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Ever since the first unicorn tech companies started turning billions of dollars in profit and employing thousands of engineers, the number of software engineering employees with a dream to one day start their own company has been increasing rapidly. According to Stack Overflows developer survey, 25% of developers hope to be working as a founder or a co-founder of their own company in five years.
The reasons why developers like you want to start their own companies are many. Some of the most common reasons are:
Of course, one of the biggest reasons for starting a company is to be able to make a lot of money. While the average developer salary is higher than for many other professions, it rarely reaches the life changing levels that building a successful company can reach. Instead of trading time for money, you can use your skills to build a product and trade the value that the product brings your customers for money. If the product turns a profit and shows growth potential, there any many investors and other software companies who are looking for potential acquisitions. Note though that statistics say that most companies do not survive even their first year. Making a lot of money from starting a company is something that requires a lot of hard work and dedication.
Not having to go to an office or showing up to the daily standup call every day is something many developers dream about. Being able to have full control over your time can be good for your productivity as well. Some days you might be extremely productive and some days you might be stuck battling some issue. Or you get nothing done because of a day full of mandatory meetings. With your own company, you work when you feel like it.
Working as an employee means, in most cases, that you will be building what someone else wants you to build. There is always a CEO, a Product Manager or an Engineering Manager setting the goals for the team. Starting your own company means that you can build a product that you are truly passionate about instead of building someone elses vision.
In the end, developers love to build software. And they usually strong opinions and ideas on how great software should be built. Starting a business means full control over the technology stack used and the founders can be part of every technical decision made.
There are many ways a software developer can start their path to becoming a founder. In this section, we outline various ways that you can take to start a company as a software developer.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products such as X, Y and Z usually solve a business problem and charge a monthly or usage based fee. This is a proven business model that have backed many of the unicorn companies of today.
Arvid made a successful exit with his SaaS FeedbackPanda in 2019 and has since then reached further success with courses and books about building online companies.
Pieter founded NomadList.com - a site where remote and traveling developers can find others in the same situation. Today, Pieter is building a portfolio of products with a constantly increasing revenue.
Mobile apps can be a great source of income as a software entrepreneur. You can build an app that solves a very specific consumer problem and offer it either as a paid app or with a freemium model. Many solo founders run a portfolio of apps that constantly generate revenue with small but frequent transactions.
Sharing your skills, experiences and stories from the world of software is something that you can monetize. Many people today make their living creating content on platforms such as YouTube.
These YouTube creators make millions running their channels. Have a look at how they are doing it to see if it's something that you could do.
Joma Tech has almost two million followers and posts both comedic and informative videos with a focus on technology.
TechLead TechLead has over one million followers and posts videos on how to make money as well as satirical videos on various subjects. TechLead also runs a few different products focusing on helping people get a job in tech.
One of the easiest way to start your own company as a developer is to start consulting as a freelancer. This gives you an introduction to running your own company and everything it entails. It can also be easier to work part time as a consultant if you want to work on other projects in parallel.
An agency can be considered the next step after solo consulting. With an agency you have a chance to achieve a higher level of freedom if you delivery team is working for the client while you manage sales and requirements. You could potentially also have a greater say in the technology choices made in the project.
Any path of combination of the above paths can be your way to running your own business as a developer. You do not need to jump in with both feet though. There is always the possibility of testing ideas in parallel with a full time job or working part time while you are validating your idea. If you never take the first step, you will never experience the rollercoaster that founding a company can be.
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