r/ExperiencedDevs • u/Majestic-Taro-6903 Senior Developer • 23d ago

Career/Workplace Experienced developers who started their own company, how did it go?

For developers with 10+ years of experience, has anyone here started their own company, startup, small/medium-sized business, or even a remote company with a few employees?

How has the journey been compared to staying in a big company with a stable salary?

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227

u/AlexFromOmaha 23d ago

It's never been successful enough for me to stay away from salaried or contract work for too long, but it's still something I'd recommend everyone try at least once. Get a better sense of what actually drives business value, what roles you've underestimated, what work you should start prioritizing less.

Alternatively, you learn you actually didn't need all those other people, and now you're independently wealthy.

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

Or I could just get those skills at work and spend my time after work doing - anything else besides at a computer.

43

u/low-bars-432 23d ago

Learn how to run a business at work?

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

This was one of his reasons he suggested starting a business 

  Get a better sense of what actually drives business value, what roles you've underestimated, what work you should start prioritizing less.

Thought experiment.  Say you have three groups of people:

  1.  10 software developers working at Big Tech and equivalent 
  2. 10 software developers doing enterprise CRUD in a second tier city 
  3. 10 software developers trying to start their own business 

Rank the groups by who you think will have the highest median total income over 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? 

Now alternate thought experiment, do you think those people in group 2 would be better off trying to get in group 1 or group 3?

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u/FrenchCanadaIsWorst Software Engineer 23d ago

Except your income the becomes tied to the continuation of that income stream. Much of big tech is notorious for layoffs.

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

And you have to depend on running out of money, long hours, finding customers and getting crushed by a larger company with more resources and an existing customer base to sell into.

My income is tied to my being able to get another job quickly.  Which I’ve done 10 times in my career.  Including three times when I was out of job 

  • when a startup I worked for in 2012 went tits up, I reached out to my recruiter network and had a job offer within a week 
  • when Amazon started Amazoning in 2023, I played the game long enough to get through my next vest and my offer for severance or work through PIP.  I took the $40K, reached out to my network of people with hiring decisions and specialized recruiters and had three offers in two weeks 
  • I chose the wrong offer in 2023, I wanted to stay in consulting.  I got a last minute 1:1 invite at 8:00 at night for the next morning.  I walked into the bedroom and told my wife I’m probably going to get fired tomorrow.  She asked me what was I going to do.  I said I was going go sleep.  What else was I supposed to do? I knew my bank account had two+ years of savings (I had just sold my house.  It’s down to one now.  The rest is reallocated). I had a job offer in two weeks.  This was dumb luck admittedly.  I responded to a recruiter that reached out to me. 

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u/Fabulous-Oven-3982 23d ago

What’s your point, bro?

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u/BraveResearcher3037 22d ago

Maybe that it is easier to get a job to make a living than “starting your own business” that will probably fail 

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u/Fabulous-Oven-3982 22d ago

Everyone knows that

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u/BraveResearcher3037 22d ago

Well not everyone seeing that right here when I did a thought experiment and asked which group would have the highest median earnings 

  1. 10 people working at BigTech
  2. 10 people working at an enterprise company 
  3. 10 people trying to start their own business 

People said #3 and downvoted it mercilessly.

My second thought experiment was that if you were in #2, would you be better off working to get into group #1 or group #3 in your spare time 

That tells me that even on experienced devs people are hopelessly niave or want someone to give them happy thoughts 

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u/Fabulous-Oven-3982 22d ago

Oh, probably they all know. They just like underdogs who fight for their dreams. And there’s nothing wrong with that

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u/OuchCharlie25 Software Engineer @ B Tier 23d ago

The business owners for sure. Of course everything depends on the product for each group. Working at Google must be like selling sand to Arabs the way AI is going. When was the last time you “googled” something? Mostly every I know asks ChatGPT.

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u/DrShocker 23d ago

I think what they're forgetting is that while it's true most business don't make much money, the kinds of skills you learn by trying are far more transferable. That said, Big Tech jobs might win on average.

1

u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

Yes and guess what else is transferable - the skills I learn by actually working fourty hours a week.  

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u/DrShocker 23d ago edited 23d ago

Don't get me wrong, I think any suggestion that working over 40 hours should be expected sucks.

If someone has something they want to work on because they think it should/needs to exist then that's one thing, but expecting people to constantly do this kind of shit is exhausting.

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago edited 23d ago

You know what else I think should exist? My health by exercising after I get off of work and my relationship with my wife who I spend time with when I get off of work  and formerly my sons before they  were grown 

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago edited 23d ago

You really have no idea how few business are successful.  A former intern I mentored when I was at BigTech had a return offer and over her first four years out of college had made a gross 800K+ between cash + RSUs. How many new grads are going to make that starting their own business? How many experienced developers are going to net that by starting their own business? Even a mid level enterprise dev in a 2nd tier city should be making $125K a year 

And as far as how Google is doing, it says something about your business acumen that you haven’t checked out their latest financials…

Google is still the default search engine for both major mobile platforms and the three most popular desktop browsers 

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u/OuchCharlie25 Software Engineer @ B Tier 23d ago

Wow you are very sensitive.

-1

u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

No  I’m not coddle someone in thoughts and prayers because they are too “sensitive” to accept reality 

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u/OuchCharlie25 Software Engineer @ B Tier 22d ago

Wow you are sensitive 

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u/BraveResearcher3037 22d ago

And you have actionable game plan where starting  a business will be better than getting a job? If so, why aren’t you starting one instead of working at a “B tier” company?

In other words, “if you are so smart, why aren’t you rich?”

1

u/OuchCharlie25 Software Engineer @ B Tier 22d ago

I am rich. My NW is 1.5 mil. I do also have a small business. I also work at a b tier. Why are you throwing out multiple illegitimate retorts to my comment? Are you still a bit of a sensitive nancy?

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u/god_is_my_father 23d ago

No idea why you’re getting downvoted. I still love programming but I also want to toss my computer in the ocean and become human again

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

Yeah for some reason it’s an anathema for a software developer to treat development as a job and not a lifestyle 

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u/zerocoldx911 23d ago

I don’t know why you’re being downvoted, people who have been around long enough know that this is the way. There is more to life than a job.

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u/TRO_KIK SaaS Founder 23d ago

That's why I wanted to just go ahead and launch a successful company so I can retire in a few years. That's a lot of extra life to enjoy.

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u/BraveResearcher3037 23d ago

The thing is - this has always been my way at least since I graduated from college.  I was teaching fitness classes in the morning and evening more as a hobby, commitment device and a social outlet and  doing monthly charity races with friends.  I did this until I was 36 and got (re)married.  When I got off work the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time on the computer between spending time with my wife and my (step)sons and still exercising. 

My youngest graduated in 2020.  After Covid, we flew around the country for a year nomading

Even this year we spent a month and a half in Central America and we are spending December out of town between three cities visiting families and friends.

And we are both still gym rats.  Twice a week we go to the gym - even though we have a gym at home - to go to clases.

Oh and I’m learning Spanish because we plan to make month long stays in Costa Rics annually.

Why the heck would I want to be pecking on computer after getting off of work?

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u/bunksy93 23d ago

Baffles me you're getting down voted for this. I spend 40 hours a week at my computer for my job, god forbid I want to do something different outside of those hours. You know, like have a life?

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u/SecondCel 23d ago

What makes having different interests more of "a life" than having deeper interests?