Ever wondered about being your own boss? Then this talk is for you. Good experience, bad experience: I’ve had some of both as a startup founder and freelancer in the 23 years after I left my last salaried job. Let me share them with you. Whether you love your job or hate it, at some time you’ve probably wondered what it would be like to work for your self. Maybe you’re working on a sideproject and wonder how you could make some money from it? Or maybe you have the idea for the next Facebook or Uber? To be a coder in today’s world of work is to have amazing opportunities to design the business life you want. You can work remotely; you can write books, or teach, or consult, with anyone anywhere. You can have a crazy idea on Friday and have it running by Monday. Design your architecture to use cloud computing, so your tiny team can scale up your huge ideas. Or keep it small, and just earn some extra money with a Wordpress plugin, or a training course. It has been 23 years since I last had a ‘real job’ and a regular income. I survived creating and running a company through the madness of the dotcom years. I made money from sideprojects, that I had started just for fun and for learning. I have freelanced without needing to use an agency to find the work. Listen to my stories and learn from my mistakes and successes.