Ask HN: How to validate start up idea whilst employed?

• wundergraph

  108 2,159 9.3 TypeScript

  WunderGraph is a Backend for Frontend Framework to optimize frontend, fullstack and backend developer workflows through API Composition.

  

I've built WunderGraph (https://wundergraph.com) as a side project until it was ready for real "startup mode". I've asked my employer to give me an IP exclusion for the project in writing. Then I dedicated 1-2 hours in the morning and maybe at night as well on the weekend, depending on my energy level.

I've developed the product until it had a certain maturity. I've then onboarded two co-founders who also helped part-time. One helped with marketing, one with develoent. I've found them through YC cofounder match and the dev from GitHub OSS projects. Together, we've landed our first paying customer. With a few more leads in the pipeline, we were able to start the fundraising process.

We then slowly transitioned from side project to full time. The complete team is now full time for 2 months and we're very happy how things are going.

I can say that it was a damn struggle to get all this up and running with 2 young kids and without ruining the family. I'm thankful that my wife is very supportive. It's weird when your partner accepts that you work 3 hours per day on the weekend while the kids sleep. But there was no other way. It needed to be done. Of you really believe in what you do, it's possible, even with a family. If you have questions, please ask.

• balanced-employee-ip-agreement

  7 2,116 0.0

  GitHub's employee intellectual property agreement, open sourced and reusable

  

[2] https://github.com/github/balanced-employee-ip-agreement/blo...

• WorkOS

  workos.com sponsored

  The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  

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