How to Start A Start-Up & Still Feed Your Family

I did exactly this to start RevBoss — with a wife that is a stay-at-home-mom to our two kids, a mortgage, a yard, a dog, a white picket fence, etc.

Here’s how:

Build a business…then a start-up.

After the first SaaS company that I started went sideways and eventually imploded, I knew that I wanted to start another SaaS company. :)

My family responsibilities meant that I couldn’t just jump off the cliff, so I made a plan to build a business that I could turn into a software company. My wife was pregnant with our 2nd when the process started — and she’s now pregnant with our 3rd! — so the stakes were pretty high from the start.

I parted ways with a previous company that I co-founded and immediately spun up a few consulting gigs. I turned those gigs into a very full book of business — much of which was focused on lead gen. I turned the consulting work into a boutique lead gen agency and started building software. Eventually we built enough software to begin the process of turning the agency into a SaaS company. We closed a $1.1M seed round a few months ago and we’re on our way.

To be honest, this approach has slowed our time to market in some respects…but it made fundraising much easier in that I had already proven to have a sustainable business that was ready to make the jump. Bootstrapping a small services company also made me a better manager.

Prioritize cash.

I worked like hell during the consulting days — basically grabbing as much cash as I could. This bought runway, boosted my confidence, and mitigated the financial stress question, which in turn gave my wife confidence that I wasn’t completely crazy. My financial stress is actually way higher now (and my salary way lower) now that we’ve raised capital.

Manage your personal burn rate.

Aside from a few luxuries — mostly good food/wine and good preschools for our kids — my family lives fairly modestly. This made it easier for me to cover our monthly burn…which made it easier for me to keep the process moving forward. I actually used a big chunk of the cash I earned while consulting to get (fairly small) student and auto loans off my balance sheet, which lowered my monthly family expenses by several hundred dollars per month.

Go all in.

I skimmed a few of the responses to this question and disagree with the “work on the side” and “keep your day job for as long as you can” advice. You’re either in or you’re out.

If you can’t bring yourself to quit your job and jump in with both feet — even if you have to jump a couple times through a process like I did — then don’t do it.