Other posts in this series:
This is the second time I work on a product (*). The first time we didn’t even release anything, but we learned a lot. This time is different in a lot of ways. This time I am alone. I’ll try to release as early as possible. And I will try to be as open as possible about what I do - by writing about it here, on my blog. I don’t know if I’ll succeed this time, but I am pretty sure that I can go back to freelancing if I run out of money. This is the first posting in a (hopefully long) series about my current project.
The beginning - 6 years ago
I always wanted to create stuff. And I always wanted to create a successful company. And then, in late 2005 Rene Pirringer (one of the most talented software developers I know) and I had a plan how it would work: We would get some seed money, start a company and work on a product.
In early 2006 it was clear that we would not get the seed money. We decided to start the company anyway. We would do consulting until there was enough money to work on our products. This is how ciqua was born.
ciqua was - and still is - a very successful (albeit very small) company, we just never released a product. So in 2011 I left because Rene and I had decided that it would be easier to do the consulting and freelancing as 2 independent freelancers. I still wanted to work on products, so I was working on some very small side projects when I had time. Some nice stuff emerged from that, but nothing too serious.
Startups in Linz
Just about a year ago I met Reinhard Nowak. He told me that he was working on an idea for a startup (now, a year later, I interviewed him about his startup). Through him I realized that there are quite a few startups here in or near Linz. Linz is not exactly a startup hub like Berlin or London, but it’s not bad here either.
He also told me that there are several ways to raise money here in Austria. You can get seed funding from government agencies. You can get money for doing research. And there are private investors and business angels too.
In the past weeks I have been collecting ideas, alone and together with others. There was one particular idea I really liked, so I kept refining it for a few weeks. I also implemented some small proof of concept prototypes, but I did not have much time for that. I will talk more about the idea in a future blog post, when the first prototype is online.
And now, as of last week, my previous large (almost full time) freelancing contract ended. So I decided to start. I have not secured seed financing yet but I have some money. And as I said before, when I run out of money I am pretty sure that I can go back to freelancing. I have some runway left and I am sure I can create something useful during that time. And I then I hope that I’ll earn some money because of the great product I created :)
So what's next?
In the next few weeks I will try to get out a first (alpha) version as quickly as possilbe. Most of the time I will work from home, but for a few days per week I plan to work at Daxbau, a co-working space here in Linz.
In the coming weeks I’ll keep you up to date here on my blog, on Twitter and on Google+. I hope you’ll stay tuned - You can do so by subscribing the RSS feed of this blog or by following me on Twitter and Google+ - Just use the links at the bottom of this page.
(*) Or the fourth time if you count gclimbing and scribblingspree, but I never really intended to make money from these projects.
