How long until you became "ramen profitable"?
blakeb: Started doing web app development consulting to learn the ropes shortly out of college with my cofounders in Nov 03.  Started the design for buildasign.com in July 04 as one of our hopeful projects to turn into a sustainable business (a product rather than service business is what we were aiming for).  Soft launch and slowly increased advertising starting June 05. Got our first manufacturing garage space in Nov 05. Paid ourselves for the first time in January 06.  Things went well from there.So I was full time for 2 years before getting paid beyond a just-survivable amount from consulting and hosting.