time role I.e. x monthly revenue needed in order tl survive paying bills. This is very tricky especially if you have a family.

An idea could be: Find a fully remote or atleast a hybrid job, that's 3/4 days at home. Ideally this job is based upon goals rather than time so if you completed the jobs goals for the day quicker then you have more time to spend on your stratuo. In light of this, you could apply the method that people did during the pandemic of getting multiple jobs at the same time. Many did this by; 1) Getting a easier job i.e.. you are a senior developer, so you get a junior or standard level developer job. The interview will be easy for you and most importantly the tasks asked of you during the day whilst you are remote will take half the time that they allocate for you. Also make sure you do the job with only 75% of effort, do enough to be good at the role but not enough so that they demand more from you. This way you'll have lots of time during the day to spend on your startup, build the revenue, whilst you still receive a salary in preperation of switching to startup full time and quitting this job.

 

[philip8490]

@gratefulnyc I coach founders who are working on the startup full time and part time. Yes, the speed at which founders iterate differ, a lot. It's doable but have realistic expectations.

It also depends a lot on the ICP. If you are a consumer product and you don't mind grinding night and weekends, yes, you can make it happen.

If you need the financial security, keeping your day job is important. Getting startup off the ground is exhilarating and stressful enough. Don't add the unnecessary financial anxiety on top of it.