if you retired early from your primary career to start your own business, curious to hear your experience

[Anonymous]

I'm 57 and have about $6M saved. No debts. One child, just starting high school. My spouse doesn't work.

I'm considering leaving my job to pursue an idea I've had for the last several years. This would involve the development of a web app that I have partially constructed, but which I have been unable to complete due to time constraints. With more time, I think I could finish development inside of 6 to 12 months and then begin to market it.

I'm aware that the odds are against me given that many new businesses fail -- so the prudent course of action is to stick with my current job.

If others have found themselves in a similar position and have decided to plunge into the unknown, I'm curious to hear a bit about your experience.

[Anonymous]

For a web design project, are you doing the programming or only working through the design/storytelling? What helped me was having students at a state flagship evaluate and provide an objective critique.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a web design project, are you doing the programming or only working through the design/storytelling? What helped me was having students at a state flagship evaluate and provide an objective critique.

OP here. I'm doing all of the work myself.

I'm uneasy about sharing the idea with others (outside of family and close friends), but I see the value in the approach you used.

[Anonymous]

Started the business then moved away from my primary career once the business yielded multiples of my corporate salary at a fraction of the time. Took a out 2-3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Started the business then moved away from my primary career once the business yielded multiples of my corporate salary at a fraction of the time. Took an out 2-3 years.

This is the best answer when you're 57, a SAH spouse and a kid still in school, especially if your 6M is in the stock market. I would get to the other side of any near term correction we might have. By then, hopefully your idea has turned into a business.

[Anonymous]

You could use an AI coding agent and have a working prototype finished by the end of this weekend (and yes, I use AI extensively for dev work). Depending on your idea, you could have a beta out to the public next week. If an AI skeptic, you still have ability to review the code line by line if you wish. In other words, I wouldn't leave your primary career given this new dynamic. Particularly since it'll be next to impossible to get back in this job market at your age.

[Anonymous]

#1 in your situation is health insurance. Your wife doesn't work. kid in HS. You're 57 and wife is presumably comparable age. Where is your health insurance coming from? It's shockingly expensive if self-funding.

I would not be giving up any kind of excellent health coverage at 57.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a web design project, are you doing the programming or only working through the design/storytelling? What helped me was having students at a state flagship evaluate and provide an objective critique.

OP here. I'm doing all of the work myself.

I'm uneasy about sharing the idea with others (outside of family and close friends), but I see the value in the approach you used.

Get over that fear. Anyone can copy an idea and any investor will tell you this. Your idea isn’t your competitive advantage - your background, connections, experience, etc is. And if you don’t have a competitive moat that drives the commercialization of the idea compared to anyone else, then it’s not a good idea to commercialize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 57 and have about $6M saved. No debts. One child, just starting high school. My spouse doesn't work.

I'm considering leaving my job to pursue an idea I've had for the last several years. This would involve the development of a web app that I have partially constructed, but which I have been unable to complete due to time constraints. With more time, I think I could finish development inside of 6 to 12 months and then begin to market it.

I'm aware that the odds are against me given that many new businesses fail -- so the prudent course of action is to stick with my current job.

If others have found themselves in a similar position and have decided to plunge into the unknown, I'm curious to hear a bit about your experience.

I did (thanks to DOGE). It's not been long but it's a mixed bag. If you're doing everything right, the costs to start up are $$$$. It's a bit absurd, actually (in VA, at least). They nickel and dime over everything. And everything needs a paper/cert.

I have some business but it's really, really hard w/o a steady stream of referrals. And so far, that' hasn't happened. I hate the marketing/networking part of this so that is a problem.

That said, it's interesting and I like the work. Like working for myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could use an AI coding agent and have a working prototype finished by the end of this weekend (and yes, I use AI extensively for dev work). Depending on your idea, you could have a beta out to the public next week. If an AI skeptic, you still have ability to review the code line by line if you wish. In other words, I wouldn't leave your primary career given this new dynamic. Particularly since it'll be next to impossible to get back in this job market at your age.

OP here. I have leaned an AI a bit. It is a helpful assistant and it speeds up the development process. But it isn't enabling me to move at light speed. With its help, I'm now moving at about 60 mph instead of 30 mph, but I still have 1000 miles ahead of me to arrive at the finish line.
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The idea arrangement for me would be to shift from full-time to part-time work with my current employer, but I'm unsure if this is a viable option. I think there is a risk that my employer would feel that I'm not sufficiently committed, and would perhaps begin searching for somebody to replace me.

[Anonymous]

If you're able to cut your hours at work to be part time and still earn benefits I think that's your best bet. I'm 56 and left a position that was overwhelming about a year ago, because I was working such long hours I felt I was missing my kids grow up. In retrospect, I wish I had changed positions rather than quit, but I am actively looking for a part time position now. The biggest challenge I think is finding a position that doesn't turn into doing a full time job on a part time salary. I would likely work a set schedule like Mon-Wed to avoid it creeping into all my time off.

In the meantime I have a small business doing garden design and coaching. I really don't earn much considering all the time I put into it, but it is always in the black and we can get good tax deductions from the business expenses. My profit is maybe $20k/yr and it's very seasonal. I'm hoping to find a part time job with benefits so I can still take on a limited amount of garden projects in the spring and fall, but have steady employment year round. We have about $3M in retirement/brokerage accounts and my spouse still works full time and we get health insurance from his business which he owns (but the insurance is EXPENSIVE esp since it comes out of his business). If I worked part time, realistically I might earn $60-75k...not a major difference, but if I could get employer provided health insurance that would be great. We would live on DH's salary and my income would be used almost entirely towards paying down our mortgage and continued retirement savings, plus covering one family summer vacation.

[Anonymous]

Business coach here. Your development timeline is too long. Get AI to do some vibe-coding for you. Keep your FT job and be ready to work nights and weekends to transition this to your full time. Right now you're pre-revenue.

Get comfortable with sharing some version of the idea with others. You have start building the story around it. At a minimum do a lean business plan, 1 page.

If you can, join a get to market tech accelerator. I think there's an AARP grant for older tech founders. You have a good niche, just find finding that aligns. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Is the idea something to do with your education/career or that anyone could do easily?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the idea something to do with your education/career or that anyone could do easily?

OP here. I considered working on an app related to my career, but the idea I'm pursuing is related to one of my personal interests/hobbies, as opposed to my career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Business coach here. Your development timeline is too long. Get AI to do some vibe-coding for you. Keep your FT job and be ready to work nights and weekends to transition this to your full time. Right now you're pre-revenue.

Get comfortable with sharing some version of the idea with others. You have start building the story around it. At a minimum do a lean business plan, 1 page.

If you can, join a get to market tech accelerator. I think there's an AARP grant for older tech founders. You have a good niche, just find finding that aligns. Good luck!

I’m a tech entrepreneur who took VC , built a company and then sold it 2 years ago.

I’m going to hard agree with the above. Don’t build out every last feature and then try to sell it. You can spend weeks or months or years going down a rabbit hole. Build a working prototype (or even a non working prototype) test it with potential customers, and then iterate from there. It can be as simple as a wireframe. The other term for this is an MVP (minimum viable product).