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Thanks HN: Goodbye, Golden Handcuffs (updated)

11 points by jriley ↗ HN
History: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1960437

Update... Week 0: Agonized over computer purchase. Server? Laptop? Mac? Cheap?

Weeks 1 & 2: Traveled South America with the girl (15 flights, 12 days).

Week 3: Enjoyed my free time. Groceries, library trips, cooking, running, plotting.

…Enter Luck…

Week 4: Handed a lead from mentor. Suddenly I’m up at 1:30am drafting my first contract. Family loans me $12k.

Week 5: First wire arrives. So busy packing forget to celebrate. Storm sends a tree through my car. Hop on a flight to Central America.

Week 6: Crash course in project management. Technology stress. People arrive, time disappears. Cancel flight home. Business officially profitable; eat PB&J anyway.

Week 7: Hire 12th employee. Team exceeds expectations, client happy. Just packed bag for morning flight home. Project stable.

Favorite part is decisions about my team. Today I built a training station and allow 30 minutes a day to pursue certifications. On Monday I’ve got a lead for more work in the US; in a month the team will need it. Might visit NASA for fun Tuesday, who knows.

Reflections: -Successful people like to help others start -Bid high -Humbling amount of work -Reputation gets work -More luck, less productivity than I imagined

9 comments

[ 1.2 ms ] story [ 32.6 ms ] thread
olegious
What business did you end up launching?
jriley
Don't want to give away the farm yet.. I'll say broadly it's professional services. It's an obscure niche full of NDAs, a culmination of my past jobs in different industries. Will share more as I can. Sorry for lack of specifics.
nandemo
You hired 12 employees within 2 months?!
jriley
Yes (thus the delay in my response). I hired in two groups between weeks 5 and 7, and have since had 1 person leave. One of the employees is a manager.

FWIW, in Corporate America the most people I managed was 4 contractors. I'm aware of an entrepreneur in another state who has ramped to 500+ employees in less than a year.. that's way too fast for my style.

edge17
always love a good story. are you in sf bay?
jriley
Based in Austin, TX... if anyone's around for SXSW I'd be happy to meet up.
mychacho
You're doing contract work from Costa Ric?
Mz
Thanks for sharing the update! Perhaps scrolling the screen up and down a few zillion times will serve as a virtual means to rub up against you and hopefully have some of the "luck"* rub off on me. I've also been enjoying stuff on Violent Acres (clicky: http://www.violentacres.com/ -- also tripped across via HN just yesterday). Somewhere on there, she talks about voluntarily going homeless so she could pay off her credit card debt. Such stories are encouraging to hear at the moment, given how much I would like to just walk away from my current situation.

Peace and good journey.

* that you clearly made for yourself.