Is it better to be a founder, freelancer or employee? (Personally for you)
I'll be honest – I've never liked the feeling that someone "owns" me.
So being employed was very distant to me. [As if I had no power over my income.]
And being a founder gave me a greater sense of "ownership", but also responsibility. And, when things are not going well, and business is going poorly, you don't really want to be a founder in bad times. :D
Freelancing probably worked out best for me – delivering a service, while also protecting your income and time... although the time part is probably the most exhausting (sometimes the tasks are beyond my strength, and I have to make things up, no social & health insurance, chasing people with paying invoices, etc.). But despite that, it's still my choice.
What suits you the most, and what advantages/disadvantages have you noticed for your preferred choice?
Replies
CacheTray
personally a founder, becoming an employee is my nightmare
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@wenayy That's why we are trying so hard ;)
CraftBot
I have been both employed and founder. Honestly, I like both, the difference is and one point, I'm unsure what to do, and I am more comfortable at that time being told what to do. However, once I got a vision, I don't think I can ever go back to being employed until the vision is full filled.
The advantages for being employed is that you follow a schedule that is set to most of the people, where you get free time after work. While being a founder is much more intense (mentally and time-wise), but you get to be challenged by your own vision in a good way.
Freelancing sounds amazing from your description, would love to experience it someday. But I suppose freelancing and founder does share some characteristics.
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@tham_yikfoong I share your POV. I also sometimes feel like not having answers, and at that point, I would like to have some. And being told what to do is the easiest way. :) That's why I have so much respect for founders who somehow figured things out.
I think freelancing would be a better choice for me. It really helps you see what clients want, how they react, and the problems real businesses face every day. You get to solve those problems, and you're the boss, so you're the founder too. As a freelancer, I think providing services can help you transition to businesses and SaaS or digital products more easily, as you'll already know how and what to deliver. You can also get your first customers and reviews from previous clients. But it's pretty hard to manage everything as a solo person, so that's the biggest downside.
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@ahmad63 To become a productized service can be cool, but the condition is to have well-paying clients that can cover other members of your team, who will help you with tasks.
@busmark_w_nika That's exactly the challenge — getting to those well-paying clients first before you can even think about scaling. It feels like a chicken and egg problem early on. Did you have a moment where that shifted for you?
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@ahmad63 I do not have really :D
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@pranay19 I agree, it is about personal preferences and bandwidth we are able to carry.
For me it depends on the different stages of life, and what I am looking for at the time. For example, having perks and consistent income as an employee worked well when I wanted to focus on family time. Freelancing worked well when I had less responsibilities and concerns. Founder brought on longer hours and shifted responsibility to growing the business and managing people resources.
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@mrdavidtiong I rather think it is a lifestyle. Like yes, some roles are more suitable at the different stages but even employment can become unstable on the labour market (and when you have a family), it will become even harder .
@busmark_w_nika guess it's good to be flexible and see what works. I've found that these different roles have shaped who I am, allowed me to learn a wide range of skills, and given me the experience to pivot as needed during my working life
@busmark_w_nika Freelancing, but nobody warns you that freedom comes with chasing invoices and being your own safety net. Autonomy is worth it; exhaustion is just part of the deal.
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@vishal7017 I just need to make better management of it. Indeed.
Employee and then founder seems standard.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@zanc_zhao As a Freelancer, I am a rare pokemon then :D
There is a fourth path worth naming because it does not get talked about much: full-time employee in a specialist field plus a low-friction product or service on the side. I work in structured finance at Ørsted day to day, and the side track is a set of Excel financial model templates I publish on Eloquens. The economics aren't life-changing on their own, but the structure is. The day job gives me the deal context that makes the side product worth buying, and the side product forces me to stay sharp on things I would otherwise let drift after a deal closes.
The trade-off I see with the three you listed: employee gives stable income and the fastest learning curve in specialist fields, but the ceiling is set by your employer's appetite for promoting people. Freelancer hits the best income-per-hour at peak, but income volatility is real and the time tax on selling yourself and chasing invoices is invisible until you do it. Founder has the highest theoretical ceiling, but the downside is asymmetric — in the bad year the salary, the equity, and the self-image all hit the floor at once.
The hybrid takes the income floor off the table while still letting you build product muscle. It is slower than full-time founding, but you make different mistakes and they are cheaper to fix. What it does not give you is the founder identity — if owning what you build is core to your sense of self, the hybrid will always feel like a half-step. That is the part that is hard to price in advance.
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@samir_asadov Hybrid can work also like employee + starting founder, but time is limited and when things go well for the startup, you have to leave one thing sooner or later :)
BOTH!! --> Anyone with only one source of income has a different relationship with his superiors than the one who has another way of supporting himself. Maybe, other founders are more successful than I have been, but I still need the stability that comes from my work place. Plus, I enjoy spending my day with high school students. I feel that I have been given so much, and it's an opportunity to give back. I'm thankful that I don't have one of those super-stressful teacher jobs that many of my peers have. I have a lot of responsibilities, and work hard to give my students a quality education.
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@dstr88 For people who can handle both – employment and freelancing, it is a good win, because you can have some secure space + something on the top. The worst thing is that when you are starting to be short of time.
@busmark_w_nika Valid. Kids that are grown and an active wife are definitely in my advantage.
Cool topic :)
In my case, here is my experience:
Employee from age 24 to 30 (Worked with some great people)
Founder from age 30 to 32 (Few successes and failure lessons)
Employee from age 32 to 46 (More field, less theory, led interesting projects and people)
Now Founder again at age 47/48 (Ideas and project still sparkling in my mind)
So in my case, it looks like I am more happy being a founder, in reality, I always had a founder mindset while being an employee, which had its pros and cons.
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@amine_el_kabiri Being a founder is not easy. And especially when the gov comes up with some redundant legislative rules.