Should I Quit My Job to Focus on My Startup?

In the startup world, you will hear a lot of college dropout stories and stories of people quitting high-paying jobs to start their dream ventures. Entrepreneurs are also full of energy and may convince you to join as a co-founder early on. This may sound weird coming from an entrepreneur, but I’m not a fan of leaving your day job to start a startup UNLESS you’ve seen enough traction. If this happens, staying in your job may actually hurt the startup.

As you may have read in Saleh’s story, I used to work in a large oil company. The job was very demanding, and in the early days of my career, I was eager to push myself to the extreme. I built Sarahah after working hours. Although one might expect that focusing on a startup full-time is the best way to truly excel in building it, I’ve found that this is not necessarily true. When I had more time, I spent a lot of it planning and reading self-help material. I also enjoyed “ideating” on the beach, justifying it by saying that this sparks creativity. Indeed, a super busy schedule might stress you out and make you less creative, but a good balance is essential. I do believe that a full-time job that isn’t very demanding past working hours is reasonable.

Today, this is even more true. With the ability to build software products really fast with AI capabilities and more powerful development frameworks, the effort needed to release your initial product is much less. Also, no-code platforms have enabled non-technical founders to easily gauge market interest.

Product-Market Fit (PMF), or the market’s interest in your product, can be easily felt. You won’t need extensive analysis to know that your users love your product. Once you have PMF and strong engagement, it makes sense to leave your job. That’s exactly what I did with Sarahah. At a certain point, I felt that I couldn’t perform well in my day job if Sarahah continued the way it was. In fact, Sarahah became more demanding…