Dear SaaStr: As a Co-Founder, When Do You Know It’s Time to Quit?
You don’t.
Why? Because 50% or more of the time, it’s because you are tired. And when you’re tired, you don’t always make the right decisions.
Before you quit:
- Talk to 2–3 mentors you trust. See if they challenge you to push on.
- Talk to your co-founders. If they still believe, you probably still should, too.
- See if you can get some help. If you can afford it, hire 1 more person to help you. And 1 great VP — that can often be magical.
- Don’t let the competition get to you too much. Competition matters. But no one has 100% market share. There is room for you — if you want it badly enough.
- Take a vacation (or at least, as much of one as you can). Try to clear your head before any big decision.
- Be honest about how long it would take you to start over. If you are at even $10k a month in revenue, it might take you years to come up with a better idea and get to paying customers. Starting over usually isn’t worth it.
- Take it a quarter, even a month at a time. As Peter Gassner, CEO of $30B+ Veeva Systems said below, in the early days he took it quarter by quarter. Because he didn’t even know if they’d last longer than that. It’s OK.
When in doubt, push on. At least a little longer.
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