Ask HN: Part-time jobs to fund my startup?
I am starting a startup, i cant keep working on my fulltime job because it takes too much time and it sucks. I need a part-time job in order to spend more time on the startup. What are some suggestions?
9 comments
Honestly the best ROI for part time work would probably be specialized high paid freelancing gigs.
I was able to get freelance gigs on upwork for $85/hr as a relatively inexperienced developer a few years back.
I was able to get freelance gigs on upwork for $85/hr as a relatively inexperienced developer a few years back.
Do you need money to fund your startup or have a roof over your head? There’s a difference.
If it’s the second:
Harsh, but whatever you can get. Take care of yourself before your product.
If it’s the first:
As a founder, you want to build towards your first paying customer. Would it be great to have angel investors in friends and family? Yes, but you need a path to profitability. Every hour you spend working a job is an hour you’re more fatigued, following something you’re not passionate about, and not building a product. I think I can answer this question better with some idea of how much money you need, but this is the best I can offer as of now.
If it’s the second:
Harsh, but whatever you can get. Take care of yourself before your product.
If it’s the first:
As a founder, you want to build towards your first paying customer. Would it be great to have angel investors in friends and family? Yes, but you need a path to profitability. Every hour you spend working a job is an hour you’re more fatigued, following something you’re not passionate about, and not building a product. I think I can answer this question better with some idea of how much money you need, but this is the best I can offer as of now.
If you have some capital set aside, you may be able to find some additional profit from technical trading of crypto.
Always manage risk, but I've seen HN types manage impressive gains this way. Even if you earned an average 1% a week while short-term trading on $10K capital as bitcoin channels sideways or broadly down, that'd be an extra $400 a month for which you wouldn't have to be working for anyone but yourself. On top of that, the experience and any unused funds can be applied forward for an acceleration of profits over time.
The practice is accessible and a lot of helpful technical trading lessons can be learned within a matter of weeks or months. It's easier in many ways than the stock market, where a baroque layering of various conditions like deadlines, splits, earnings, and other variables must be figured into trading.
Always protect your capital, set stops, notifications, etc. but IMO there's a lot of profit to be found if you have some amount of capital set aside, and it comes at no cost to you except as relates to your chosen risk threshold. (You can never lose what you don't risk)
Just an idea, I wish I had started doing this myself years ago. Good luck and I hope the startup works out well for you also.
Always manage risk, but I've seen HN types manage impressive gains this way. Even if you earned an average 1% a week while short-term trading on $10K capital as bitcoin channels sideways or broadly down, that'd be an extra $400 a month for which you wouldn't have to be working for anyone but yourself. On top of that, the experience and any unused funds can be applied forward for an acceleration of profits over time.
The practice is accessible and a lot of helpful technical trading lessons can be learned within a matter of weeks or months. It's easier in many ways than the stock market, where a baroque layering of various conditions like deadlines, splits, earnings, and other variables must be figured into trading.
Always protect your capital, set stops, notifications, etc. but IMO there's a lot of profit to be found if you have some amount of capital set aside, and it comes at no cost to you except as relates to your chosen risk threshold. (You can never lose what you don't risk)
Just an idea, I wish I had started doing this myself years ago. Good luck and I hope the startup works out well for you also.
Interesting! Any suggestions for where to start?
Good Q, I started a while ago and brought in technical lessons from trading stocks, but lately I've seen some really great technical videos on Youtube channels like Chart Champions and Crypto Mobster. I know the former covers key concepts like support and resistance levels.
I've also seen CM cover things like BTC Dominance, which is important if you're going to play attention to transitions like BTC to ETH to Altcoins, which is important to understand as the market action seems to abandon your favorite coin and moves on to another asset.
I really don't know how those two Youtube channels rank or what might be better, but take a look and I'm sure you'll learn some interesting stuff. Again, I can't express this enough--protect your capital, set stops, set notifications. If you lose 15% you'll have to earn more than 15% to make it back. If you lose 2% and get stopped out, that's a much easier problem to solve if you are monitoring price resistance and breakthroughs on the high end.
I have also made a lot of good trades using technical concepts like the golden cross, three green soldiers, bull hammer, shooting star, bull pennant, bullish wedge, bull flag, double bottom, inverse head and shoulders, cup w/ handle, etc. You can look these all up for helpful picture-tutorials on your favorite image search engine.
I've also seen CM cover things like BTC Dominance, which is important if you're going to play attention to transitions like BTC to ETH to Altcoins, which is important to understand as the market action seems to abandon your favorite coin and moves on to another asset.
I really don't know how those two Youtube channels rank or what might be better, but take a look and I'm sure you'll learn some interesting stuff. Again, I can't express this enough--protect your capital, set stops, set notifications. If you lose 15% you'll have to earn more than 15% to make it back. If you lose 2% and get stopped out, that's a much easier problem to solve if you are monitoring price resistance and breakthroughs on the high end.
I have also made a lot of good trades using technical concepts like the golden cross, three green soldiers, bull hammer, shooting star, bull pennant, bullish wedge, bull flag, double bottom, inverse head and shoulders, cup w/ handle, etc. You can look these all up for helpful picture-tutorials on your favorite image search engine.
In fact the startup is an offchain peer to peer protocol for crypto transactions between hardware wallets. I am finishing up the whitepaper this weekend, I can share it with you?
Sounds way above my level but go for it!
I do have some capital on the side but I am super short on time at the moment. So you do trade altcoins? Which ones are you referring to?
The time factor is tough. Alts are fine. I trade primarily technicals so I scout positions and entry/exit points rather than coins themselves. If that makes sense. It's pretty transient. If you want to make profit while you sleep on a coin, I'd look for low and sideways positions on quality projects when you can.
This weekend a lot of the alts are at higher positions and there's lots of optimism, so it may be better to wait until there's more fear and then cost-average into a long hold position, effectively buying low.
This weekend a lot of the alts are at higher positions and there's lots of optimism, so it may be better to wait until there's more fear and then cost-average into a long hold position, effectively buying low.
Well I am following altcoins that are in my area of expertise, which are stablecoins. I did a project last year that didnt work out but basically it was similar to Ampleforth. I also follow Reserve Protocol, Basis Cash, Empty Set Dollar. I wanted to write an algo to trade them but I dont have the time atm
That's cool that you're deep into the tech and actively creating, wishing you the best of luck with the startup.
Although I haven't started a company, if you're actually going to start green and not be seeking venture capital or a position at an incubator, save up about a year's worth of expenses before you start. That seems to be the amount of runway it takes for somebody to decide whether they're going to get other types of traction
If you can do part-time work through a contract broker then that's probably in your best interest. Contract brokers are companies with business models like like toptal. The real hurdle is finding companies to apply with should be mitigated by the network you sign on to.
If you can do part-time work through a contract broker then that's probably in your best interest. Contract brokers are companies with business models like like toptal. The real hurdle is finding companies to apply with should be mitigated by the network you sign on to.
Defer your startup for few more months.
Continue working at your full time job, reduce your expenses and save as much as possible. Look for consulting/ contract/ part time after hour work while working at full time job.
Once you have enough savings to not rely on part time work to support while working at startup AND you already have enough extra paid “after hour” work and built such connections, quit full time job and focus on your startup. Continue taking contract/part time work.
Continue working at your full time job, reduce your expenses and save as much as possible. Look for consulting/ contract/ part time after hour work while working at full time job.
Once you have enough savings to not rely on part time work to support while working at startup AND you already have enough extra paid “after hour” work and built such connections, quit full time job and focus on your startup. Continue taking contract/part time work.
I am not a programmer unfortunately, my fulltime job is in tech sales but I was outright lied to about the role before joining. At the moment I am doing the fulltime job, while jobhunting for other full time tech sales positions, while also working on getting the startup off the ground, while my cofounder also has a full-time job and another project he is working on.
I've heard good things about night shift security guard. You basically work the evening shift 6pm - midnight, 6pm - 2am, etc. You can get jobs where you basically look at a monitor with camera displays and walk around once per hour or so.
The benefit is you can write, code, etc on your personal computer during that shift if nothing is going on.
Not all security jobs are like it. But I know a guy who's written multiple books this way.
The benefit is you can write, code, etc on your personal computer during that shift if nothing is going on.
Not all security jobs are like it. But I know a guy who's written multiple books this way.
Save as much money as you can. In the first 6 months you won’t see an ROI but you still have bills to pay.
An alternative is use part of your salary to let other people work.
Do consulting project to pay bills while you work on startup
An alternative is use part of your salary to let other people work.
Do consulting project to pay bills while you work on startup
Acquire a spouse with a stable income.
That wont work as I am sponsoring her green card now
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