Ask HN: Laid-off product teams – why not build something together?
With the Amazon layoffs, a lot of strong PMs, designers, and engineers are suddenly free (unless you are on visa). Instead of job hunting alone, why not form small teams to build and launch samething?
This resonates deeply. I'm actually doing exactly this—though solo rather than with a team. Left corporate to build a scheduling tool (think Calendly alternative) that's launching on Product Hunt soon.
A few observations from this journey:
1. The hardest part isn't building—it's finding the discipline to ship something "good enough" rather than perfect. Corporate trained me to over-polish.
2. Distribution is BRUTAL. You can build something genuinely useful, but without an audience or marketing chops, you're shouting into the void. I'm learning this the hard way.
3. The skillset mismatch is real. Big tech teaches you to work within massive systems with established users. Indie building is the opposite—you're creating systems AND finding users simultaneously.
For those considering this: Start building in public NOW. The audience you build while employed becomes your launchpad when you go solo.
Curious—for those who've done Product Hunt launches: what actually worked for you? I'm seeing so much conflicting advice about timing, pre-launch strategies, etc.
Because even if you do have the talent, it’s a lot easier to get your feature/product out to millions when you have both the weight of Amazon behind you and existing customers.
Besides anyone can build a product. The hard part is obtaining customers. Too many people especially on HN seem to suffer from survivorship bias not realizing that nine out of 10 out right fail and many of the “successful” ones end up having a lot lower returns than someone can make as an entry level developer in a second tier city.
On the other hand, I’ve been on the interviewer side of the table enough times at smaller companies and software developers who have spent their careers in BigTech often don’t have the skillset we need and wouldn’t know what to do with an empty AWS account and new repository.
Probably because those are completely different skill sets from raising capital, finding product market fit, and launching a new product as a startup without megacorp capital and marketing behind you.
I'm not laid-off and currently in big tech, but I come from a scrappy start-up background. Let me tell you, I hate big tech and I know I'm just doing it for the money. Would be happy to build something as a side hustle.
I left my company to build and launch. It is hard to find people who can actually work through the mess of an initial product and finding product market fit.
I think it's a partially mentality and a skillset mismatch between corporate and start ups
A few observations from this journey:
1. The hardest part isn't building—it's finding the discipline to ship something "good enough" rather than perfect. Corporate trained me to over-polish.
2. Distribution is BRUTAL. You can build something genuinely useful, but without an audience or marketing chops, you're shouting into the void. I'm learning this the hard way.
3. The skillset mismatch is real. Big tech teaches you to work within massive systems with established users. Indie building is the opposite—you're creating systems AND finding users simultaneously.
For those considering this: Start building in public NOW. The audience you build while employed becomes your launchpad when you go solo.
Curious—for those who've done Product Hunt launches: what actually worked for you? I'm seeing so much conflicting advice about timing, pre-launch strategies, etc.
Besides anyone can build a product. The hard part is obtaining customers. Too many people especially on HN seem to suffer from survivorship bias not realizing that nine out of 10 out right fail and many of the “successful” ones end up having a lot lower returns than someone can make as an entry level developer in a second tier city.
On the other hand, I’ve been on the interviewer side of the table enough times at smaller companies and software developers who have spent their careers in BigTech often don’t have the skillset we need and wouldn’t know what to do with an empty AWS account and new repository.
I did my stint at AWS ProServe from 2020-2023.
I think it's a partially mentality and a skillset mismatch between corporate and start ups