What’s your background, and what is (or was) your side-project?

Hi, my name is Pat Walls and I am the founder of Starter Story - a platform that features the stories of successful entrepreneurs. It all started as a side project!

My background is quite varied - I bounced around a few different careers after university (trying to find my passion) until I ultimately learned how to code and I became a software engineer.

I started Starter Story in November 2017, and since then quit my full-time engineering job and have grown the site to 70k monthly readers.

Let's go back to the point in time when you started working your side project. Tell me about that.

That was a fun time.

I was fresh off of a startup disaster after two friends and I tried launching a startup and getting into YC. That failed big time.

After that failure, I contemplated my next move.

I absolutely loved building and launching that company, but I needed to start something this time that was more of a “side project” and that wouldn’t get in the way of my full-time job. So I started doing research on blogging, content and affiliate marketing.

Getting started was a long and confusing process as I had no idea what I was doing. Everything was a learning process, but it was also a lot of fun.

It took me a couple of months to nail down the idea, the design, and the first few interviews.

What kind of hours were you working? How did you manage your time?

I did everything on nights and weekends. I probably put in 15-20 hours of work per week.

But also, when I have a new idea or initiative, it’s all I can think about… So I probably worked more than those hours just by how much I was thinking about it.

Managing my time

I’ll be honest, when I started I was bad at managing my time, but I think the process of starting a side project helped me improve that a lot.

I usually worked a few hours before or after work. So, after I finished up with work for the day, I would go straight to a coffee shop and knock out a few hours of work. Or, I would wake up early and go to Starbucks for a couple of hours.

I also got a lot done on the weekends - the weekend is such a great time to get 4-5 hours of solid focused time.

I actually wrote a post a while back about how to be productive with a full time job and a side project.

Where would you work from, what was your environment like?

I switched up my environment often, but I had a lot of success working from Starbucks in the mornings.

There was a Starbucks right next to my old apartment in NYC, so I would wake up at around 7am, pack up all my shit for the day, go to Starbucks and get a big coffee and crank out 2-3 hours of work, and then walk to work after that.

https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1022474784242843649

It’s such a good feeling to get all that work done in the morning, especially if you have a full-time job.

And it’s nice not to have to sit at work all day and think about what you are going to get done after work.

Did you use any project management or productivity tools, which ones?

At first no, just a simple to do list using Standard Notes.Did you use any project management or productivity tools, which ones?

Over time I got more serious about productivity and tried stuff like the post-it notes method, Trello, and Getting Things Done.

Here’s a screenshot I dug up from my old Trello board

But thinking back when I had a full-time job, I had such limited time to work on my side project that I really made those hours count, and I don’t think I really needed any systems.

Being so constrained by time was such a good thing for me. I only had enough time to focus on the important stuff, like pushing out more content and driving traffic to my website.

How did you manage the multiple roles? (Sales, development, customer support, etc.)

I never really thought about this - but it is a good question.

I think I was just forced to do all of these things, so I never really had any issues managing it. It just happened.

But as a general rule - I think it’s important to look at all these roles and figure out where you need to improve.

For example, people will say things like “But I’m horrible at sales and I hate emails”. If you find yourself saying something along those lines, it means that you should focus your time on becoming better at those things.

It’s fine to suck at sales in your full-time engineering job. But with your own company or project, you need to solve those issues or find someone who can do it for you.

You have to get out of your comfort zone.

An example - I used to be a horrible designer (still bad) so I spent a lot of time improving my skills and learning about design in the early days. I used to suck at cold emails and stuff, now I feel a lot more confident when it comes to that.

I think starting Starter Story has helped me become a much better salesperson, engineer, designer, manager, etc. That’s what I loved about it.

Even if it wasn’t successful, I still had the opportunity to learn about so much stuff and be more confident in my abilities as an entrepreneur.

What was your biggest challenge while working on a side project while working a full-time job? How did you solve it?

My biggest challenge was staying focused at my day job.

As I said before, often all I would think about was my side project, even when I was at work. I couldn’t get it out of my head.

I tried my best to curb that, and I definitely got better over time. I was working on Starter Story for an entire year before I quit.

I never got fired though - that’s all that matters!

My manager and CTO did end up finding out about it. They were really cool about it and told me they didn’t think it was affecting my performance (which I was kind of surprised about).

It was also good timing, as I left the company shortly after.

What tips do you have for others working on a side project while working a full-time job?

First of all, it’s really friggin hard, so if you’re feeling discouraged, just keep trudging on.

99% of people won’t even try - but they will go into their corporate jobs for the next 20 years dreaming about it, wishing they could get started, but never executing. Don’t be that person.

Just keep working hard. Consistency is key. If you can put in a consistent couple hours every day, you will make it.

Try to find a good routine. You’re going to need to give up some nights out, get out of bed early on the weekdays, and maybe give up watching football for 10 hours on Sundays.

I am by no means successful, but I will tell you that working for yourself is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever felt.

I’ve had jobs my whole life, and my parents as well, so the feeling of freedom and autonomy was totally new to me, and it was really crazy.

Once I felt it, I realized there’s no going back.

It’s so weird to think about working for someone else and fulfilling someone else’s dreams. Life is too short for that.

What’s next for you?

After I quit my job last year, I’ve been traveling around Asia and working.

I’ve been focused on growing Starter Story and working on a new SaaS product called Pigeon - to help others launch websites similar to Starter Story.

Overall, I’m feeling more motivated than ever and I’m so excited for the future. I’m just getting started!

If you’re currently working a full-time job and have some questions for me I’d love to help - please reach out. Find me on Twitter or YouTube or my blog, or send me an email.