For those who are moonlighting to launch a startup while having a full time job:
1/ It’s a legitimate way of starting a new startup; Fubu’s founder worked at a restaurant not just when he was launching Fubu, but until year 5 or 6, well past Fubu’s initial success
2/ That being said, you should know it’s impossibly difficult to launch a successful new startup as a side job. It’s insanely difficult to launch a successful startup, period – but it’s even more difficult when you can work only 20-30 hours per week max on the project (You think you can put in more than 30 hours? Remember, 30 hours = 3 hours every day M-F, plus 15 hours in the weekend)
3/ By the way 20-30 hours is only possible when you’re single. If you have a young family, forget about it. You’re already full time moonlighting
4/ Typically the goal is to build an MVP and find PMF before jumping ship and working full time. You can do this, but only for certain types of businesses. Many types of businesses require outbound sales or active user engagement, which are very difficult to do while you’re working full time. You may have a great idea but still may get nowhere because you couldn’t fully execute on it – and you might conclude your idea wasn’t good
5/ It would also be very difficult to raise money — most investors won’t write a check when the founders are still employed full time
6/ The best outcome could be conviction. If you do enough experimentation and develop rock solid conviction about your idea as a result, becoming absolutely certain about what you’ll build for the next 5-10 years, that alone would be a huge win – a lot of new startups waste valuable time early in their lifecycle pivoting
7/ When you have a full conviction, plan for when (not if) you and your team will start working full time on the idea. You may not be able to work full time on your startup idea just yet, for various reasons (such as personal runway etc); just know it is very possible that some other teams might be working full time, 80-100 hours per week, on exactly the same idea as yours. It’s all about the speed