Ask HN: At what point is it appropriate to leave startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16556269

by tonym9428 • 8 years ago

5 8 8 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

So I'm an engineer working at my third start up.

First startup went through three pivots before I chose to leave.

Second startup never pivoted.

Third startup is on the third pivot and I'm thinking it's time to leave.

After how many pivots do you chose to leave?

lastofus• 8 years ago

You are presuming # of pivots correlates strongly with success.

The idea being tried, and the team executing on it are probably much stronger predictors.

If you are already in doubt enough to ask, it's probably time to move on.

afarrell3• 8 years ago

If you are already in doubt enough to ask, it's probably time to move on.

Why is it the case that doubts imply you should move on rather than doubts imply you should honestly investigate those doubts?

cimmanom• 8 years ago

What do the pivots have to do with it?

A startup job should be like any other job: you leave when what you're getting out of it (in terms of money, learning, satisfaction; likelihood of future reward; and whatever else matters to you) is no longer worth what you're putting into it (in terms of time; aggravation; opportunity cost; etc.)

afarrell3• 8 years ago

Why is the number of pivots the question? It seems like the questions should be:

- Do I still have confidence in the executive’s team’s ability to decide on a sound strategy and align people in that direction?

- Is the organization healthy and are good patterns of communication, coordination, and execution being laid down?

- Does the product direction we are currently taking have a sensical business model it can possibly support?

The decision-making processes around the pivots and the way they were communicated can provide a lot of information to answer these questions.

agitator• 8 years ago

It also sounds like these are the questions you need to have answered before you start your next startup job as well. ;) Looks like you have been joining and hoping the founders knew what they were doing, only to be disappointed.

Did any of your previous companies, that pivoted so many times end in success? Or were your exits worthwhile?

tonym9428• 8 years ago

No exits. Yeah, I definitely need to do a better job in selecting who I end up working for

muzani• 8 years ago

I had to pivot a startup far more than 3 times to get to success. The key is really how fast it gets to product market fit.

Before that, startups need to build very cheaply and crudely. E.g. I wouldn't even build a database unless I'm certain I need one - in many prototypes, hardcoded data or dummy data works too. Once you get the first $1000, you can start scaling.

I've seen multimillion dollar companies start with an annual revenue of $10k. Startups always start slow.

To answer the question, you should have a good gutfeel for it. If you think the leadership is strong and the product is something people want, stay. If you're just in it because you think the market could be big, but your heart isn't into it, then leave.

Startups thrive on the outliers. There's not much process to it.

Ask HN: At what point is it appropriate to leave startup?

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