There are tons of blogs that tells you it rocks to be a developer or how special you are. I am going to spare you from that.
I just want to chime in on my experience on how to transition from working for "teh man" to have your own startup.
Stage #1: Save for the stormy days ahead
Rule number 1 is always have enough money in the piggy bank, to pay for rent, food and other expenses. Basically, the more you can save the more runway for you to launch your company. Ideally, you should save enough money to live off your savings for 2 years. There are always some kind of emergencies, so be prepared.
Some places like Hong Kong and Malaysia have some funny government grants and loans for "high tech" startups. I personally think these grants are curses, as I have never seen these companies actually gained tractions. Seriously, if you cannot bootstrap a startup yourself, you would not be able to make it with US$40,000 from some funny grant programmes anyway. But prove me wrong.
So in this stage, working for "teh man" is inevitable, besides you can learn some valuable skills and toolsets, whether it could be Microsoft, Java or iOS stuff. So, be proficient as you are mostly on-your-own in a start-up.
There are a lot of romantic Silicon Valley stories about bootstrapping a company from credit card. Either these are mostly outlies or they are made-up by some PR companies.
If you do moonlight as a pirate, you should keep pillaging some more ships. Start networking with some people for business opportunities and fun purpopses.
Stage #2: Getting ready to launch your tech company
Don't quit yet
It is probably a myth that you really have to quit your job in order to "commit 100%". That is really not necessary. All you have to do, is to spend 15 to 20 hours after work to start building your product, or consulting for some clients.
Idea time
Start planning for your own product, whether it is a big giant AI robot, iOS app, Android game or some enterprise product. You definitely want to get your idea and products validated if possible. That is another post.
Consulting
Now is also great time to start consulting for some clients. Start asking for consulting work from your network. Build a nice company website with excellent CSS frameworks like blueprint css. Start shipping _some_ apps to be your portfolio.
If you can finish an app for your client _alone_, you should probably be alright, otherwise, you should just probably forget the startup thing, and go back for paychecks until you have the chops.
Incorporating the company
You may consider to incorporate the company when you start getting tractions on your clients. USA (at Delaware) and Hong Kong are great places for developers to register your LLC or Limited. These 2 places also have great credit card gateways support, such as authorize.net, Stripe and the lesser known AsiaPay.
China is definitely a mess, so unless you think you have the energy to spend 3 to 6 months on it, don't bother. Adjust your business plan to collect money elsewhere from China if possible.
Number of co-founders?
Paul Graham's Y Combinator would recommend you to have at least 2 co-founders. I would agree with it, but do not afraid to start one if you think you have a great product anyway.
Stage #3: Going solo
You can consider to quit your job and go solo if:
- You are mentally prepared for a roller coaster ride
- You really have 2 years of cash in bank
- And have the complete support from your significant other(s).
- You have got your product prototyped
Consulting vs. Product
To stay afloat, you just need decide how much you want to split between "Consulting" and "Product" while having cash-flow positive.
Ideal case: You spend 0% of your time on Consulting, and 100% on Product. Your app got listed on AppStore frontpage, then company either cashed-out, get bought out and live happily ever after.
Of course, this is not likely to happen. Keep looking out for local opportunities on developing apps, especially during these period of sky-rocket growth period. US, Europe and East-Asia developer should avoid work from outsourcing site like ODesk. Your app startup could obviously undercut bigger players initially, with lower operating cost.
Office
If you are an app or web developer, trying not to have an office will be a great money saver initially. Your clients simply will not go to your place 99% of the time. Offer to go to their office, or meet at a Starbucks. If your work is good, they would not care where you pound the code out anyway.
Of course, office is a must if you start to hire. Do your best to find a quiet and convenience place obviously.
Practice makes perfect
New app startups would definitely inevitable sucks at shipping app at the beginning stage. Therefore, ships as many as 10 to 20 apps a year so you can to perfect your skills shipping apps.
Here is the part 1 of "Day Job" to "Consulting" to full "Product Company". Part 2 is all about product.
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