Ask HN: Ready to take the start-up plunge, really?

Plenty of people talk about it, but how many engineers out there are actually READY to take the start-up plunge?

Sure, there's a lot of risks and concerns -- leaving your job & failing being near-or-at the top of the list.

But, as a non-engineer, it seems like a lot of people spend time on side & weekend projects, without any real drive to build a real business or develop a concept fully. I've met a ton of non-eng folks with great plans, but they're typically cast aside by engineers who think that non-techies are useless.

Maybe I'm off base here...but while every engineer seem to be spending time experimenting, but very few are actually taking the plunge to build a commercial product. Why not join a team and take the plunge?

(Full disclosure: I've posted on HN recently looking to find a technical co-founder. We've got a (nearly) fully vetted concept that is ready to be turned into a functioning prototype. The engineers I've met with so far have given feedback that it's far more "thought through" and "well designed" than most ideas they see from non-techies. We may be a prototype away from major funding, so I'm hoping an "experimenter" is ready to transition from working on side or weekend projects and make a commercial (potential) game changer.)