Jason Fried of 37 Signals likes the side business idea.
At SxSW a few weeks ago I spoke about starting a side business instead of quitting your job. Build something on the side. Give it a go and see what happens. If there’s something there, then take it to the next step.
It’s hard to point to a business that launched huge and has been successful. Most of the big winners in our industry started really small and grew big over time. eBay, Craigslist, Yahoo, Google — these were all started on the side. They weren’t funded up, hyped up, and launched huge. They started really small and grew organically.
The beauty of starting a side business is that you can fail in obscurity. Many people worry that they’ll languish in obscurity. Don’t worry about having a great idea that no one knows about. Worry about having a bad idea that everyone knows about.