17 Comments
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Rob Litterst's avatar

One of your best Nat. Super timely for me.

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Nat Eliason's avatar

Thank you Rob!

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Alfred Lua's avatar

This is quite similar to how we have been thinking about our startup Pebblely. It is a great cash flow business but not really one for vc money, so we are using it to fund other explorations.

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Nat Eliason's avatar

Good to realize that early! VCs love to talk you into trying to venture scale a business it doesn’t make sense for

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Claudia Ng's avatar

I love this framework. I'm thinking of consulting as a cash business, but building out a SaaS product as an equity business, what is your take on this?

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Nat Eliason's avatar

Classic strategy, seen it work well but I’d try to keep them separate so if the SaaS fails there’s no contagion

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Grant Varner's avatar

However you approach it, I’d recommend keeping your day job until you’ve reached a certain level of success with your side hustle.

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Oliver Qin's avatar

Great article! Exactly what was on my mind

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Nat Eliason's avatar

love it when that happens

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Diego Flórez's avatar

Great post. I deeply resonate with this.

I'm currently navigating this exact transition myself, though I arrived at it intuitively. I'm balancing running my own independent software development boutique while building my SaaS project, [Kairos](https://kairos.rocks?utm_source=blogs&utm_medium=comments), on the side.

It's encouraging to see such structured reflection on something I've been feeling through firsthand experience.

Thanks for sharing!

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David Kadavy's avatar

This is the approach I have taken. I started by freelancing ten hours a week, used the extra time to build passive income, then used that freedom to build my catalog of books.

It’s hard though! 18 years in and still learning. Passive income doesn’t stay passive forever, it turns out.

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Shruti Saran's avatar

Really great post. Would’ve loved more examples of cash vs equity businesses but this has definitely given me something to chew on and feels like a framework that can be applied in other areas of life where there seems to be a trade off between short and long term rewards.

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Bredell Strong Jr's avatar

Paramount information, helped me tremendously.

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Huzaifa's avatar

Makes a lot of sense!

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Teresa Okeefe's avatar

Great post, Nat. Where one is in life makes such a difference in one's strategy. I experienced a catastrophic loss last month. My sweet historic cottage that was home for 29 years for myself and my daughter burned completely to the foundation in the January So Cal fires.

The way I would receive this post prior to last month is 100% different than I see it now.

My takeaway is to stay flexible and nimble. Be ready to pivot and change your "how". But as long as you KNOW who you were meant to serve, and what your secret sauce is that distinguishes you in the market, you will be successful.

Sometimes we need fast cash - but we must always remember to play the long game - Equity is only built over time. I know that in my current circumstances I need the ability to make some fast cash --- but I never forget the equity that is built even in this situation - Integrity and reputation build equity and should never be sacrificed - even when you need fast cash. (oh and PS - I've followed you since 2018.... back in the "Medley" days - big fan!)

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Coleman McCormick's avatar

Thanks for this, Nat. Great reminder to think about where my priorities are!

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Sam Robinson's avatar

Thanks for this framing, Nat! Very helpful.

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