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Ask HN: Side Projects and Startups

6 points by amjd ↗ HN
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. How do you differentiate between a side project and a startup? What blurs the line between them? How do you decide when to turn a side project into a startup?

These days everyone and their grandmother is starting up. I am fascinated by the field myself but I don't want to do it just because it's cool. I like building stuff but I feel it might be overkill to consider each idea as 'the one'.

I'd love know what the HN community has to say on the subject. Did anyone of you ever face the same dilemma?

9 comments

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phantom_oracle
A side project is exactly that. It isn't about making a full-time commitment.

A startup would normally be associated with full-time commitment (especially tech startups).

I would rank the main difference on the time commitment.

jaegerpicker
Yes and no, I have a regular full time job and then a startup that I work on in off hours. I put in full time hours but it's not my full time job. I still consider it to be a startup.
phantom_oracle
I suppose each case can be as unique as yours, generally though, people put in less than the 40 hours (or more) their job takes for side projects.

I've also seen a lot of people carry multiple side projects too (kind of reminds me of a pool of assets).

amjd
Assuming I'm ready to commit to it (nearly) full time, what factors would I look for before deciding it's safe to jump ship (from my current job or whatever)?
IndieDevClub
As Paul Graham says Startup = Growth. If you think your project has a large enough market and can acquire users exponentially then it could be a startup.

On the other hand if you need to do a lot of work to acquire more users or it's in a small niche, then it can't scale and wouldn't be a startup. What's interesting is you can turn a side project into a startup. You just have to figure out how to scale. That's why Paul Graham says to do things that don't scale. The hard part is making something people want. If you figure that out, there might be some way to scale it.

This week I'm trying to put together a club where people can discuss their side projects and early-stage startups. It's called Indie Developer Club. If anyone is interested see my profile for the link.

amjd
Good point. I believe growth is one of the most important factors. Though in many cases one wouldn't have a clear idea about it as the idea might change over time (think WhatsApp).
Mankhool
My side project just went into closed beta, so do I get to refer to it as a startup now? I think I will. I'm validating it with my inner circle and after a bit more dev will be in open beta for more validation and tweaking. PS: All my entrepreneurial pursuits in life have been "side projects" and will remain so until one gets some traction.
amjd
That is exactly the kind of confusion I was having.

Do you mind sharing what your startup is about? How much time do you spend on it in a week?

Mankhool
Hi Amjad, it's a platform for geo-location based intelligence gathering. I have a job that affords me lots of free time while I'm at work so I probably spend 10-12 hours a week on it right now. While I wait for my dev to be free again I've built a landing page, blog, and have been ordering books on Amazon and doing a lot of reading - oh and thinking about who I might like to ask to be on my BOD.