hexdevs

#21 Why Michael Lynch Quit Google to Work for Himself as a Solo Founder

Feb 16, 2021

Meet Michael Lynch, a former software engineer at Google turned solo founder and blogger. He shares insights on his course to hit the front page of Hacker News, the journey to financial independence, and the impact of going solo. Discover the concept of early retirement, managing expenses, and the challenges of starting a bootstrapping business. Learn from his experiences and get inspired to take control of your career and financial future.

43:17

Creator website

Episode guests

Michael Lynch

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Michael Lynch launched a course called 'Hit the Front Page of Hacker News' that teaches strategies for getting blog posts featured on the site and covers topics like choosing the right topics and improving writing skills.

Michael Lynch discusses his pursuit of financial independence and the freedom it provides to work on projects driven by interest rather than financial obligations.

Deep dives

Michael Lynch's course on hitting the front page of Hacker News

Michael Lynch, a former software engineer at Google, has recently launched a course called 'Hit the Front Page of Hacker News.' The course teaches strategies for getting blog posts featured on Hacker News and covers topics such as choosing the right topics, improving writing skills, and handling failed submissions. Michael's own success in getting 80% of his blog posts on the front page, with 4 reaching the number one slot, has attributed to his business's success. The course offers valuable insights for bloggers looking to increase traffic and improve their writing.

Introduction

2min

Creating and Selling the First Course

5min

Going Solo as a Founder and the Journey to Financial Independence

6min

Discovering Mr. Money Mustache and the 4% Rule for Retirement

2min

Managing Expenses for Financial Independence

26min

Advice for Starting a Bootstrapping Business

3min

Michael Lynch is a software developer and blogger. He used to work as a software engineer at Google, but he decided to quit and now he's a solo founder, and blogs about his experience.

He's recently launched the course Hit the Front Page of Hacker News. The course teaches everything he has learned about Hacker News after getting many of his original blog posts to hit the front page. It covers the site's unique culture, how to choose topics, improve your writing, and what to do if your submission fails.

We also talked about going solo founder, and his financial independence journey.

Highlights

00:00 Intro
00:41 Who is Michael Lynch?
01:58 Hit the Front Page of Hacker News
03:04 Courses vs e-books
04:00 How many copies were sold
05:04 Beta-testing the course before launch day
07:19 Financial Independence and becoming an entrepreneur
08:16 Financial Independence and travelling
09:16 The shock of going back to a normal job
11:08 Planning for Financial Independence by building a business
12:37 Mr. Money Mustache, the 4% rule and Early Retirement
14:16 How much you make vs How much you save
14:33 What does he want to do when he retires early?
15:12 Life expenses and business expenses
15:49 Negotiating a big salary at Google by getting multiple job offers
18:30 Financial choices in your 20's and the optimum strategy
23:05 A good salary for boring work isn't fun
25:56 Bootstrapping is very different than the startup life
26:48 Having freedom and control over the direction of your product/business
28:40 Prioritizing and evaluating business ideas
31:05 How to do market research
32:57 Lessons after quitting Google: content strategy, marketing, and distribution
36:59 Keep yourself motivated and don't put too much pressure on yourself
39:49 Advice to anyone who wants to quit their job and start a business
42:36 Final remarks