I had a feeling like that ~6 years ago, took the plunge and failed (with the tiny startup idea that I had).
The only damage this might cause you is that you'd not be accumulating any new money (or there will be less of it, when working part time) during that time. Other than that, it has many more positives than negatives: you will appear as more of a "doer", someone who can think outside of you narrow tech area of work, and you'll also have a stories to tell of how you failed or succeeded. And if that itch is strong enough, you will take take more chances like that and will in those later attempts worry less as you'll know it'll be alright. :)
Just make sure how you will fund the time you are trying to start a business, discuss with people who need to be onboard with this, and also plan the date/time you will start entering the job market should things not work out.
This experience is exactly what I wanted to hear about. I'm working on building up enough runway to make sure I'm not homeless but I wasn't sure if there would be long term effects to my earning potential. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of roles did you take when you re-entered the corporate world?
I'm an software developer so I would have generally looked at the same area of roles.
What specifically happened though was that as I didn't pull it off with my SaaS idea during the time I had planned, so after about ~10 months I got a part time job as a developer, to continue working on the project on the side. Eventually I lost motivation though and went full time again. But had I not taken the "part-time + continue with project" route, the better idea would have been to move slightly up in career, try be an architect, team lead, etc., as planning work was what I had needed to do for my SaaS anyway, and this angle would have made sense for the hypothetical recruiting companies as well.
Perhaps there are corners in the corporate world where they look down at people who have a "tried to start their own business" section in the CV, but in my experience these are few (and you likely wouldn't want to work there anyway).
Comments
I had a feeling like that ~6 years ago, took the plunge and failed (with the tiny startup idea that I had).
The only damage this might cause you is that you'd not be accumulating any new money (or there will be less of it, when working part time) during that time. Other than that, it has many more positives than negatives: you will appear as more of a "doer", someone who can think outside of you narrow tech area of work, and you'll also have a stories to tell of how you failed or succeeded. And if that itch is strong enough, you will take take more chances like that and will in those later attempts worry less as you'll know it'll be alright. :)
Just make sure how you will fund the time you are trying to start a business, discuss with people who need to be onboard with this, and also plan the date/time you will start entering the job market should things not work out.
This experience is exactly what I wanted to hear about. I'm working on building up enough runway to make sure I'm not homeless but I wasn't sure if there would be long term effects to my earning potential. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of roles did you take when you re-entered the corporate world?
I'm an software developer so I would have generally looked at the same area of roles.
What specifically happened though was that as I didn't pull it off with my SaaS idea during the time I had planned, so after about ~10 months I got a part time job as a developer, to continue working on the project on the side. Eventually I lost motivation though and went full time again. But had I not taken the "part-time + continue with project" route, the better idea would have been to move slightly up in career, try be an architect, team lead, etc., as planning work was what I had needed to do for my SaaS anyway, and this angle would have made sense for the hypothetical recruiting companies as well.
Perhaps there are corners in the corporate world where they look down at people who have a "tried to start their own business" section in the CV, but in my experience these are few (and you likely wouldn't want to work there anyway).