I almost f**ked up my life by quitting my day job for my startup

[ceeagee]

@jaminko Startup life is like a marriage. Most people don't go into it saying "In 3 years we'll be divorced". So unless you were hell bent on making this happen, you probably made the right decision.

I jumped off the cliff with just duct tape and a sketch of a plane. If you're not ready to live a life of noodles and pain for the first few years then it's best to keep your job. At one point I had less than $1 in my bank and was selling personal items to keep the lights on. I eventually got there but I can't speak intelligently on how many did not.

So while you don't have to be passionate about a startups industry or solution it makes the broken glass you have to drag yourself through that much easier to tolerate. My 2 pennies. upvoting you because everyone assumes startup life is the way to be. It's not for everyone or every team.

 

[jaminko]

@ceeagee I was young and immature so I definitely made the right choice

I think some people have enough pure drive to be successful that they don't necessarily NEED to love the industry. They just care about being a success. For a lot of us however, it's just impossible to make it through all of that broken glass without being in the industry/environment that you want.

I hope your journey has gotten just a little bit easier than it was!

 

[seraph595]

@ceeagee "I jumped off the cliff with just duct tape and a sketch of a plane."

This is exactly how it feels.

 

[613jono]

@jaminko

I had an amazing role at a prestigious financial company,

I was horrified that I was 15 minutes away from quitting my job for a startup with $0 in the bank.

and a whole host of expenses to pay for.

this makes no sense to me. if you work full-time and you have entrepreneurial aspirations you should be saving massively. unless your parents pay for everything, or you enjoy poverty, you should save up months worth of expenses before taking the leap. if you don't, why are you even working the job in the first place?

EDIT: i think i mis-read. the startup had no money in the bank, not OP. i'll leave my comment for my shame, and to make the point about the importance of saving

 

[jaminko]

@613jono Yes, I had a little over 4 months of savings personally which was still nowhere near enough. We were planning to take small salaries from our seed round, but that realistically gave us very little runway.

 

[candice456]

@jaminko

$0 in the bank

Nice going, brah. Why would you ever start a company with no savings?

 

[fellascarpet]

@jaminko

a team that would eventually dissolve due to petty disputes.

This happens too often, which is why I recommend most people try to go solo if possible

You don't always need a cofounder, in fact I remember someone in this sub linking to a study that said the fail rate for startups with cofounders was higher than single-founder startups

 

[jaminko]

@fellascarpet This is an interesting point. We had 4 cofounders for Blem. It was absolutely doomed to fail thinking back on it.

I would never do that again, however, I would partner with someone that truly had a complimentary skillset than me after knowing them for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng time. That relationship will most certainly make or break your startup.

 

[fellascarpet]

@jaminko How about going solo next time? you think you can do it?

 

[jaminko]

@fellascarpet I think I can as long as I play to my strengths. Blem just wasn't something that was really in my wheelhouse. I started and run my agency solo but have partnered with people to help launch some side projects (like Nugget). When I go and try to do something gigantic I'm going to go with a cofounder for sure.

 

[neodude]

@fellascarpet That's really interesting... I want to get into an accelerator program, like Y Combinator, but they almost all state they have strong preferences for cofounder teams and not solo founders. They claim teams are statistically more successful than individuals. I have no idea how they back this up.

 

[fellascarpet]

@neodude They do but they take solo founders anyway, yc took dropbox among others

Still I don't recommend going through an accelerator, most are crap run by opportunists who have no idea what they doing.