Ultimately, even entrepreneurs who keep their day jobs often take the leap

INNOVATION ECONOMY

June 12, 2011|By Scott Kirsner, Globe Correspondent

Liza Adams (center) talked with Shruti Venkatesh (left) and Yen Sekoko… (Kayana Szymczak for the Boston Globe)

Is it possible to be an entrepreneur without sacrificing a steady paycheck?

A small subset of office workers — from State House staffers to Web designers to equity traders — believe they can temper the risk of launching a start-up by holding tight to their 9-to-5 jobs. With businesses that sell second-hand luxury handbags or iPhone apps, some are just looking to earn a little income on the side, while others hope they’ll be able to keep revenues climbing and eventually make the transition to full-time entrepreneur.

Supporting a “side hustle’’ can consume nights and weekends, and keeping your entrepreneurial life from your boss can sometimes entail a little secret agent-style duplicity. But anyone who has ever worked for a company in a position of low-to-moderate authority has at times felt powerless to change things. And one of the best features of a side project is that it’s entirely under your control.

“What’s awesome about it is that it’s up to you to figure out how all of the processes should work, and you get to make all of the decisions by yourself or with a cofounder,’’ says Mike Isman. “You just don’t have that kind of freedom and autonomy as an employee at a big company.’’ Isman started a longevity website called LivingTo100.com while working at Plymouth Rock Assurance, collaborating with Boston University professor Thomas Perls, who oversees the New England Centenarian Study.

It can also be a way to acquire business or technology skills that you wouldn’t necessarily learn in your day job. “At work, you may not be dealing with the latest and greatest technologies,’’ says Jay Meattle. “But with a side project, you can look at a new database or a new programming language and just decide to give it a try, to see how it works.’’

Meattle initially created Shareaholic, software that makes it easy to share interesting online content, while working at a full-time job; it’s now a standalone company in Cambridge with two employees.

And, says Robby Grossman, it’s a way to “combat the day-to-day monotony’’ of a job that may not feel like your destiny. While working in the Cambridge office of giant business software company SAP, Grossman began building Paperphobic, an iPhone app that helps users keep a digital record of receipts and other information for expense reports. He later joined a start-up company, but still runs Paperphobic on the side.

“I think I was less open about the business when I was at SAP, but now my manager and the CEO of my company know about the project, and they’ve both tweeted about it to help me get users,’’ Grossman says.