Hi Caroline, I attempted to do customer development while working full time and managing a two month old child. I got very little done, but enough to see hints that there was a market worth capturing. Those hints led me to quit my job to devote myself (and small team by this stage) to customer development, after which I got masses done in a short space of time. Unfortunately, this full time cust dev ended up with me realising that the market+tech wasn't ready, and my team wasn't ideal, so I wrapped things up.
If I had that time again, I'd have stuck with the job for longer, and done more of the cust dev while employed. I'd try not to let a desire to leave the job and do a startup distract from critically analysing the feedback I was getting from people. As for how; I'd push to go part time 3-4 days a week. I'd try to be hyper-organised ahead of "startup day(s)" by having the list of people to call/meet sorted out beforehand, and force myself to have made the first cold-call by 8:30am. I'd call people in Perth/New Zealand/overseas markets to make use of timezone differences. I'd make sure only to team up with people who would demonstrate their commitment rather than just promise it. After that, I agree with Elias that when you're actually aiming to secure a customer (rather than just work out if they exist), you need to be working on the startup full time. And if after all that you find out there's no viable market, then do what I did and leverage the new network you've established to get a better job anyway... :-) Hope that helps, Tom On 28 October 2012 07:51, Caroline Gordon <carolinegordon...@gmail.com>wrote: > Anyone out there dreaming / doing a startup around a fulltime job. I > suspect there are a bunch of people on this list in that position ;-) > Just looking for inspiration, I'm coming to the conclusion that customer > development is next to impossible. You can play around and build a few > things but to asking if anyone has truly engaged with customers out of > regular hours (and around the 'rest' of their lives ;-) > > Ideas? > > Caroline > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > To post to this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
