Developer to Entrepreneur: The Uncharted Path

Entrepreneur.

It's either orange Lamborghinis and the three-comma club... or risking it all, losing everything, and having to start over, right?

Like anything, the extremes tend to get all the attention. But here, the extremes are polarizing. The upside might be so attractive that to some, it's worth risking it all... or the downside might be so fear-inducing that for others, it prevents any risk at all. 

Even the definition of entrepreneur feels heavy: 

a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Here's the thing, though... as developers, we have an insane skillset that allows us an opportunity that is frankly unfair. 

Entrepreneurs outside of tech often have to coordinate fundraising, massive expenses in both labor and equipment, and delivering value to customers. But, in tech, as devs? We just need a laptop and internet. 

We get to dream up something that doesn't yet exist and manifest it into existence by typing on the keyboard. What?! 

But what about the rest of the stuff involved in running a business? The market analysis? The marketing? The sales? The leadership?

The Shift in Mindset: Coders vs. Creators

Remember the times we got the tests to go green after a refactor? Or what about setting up the infrastructure just right so that it seamlessly scaled in and out based on traffic demands? Or when the interaction animation felt just right?

You already know the challenges in piecing together a complex puzzle. Trying different things. Checking the fit. Changing the approach if something doesn't work. As an entrepreneur, the size of the puzzle just becomes a bit bigger and the pieces are a bit different. But the mindset is pretty similar!

Challenges: It's Not Just About Debugging Anymore

What about that market analysis thing? It's a fancy term that effectively means, "Do you have a customer?"

More formally, an analyst would look at a market and identify the gaps, understand customer needs, and position your product just right.

For you, you're just looking for a customer. One. Someone who validates that the value you provide is worth compensation. That customer might be you, solving your own problem! It might be Susan next door who needs an easy way to manage her sprinklers from her phone. It might be Raj on the other side of the planet who needs a way to automate his pizza oven. It might even be every developer in the world who needs yet another app launcher. 

And financials. Yes. You need to be frugal. That's it. Are you bringing in more than you're spending? Great! If you're running the show yourself by yourself, that's really all you need to know.

Budgeting, fundraising, profit and loss, forecasting. They're important if you decide to scale up & out... and it can get really weird, really quick with EBITA, revenue recognition, depreciation, on and on. You don't need to deal with this up-front. Get that first customer!

Oof, and hiring a team... Yea. But, as a developer, you probably don't need to hire until after you want to. Once you decide to scale, make sure you hire the right talent, nurture the team, and manage conflicts effectively. We can stay small if we want to!

Overall, it's possible to reduce the risk to near zero and the downside might even be just some lost time. And even then, you know what? You learned something. Chalk it up to active learning, and you get a portfolio piece!

Skill Development: Wearing the Many Hats

This is the core win for me. Many hats allow for the multidimensionality that keeps the path interesting.

Leadership: On the typical path, we'd have to figure out how to build authority and "lead from below." After years, we might get an opportunity to be in a leadership position on anything. When you're running the show, you get to choose. And the feedback cycle is very quick. Tons of opportunity to learn.

Networking: Connect with customers. Do a great job. Their networks will magically open up to you. The normal advice I hear is, "Go chat up industry leaders, potential investors, and mentors." Okay. That's super vague, how would someone do that? If you're operating under the premise of a business, the conversations with potential clients become much easier to reason about and navigate successfully. 

Decision-making: Sometimes, it's on a tightrope. With limited data and looming deadlines that YOU promised a client, you get to make choices that can make (or set back) your little business. Reflecting on your decisions and learning from the good and the, let's say, not-so-good gives you an immense amount of experience that you wouldn't get otherwise!

Sales & Marketing & everything else outside of dev: From pitching your idea to promoting your products, you get to learn a little bit about everything. This allows you to hold your own in conversations with other departments and have a ton more empathy toward their challenges. 

Resilience: All that opportunity for skill development means that you'll suck at a whole lot of new stuff! How cool is that? It comes with learning anything new. Embrace the suck. Work through the suck. On the other side? You'll get to be good at a whole lot of things and great at a few. 

Tips to Navigate the Waters

Continuous Learning: You're already doing this if you're taking your career seriously. Just like learning more about programming and keeping up with advancements in our stack, entrepreneurship requires its own set of continuous learning. Books, courses, seminars – the arsenal is vast. The resources are endless for the curious.

Stay Passionate: Remember that spark that led you down this path? Hold onto it. It’s your north star during the darkest nights. And, give yourself a break. You've (hopefully) de-risked to the point where it's okay if you need to take a minute. Come on back to it when you've rested up.

Keep Coding: Even as you manage, lead, and create, take time to dive back into code. It keeps you connected, grounded, and after all, it's where it all began. Careful not to hide here, though. It's easy fool yourself into believing that "if you build it, they will come." If you're not careful, it'll be another one of those lessons learned the hard way that builds up your resilience.

Build in public: Communicate your challenges and successes. It's amazing to see a community that self-organizes around folks who share their learnings.

Find a Mentor or Mastermind group: Find someone or some folks who've been there, done that. Their insights will be invaluable. Don't even pretend to delegate your responsibility, though. On the entrepreneurial path, the buck stops with you.

The Entrepreneurial Voyage

This transition might seem like a leap of faith, but look: every line of code you ever wrote was a step towards this. Those challenges you faced, the bugs you squashed, and the projects you brought to life – they were all part of the training ground.

From passion projects to side hustles, and now to entrepreneurship, the path has been winding, exhilarating, and sometimes covered by hurdles. But we've always been problem solvers, and this? This is just another challenge.

Being a tech entrepreneur isn't about leaving coding behind. It's about leveraging it, amplifying it, and weaving it into your business.

The compass might have a mind of its own at times, the maps might be blurry, but the destination? It's worth the challenge.

Find the rhythm and balance. Have fun with it.