Dear SaaStr: What Would Be The Single Most Important Advice You Would Give Other Entrepreneurs?
Quit today if you don’t want it bad enough.
But … never quit if you truly do.
…
Now, by “quit” I don’t literally mean leave the keys on your desk and quit today.
Not if you have investors, customers, and employees at least. If you’re pre-everything, then sure, sure call it a day. But not immediately if you have any customers or investors.
But what I do mean it’s this stuff is hard. Being a founder is hard — harder than almost every non-founder realizes. And everyone, or at least almost everyone, has moments when they want to throw in the towel, at least sort of. That thought still crosses my mind from time to time, even now.
If you’re truly done, if you really don’t believe, if you can’t see it — first take a vacation for 2 weeks. See if you can get back to it. Maybe even take a few months. But eventually, “quit” if you can’t do it anymore.
That may mean:
- Find a CEO to replace you, if you’re far enough along for that to make sense
- Sell the company, if you can. This takes time, but worth a shot.
- Merge with a competitor, if you can.
- Support your co-founder 110%, if they want to keep going.
- Take care of your customers.
It’s doesn’t mean yell “I’m Out of Here” and walk out.
…
Now, having said that, if it’s hard, if you can’t quite see it. But if you still believe, push on:
- It took UiPath 10 years to get to $1m ARR. Today, they’re worth $12B+.
- Procore is worth $10B and it never really took off for years until mobile took off
- Squarespace took years to get to $1B ARR
If you truly believe, and have even a handful of happy customers, take a break, get your mojo back. But keep going.
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