This sounds like what Phil Knight did in Shoe Dogs...haha. This is good advice. I have traveled to Iceland, China, and I'm going to Europe this summer. Granted those were more like vacations than long term travel. Thanks for the exception comment, I know this statistically, but I also know I'm so far behind some people on HN, /r/personalfinance, and indie hackers. I know, I know... Comparison is the thief of joy. I'm living, I guess I just want more. I want to work on something I'm truly passionate about and be great.
just to add an extension to this "outside the box" idea:
with the exception of a few countries, being abroad is so much cheaper than the US.
if you plan to move to eastern europe or southeast asia, you will literally triple your runway - with $60k we're talking 5 years to succeed instead of 2.
getting out of your comfort zone will spark more creativity as well (just like shoe dog, great book btw)
if you know you want to do entrepreneurship, why consider anything else? with enough iterations, as long as you're learning and cycling quickly, you will eventually succeed.
Smart. It's more than a job though, since you're effectively investing in building relationships within an eco-system.
Certain paths make more sense in NYC; if you're selling into finance or publishing. If you're wanting to do a venture funded startup (or raise investor capital). Adtech is probably stronger there too.
Others make sense in low cost markets; bootstrapping a product for middle America. Stay cheap for that.
Pick your long term path then pick your environment.
If you post your email / contact info on your profile, I can reach out with some ideas. I work in NYC and happy to connect you with people depending on your interest areas / skillset.
Either through your network or do some freelancing. If you go the freelancing route you'll have the extra benefit of having a relatively straightforward way of developing other business skills you'll need like sales. Just be sure not to let it take up all your time if you're going for a different business model :)
Also, my idea is to onboard small businesses slowly. Maybe, adopting and building out features/tools for one business at a time. Until the project is more completed and I can focus on scaling the onboarding.
The problem isn't onboarding. The problem is that without a pool of users, the site is worthless to businesses. The fundamental question you have to answer is -- assume you can friends and family a couple businesses, fine -- why does business 7 pay you money, or even do anything at all for you? Or business 8, or 9, or 10...
Small businesses are barraged with calls from vendors like you.
Well it's not that black and white. Can op make the application/business appealing as a single sided marketplace to begin with? Maybe. If there is 1 side that can find value without having the other side onboard then there you go. Doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Still hard, but just address the challenges as they come.
op, take a couple months to build your product (considering this is a CRUD-like app) and then face the distribution problem.
I learned a lot in the process. If I ever try anything like this again I'm going to focus on validating or rejecting the idea as quickly and cheaply as possible. There are some good resources online on ways to do this.
I think this is good advice. I should think things through more...
Also, I am willing to take a pay cut if I can work on my idea, instead of working for something else. I don't need a million dollars haha.
Right now, I would be happy if I got something that pays me half as much as I used to make. Heck, if it only brought in $1,000/mo for a while I would be happy with that.
