That's about what one can make doing contract work, assuming you're good and reliable and get a bit of referral and repeat business happening.
But, the point of starting a company is usually to do better than contracting, eventually. You trade current comfort for a steadily rising income that, hopefully, some day far surpasses what you could make doing contract work, or working for a major corporation, and most importantly does not scale based on the number of hours you can work, but instead scales on how effectively you build your organization.
With taxes, health insurance, retirement savings, having a place big enough to work out of, etc. $12k/month is comfortable, but not particularly wealthy. It's a modest goal by most startup founders ("entrepreneurs") standards, I would think. I think most tech startup founders are at least looking for "fuck you" money, which is somewhere in the millions for most people. It'd take ~10 years at $12k/month to reach multiple millions.
So, yes, $12k/month isn't very much for the audience he's speaking to, though it's certainly respectable.
He ended by implying he still has his day job. If I read that correctly, that means $12K above his salary and benefits, and with only part time effort.
Actually he ended by saying that he wouldn't quit his job to start a company. This could mean that he started a company on the side and quit once it got to where it paid enough.
But, the point of starting a company is usually to do better than contracting, eventually. You trade current comfort for a steadily rising income that, hopefully, some day far surpasses what you could make doing contract work, or working for a major corporation, and most importantly does not scale based on the number of hours you can work, but instead scales on how effectively you build your organization.
With taxes, health insurance, retirement savings, having a place big enough to work out of, etc. $12k/month is comfortable, but not particularly wealthy. It's a modest goal by most startup founders ("entrepreneurs") standards, I would think. I think most tech startup founders are at least looking for "fuck you" money, which is somewhere in the millions for most people. It'd take ~10 years at $12k/month to reach multiple millions.
So, yes, $12k/month isn't very much for the audience he's speaking to, though it's certainly respectable.