If you want to develop marketing skills here's some things to research: Start with something called "product marketing" the job titles are typically "product marketing manager" and these folks are typically a group that sits in "marketing" and does things like "messaging & positioning" figures out "pricing & packaging" and comes up with all the info about the product. Basically, works with Eng + PM teams and packages up all their work and makes something you can actually sell. Just spelling this out since you can google it on your own. Look for something called "totally addressable market" (also know as TAM) too and that'll give you the size of the market you're selling into. Some of this is sort of art and science since there is nothing really exact and you will need to test it via trail and error. But, it'll get you pointed in the general direction of what's correct.

FWIW, I agree with OP here. Kids are a game changer and having a stable paycheck coming in gives you time to dedicate to your family without stress. This is highly underrated in the first 3-6 months when you're trying to figure out what this new life looks like (living on 2 hour chunks of sleep). Speaking from experience trying to start a company, having a kid, then quickly realising I need a job asap.

Eloff, I'm a `Pgpool-II` & `PgBouncer` user for a long time.

Riverdb's https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md seems to appear a bit counter-growth.

- A proprietary, alpha software is could be anti-growth in the PG world.

I think your README.md can be made more welcoming with

- a getting started - tutorial/configuration - install steps - a video link why this is cool.

https://github.com/riverdb/riverdb/blob/master/README.md

I understand some people feel that anything short of an OSI open-source license is somehow bad, but I don't agree with that thinking. It's another way that this product is probably a bad idea though - because there are lots of people who think like you on the license issue.

It definitely needs documentation, getting started, tutorials etc. But I never really published this or even made a website for it. Thanks for the tips!

Hey Eloff, after 4 failed startups from 2012-2018 - I've joined another late-stage high growth startup. Thanks to stock options I ended up having 7 digit wealth in 2 years

Now I will go back to startuping.....

If I exited with 7 digits and still wanted to work i would think thats a major life failure.

Working at startups is not the way to wealth (i worked at too many). Goodluck and networking will get you there much quicker then hard graft. Thats how the majority of the winners come about. Getting lucky out of the blue, thats a totally different game. You idea could be the best, but because you couldnt market it, its a nothing burger. Do you want your kid to grow up around a stressed out shell? or a WFH dad who can spend their timing growing with their child?

I this guy sounds like me; my honest opinion is u can get a job, and still work on your side project. The guys i know who made it at our age, well they are telling me they wish they wernt that successful because its so much more stress. Being responsible for employees is a totally different game to SWE. It changes you.

> 7 digits and still wanted to work i would think thats a major life failure

Hey I love coding, tech, AI and I'm passionate about it. So Creating a software others use, make me so happy. Having a small team of people, who can grow with me is the other aspect which excites me.

That's a great success story and I'm happy for you. But it's not really an actionable advice. How would one go about identifying a late stage startup that will have a 7 figure exit?

That's how I chose the best startup.

Went through all worldwide & Ycombinator startups which are high growth. Registered at Workatastartup. Used https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/ to see what they are searching for.

Chose 10 companies with positions where I have very strong hard skills. Interacted with the particular company's product. Wrote a nice paragraph on ideas how I can contribute.

- https://www.ycombinator.com/companies

- https://www.workatastartup.com

Congratulations, that worked out well for you!

Eloff I'm not as special and indeed you are. What I mean is, you can pause your being the founder idea for 3 years and jump on someone who found high growth. One way for you could be to join some database, postgres startups. Join their open source projects and get ideas from the team.

Well I don't know about special. It's good advice though, and your strategy for how you did that is quite actionable. It's still a lottery, but you did things to skew the odds heavily in your favor, which was smart.

> I need to learn the non-technical skills where I'm weak before doing this again. Or at least meet a co-founder who's strengths overlap with my weaknesses - probably a marketing/sales person.

Not necessarily. I believe, at first, the only thing you need to do is - talk with people. Start with tech conferences. I believe a lot of them would let you deliver a session. You will create more connections and also you'll get a lot of feedback from people that will help in refining your message and pitch. One talk after another, you will realize how accurately people are able to understand, what you are trying to deliver. Refine, talk, listen - that's your cycle. Also, because you are building an open-source product - you might also find some contributors.

Edit - ‘Talk with people’ - you already started here. Good job on that.

Someone who is a strong marketing/sales person has loads of opportunities. Why would they want to spend their time working with you when you don't even seem to have a product or know what problem you are solving? I would suggest getting a full-time job. Maybe try again in a few year with more savings, a stronger idea of what problem you are solving and more business experience. [Context: Running my own 1 man software product company since 2005].

What other things did you try to build?