This resonates deeply. I'm actually doing exactly this—though solo rather than with a team. Left corporate to build a scheduling tool (think Calendly alternative) that's launching on Product Hunt soon.
A few observations from this journey:
1. The hardest part isn't building—it's finding the discipline to ship something "good enough" rather than perfect. Corporate trained me to over-polish.
2. Distribution is BRUTAL. You can build something genuinely useful, but without an audience or marketing chops, you're shouting into the void. I'm learning this the hard way.
3. The skillset mismatch is real. Big tech teaches you to work within massive systems with established users. Indie building is the opposite—you're creating systems AND finding users simultaneously.
For those considering this: Start building in public NOW. The audience you build while employed becomes your launchpad when you go solo.
Curious—for those who've done Product Hunt launches: what actually worked for you? I'm seeing so much conflicting advice about timing, pre-launch strategies, etc.
The most brutal part of distribution I've seen is finding people who care about trying things out.
Maybe something like https://smallbets.com is better than Product Hunt in finding that group of people. PH doesn't allow signups with only a username/email and password.
I'm starting to believe a different community is needed for building in public that isn't HN or PH though it might be smallbets, I didn't try it.
It worked for me to be highly uncompromising on what I want to have while at the same time highly accommodating to what people want. Also to indulge in things I like that others don't.
Another thing that worked in the past is to have a mobile app because it gets you users simply because the app store puts it in front of people.
What didn't work is emailing people asking for feedback. People mostly don't care.
I want a showhn.com where builders commit to try each other's stuff.
Because even if you do have the talent, it’s a lot easier to get your feature/product out to millions when you have both the weight of Amazon behind you and existing customers.
Besides anyone can build a product. The hard part is obtaining customers. Too many people especially on HN seem to suffer from survivorship bias not realizing that nine out of 10 out right fail and many of the “successful” ones end up having a lot lower returns than someone can make as an entry level developer in a second tier city.
On the other hand, I’ve been on the interviewer side of the table enough times at smaller companies and software developers who have spent their careers in BigTech often don’t have the skillset we need and wouldn’t know what to do with an empty AWS account and new repository.
Probably because those are completely different skill sets from raising capital, finding product market fit, and launching a new product as a startup without megacorp capital and marketing behind you.
Because most people need money now or now-ish. Building, deploying, marketing, and gaining market share take a lot of time and aren't even guaranteed. You need someone to pay the team until you have 1 million+ in revenue per year to cover the equivalent of their salary and benefits.
I'm not laid-off and currently in big tech, but I come from a scrappy start-up background. Let me tell you, I hate big tech and I know I'm just doing it for the money. Would be happy to build something as a side hustle.
I left my company to build and launch. It is hard to find people who can actually work through the mess of an initial product and finding product market fit.
I think it's a partially mentality and a skillset mismatch between corporate and start ups
This resonates deeply. I'm actually doing exactly this—though solo rather than with a team. Left corporate to build a scheduling tool (think Calendly alternative) that's launching on Product Hunt soon.
A few observations from this journey:
1. The hardest part isn't building—it's finding the discipline to ship something "good enough" rather than perfect. Corporate trained me to over-polish.
2. Distribution is BRUTAL. You can build something genuinely useful, but without an audience or marketing chops, you're shouting into the void. I'm learning this the hard way.
3. The skillset mismatch is real. Big tech teaches you to work within massive systems with established users. Indie building is the opposite—you're creating systems AND finding users simultaneously.
For those considering this: Start building in public NOW. The audience you build while employed becomes your launchpad when you go solo.
Curious—for those who've done Product Hunt launches: what actually worked for you? I'm seeing so much conflicting advice about timing, pre-launch strategies, etc.
The most brutal part of distribution I've seen is finding people who care about trying things out.
Maybe something like https://smallbets.com is better than Product Hunt in finding that group of people. PH doesn't allow signups with only a username/email and password.
I'm starting to believe a different community is needed for building in public that isn't HN or PH though it might be smallbets, I didn't try it.
It worked for me to be highly uncompromising on what I want to have while at the same time highly accommodating to what people want. Also to indulge in things I like that others don't.
Another thing that worked in the past is to have a mobile app because it gets you users simply because the app store puts it in front of people.
What didn't work is emailing people asking for feedback. People mostly don't care.
I want a showhn.com where builders commit to try each other's stuff.
Because even if you do have the talent, it’s a lot easier to get your feature/product out to millions when you have both the weight of Amazon behind you and existing customers.
Besides anyone can build a product. The hard part is obtaining customers. Too many people especially on HN seem to suffer from survivorship bias not realizing that nine out of 10 out right fail and many of the “successful” ones end up having a lot lower returns than someone can make as an entry level developer in a second tier city.
On the other hand, I’ve been on the interviewer side of the table enough times at smaller companies and software developers who have spent their careers in BigTech often don’t have the skillset we need and wouldn’t know what to do with an empty AWS account and new repository.
I did my stint at AWS ProServe from 2020-2023.
I tried this but it did not go well.
The problem is that being unemployed and having no income puts you in a bad position to build something of value.
Another problem is that job hunting is very time intensive, even more so than a full time job.
A better alternative, at least for me, has been to go all in on finding the next job first and only then start working on building something.
Probably because those are completely different skill sets from raising capital, finding product market fit, and launching a new product as a startup without megacorp capital and marketing behind you.
An MVP of a new product can be launched in 1-2 weeks by a single developer. If it has a mobile app, I've seen it get 10,000+ users in 2 weeks.
And 99% of them die and whither in obscurity.
Because most people need money now or now-ish. Building, deploying, marketing, and gaining market share take a lot of time and aren't even guaranteed. You need someone to pay the team until you have 1 million+ in revenue per year to cover the equivalent of their salary and benefits.
I'm not laid-off and currently in big tech, but I come from a scrappy start-up background. Let me tell you, I hate big tech and I know I'm just doing it for the money. Would be happy to build something as a side hustle.
I left my company to build and launch. It is hard to find people who can actually work through the mess of an initial product and finding product market fit.
I think it's a partially mentality and a skillset mismatch between corporate and start ups