Ted Mittelstaedt ⋅ Portland, OR Portlandia IT LLC ⋅ 20 years experience

Josh, several things you have to look at. First, your description of what you want to do is way too vague. You have been overdosing on marketingspeak-how-to-start-a-business books. Remember that if the author of a how-to-start-a-business-book was very successful at a business and making piles 'o money, he wouldn't have time to write the book. Most of those books are written by people who have a career writing how-to-start-a-business books.
Second, you say you have identified a gap. What you now need to do is identify why that gap exists. It may very well be that the reason it exists is because it's been overlooked, and so you can move into that niche and make money. But, often these gaps exist because of the "china taste and beer budget" problem. High quality tech services are very expensive to produce, for example a top quality C programmer can fetch $200K a year, easily. Lots of companies would love to get that person's services - but when it comes time to negotiate the price it's, well, it's sticker shock time.
The current company you work for may be owned by a bitter old businessman who was raised back in the paper & phone days, who cannot understand why it costs so much money to run modern business. They may only be willing to fork over the cash you need to live on if they can get you dirt cheap. That might work out OK if your still learning but give you some years of experience and you will become more valuable than they will be willing to pay for. And during the time your learning your going to be making a lot of mistakes so a lot of the money they do pay you for R&D will result in no return - and if they don't have the patience to do R&D now, in-house, you may find yourself cut loose before you have put enough time into learning enough to be valuable to someone else.
You need to take a hard look at what your proposed customer (your current employer) considers important. If they are buying brand new vehicles, for example, and paying tons o' cash for expensive paint jobs for the company name and logo on the side - and meanwhile their accounting staff is having to make do with 5 year old PC's that are slow as molasses - that speaks volumes about how much value they place on high tech, far more so than anything the company owner might tell you to your face.
In the long run, it's usually better to start a business in a field you have experience in. If your tired of your current job and want to get into high tech then you would be better advised to take a couple years of programming classes or system admin classes from the local community college at night, then try getting an entry level job in the high tech industry your interested in and quit your current employer. You can always come back years later to that employer and sell them services, it's not like they are going to disappear. You will find that high tech places a very high value on techies who have significant experience in other fields and can help bridge the gap from tech to other industries.

Barry Sosnick ⋅ Greenlawn, NY Great Whites Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics ⋅ 5 years experience

One issue that is not addressed is confidentiality agreements. They are fairly short and simple documents that help protect you from someone poaching your idea. Even better is if you can protect the the process or product with a patent. SCORE can get you rolling, but a patent requires an attorney that specializes in intellectual property (patents, copyrights and trademarks).

Remember, as a business grows, you hire staff. You don't have to know everything about how business runs. You only need to know what you don't understand and hire someone who can fill that knowledge gap. With many businesses, the founder eventually steps aside as professional managers takeover. While it may sound a bit sad taking a backseat, you still have ownership control. Think of it as delegating.

Best of luck!

Alan J. Zell ⋅ Portland, OR Attitudes for Selling ⋅ 29 years experience

Josh, I suggest you make a b-line to the closest SCORE office in your area. SCORE is the volunteer arm for the US Sm Bus Adm. They offer FREE consulting to vets like you who need answers to your questions. Go to www.score.org and put in your zip code and you'll get a list of the closest office(s) from the 400 in the US. Many of the 14000 volunteers have experience in the technical fields.

And btw, it's our way of thanking you for your years of service

Alan J. Zell

Amit Chaudhary ⋅ San Jose, CA Doordash, Silicon Valley Software Company ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Josh,

Sure, it is tougher but possible.

Only Larry Ellison (Gates, Zuck had been programming since children) was a non-tech founder

To increase your success, either
1. read this small book, Lean startup, it combines other ideas like customer development with confirming your assumptions first and more
http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423675028&sr=8-1&keywords=lean+startup
and old posts on his website startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com

or
2. startupclass.samaltman.com

Get a tech co-founder for a minority stake, it will confirm your assumption too

All the best
Amit

Shane Asmus ⋅ Lake Mary, FL Wells Fargo ⋅ 5 years experience

Josh,

A college degree does not equal success, especially in the technology industry! I would encourage you to go in and look at your employment contract before moving forward though. Many companies structure their contracts to protect themselves from employees finding a process/system/product that they have their hands in and starting their own business. Best of luck to you!

Shane

Christine Slocumb ⋅ Mystic, CT CLARITY QUEST MARKETING ⋅ 20 years experience

Yes Josh. Couple guys named Gates and Jobs did it without finishing college! Many of the companies my agency works are headed by people without college degrees. Surround yourself with folks that possess skill sets and experience you don't have.

It sounds like you have a first customer so that's the hardest part already conquered. I agree with Vladimir to watch your cash flow and see if you can fund the business off the first customer as much as possible. Best to you, Chris

Vladimir Baranov ⋅ Brooklyn, NY Vanare ⋅ 10 years experience

Josh,

The answer is absolutely yes! You will pick up experience as you go (be careful with investing/spending too much money too soon (<1 year) though) and college does not matter much. Typically college connections are used to network and to search for possible investors and future customers, the education itself makes little impact.

I would recommend to read as much as you can on the links below and understand how this novel approach to building business works. Let me know if you have any additional questions, will be glad to help!

Business Canvas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoAOzMTLP5s
Starting Business Tools: http://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/

Vladimir