I just wanted to emphasise that while the employment situation isn't good, I'm more keen on actually starting a business thank moving to another job, unless something really challenging and exciting comes along. With that said though I would never quit my day job and lose that security until my product had paid me 1.5x annual salary. I'm in regional Victoria, but a commute to Melbourne isn't viable for me and all our family is out this way.
My opposition to seeking money is that I don't believe there is much of the way of angel investors in Australia, but my main opposition is taking an investment and then having a new boss to answer to. I don't want to chance getting into the same situation by answering to someone who really doesn't know what they're talking about.
With regards to inciting change.. I have tried for twelve months now, they can't be helped. It's not web design, its financial software - they use notepad for tracking bugs and excel for project management.
Lots of angel investors in Sydney mate, the startup scene here has really grown in the last 2-3 years especially, since we started our startup 3 years ago here. Lot of startup programs you can get involved with, like Startmate, pitch at SydStart, or take a look at BlueChilli. If you're serious you will have to come to Sydney for a little while though.
There are - I'm in New Zealand which is a similar but much, much smaller market. You'll need to travel - just as you would in rural New Zealand, you'll have to go where the investors are and meet them.
Wellington and Auckland are the big cities here - I assume Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane for you? Are there meetups in Adelaide? Go and ask questions!
If you're not in debt, maybe you can save a very minimum nest egg (1 month of expenses, whatever you need to find a job in case it fails), and go for it, since it looks that the worst case scenario is going back to a job that can't be much worse than where you are now.
I certainly agree with toyg's advice, if you believe in your project, then go for it. Also, your deadline might be artificial (I don't know what you're building), it's good to get an MVP out there fast, but not being first to market might not be a killer.
Have you even looked for investment? It's easy to believe there is no angel money around, because it doesn't fall into your lap.
An interesting exercise is to write down a list of the ten richest people you know, who would know you if you phoned them. (Ie, you could ring them up and they would know who you are). Often these are parents of friends or perhaps rich relatives, or maybe old work colleagues.
Then write down how much money you think they might be able to invest, and then sketch out a pitch for your idea.
At that point you could bottle it and never ask, or you could go further and actually make the pitch to some of them. You could be surprised at the result, but it would certainly help if you actually did come across a 'real' angel investor.
You make some fantastic points. I do need to spend more time with my family. The reason I am driving myself so hard at the moment is so I can get out of the bad job I am in. Bad circle, I know, but thanks so much for taking the time to write all that out.
The 2000 character limit removed the aim part... I just want to build a business for the sake of it. I want a good wage. I don't want to be a multimillionaire (but would be nice) - I just want security and the ability to work for myself.
With regards to making work more challenging in the day job, that's the problem. They aren't open to anything. It's all set in stone. Hell, I'm not even allowed to refactor or write unit tests. Unit tests here refer to manual testing checklists.
So curiosity is the primary motivation. You don't have to be first to market. That makes it easier, you can focus on making it better. Or just launch it now, you will get a different experience (e.g. Kickstarter or something). Breaking even and making money takes a long while, so you have to be able to fix the day job first.
Have you tried a lunch and learn to build up a case? Teaching people something new and answering questions is a different type of challenge and allows you to build some support to fix things that seem to be set in stone. Is there any way to do your day to day a different way? What about trying a new tool to record testing results?
I completely agree with you. When I burnt out about five years ago I was overweight and are crap. I'm on top of that - walk an hour each day (which I find almost meditative) and also don't eat fast food.
You're very right - i see the day job as holding me back from doing great things and a complete waste of time.
