Ask HN: losing faith in the startup where I'm employee #1

I'm very new to the startup world. A year ago, I left academia to join a startup as the first engineer employee. The skies were bright, we were going to change the world and become rich and all be happy together.

Now a year later, things are way more gloom. We haven't raised any money, as of today we have effectively 0 active users, and our total revenue over the past year has been ~$100.

Out of 3 founders, none is technical (the CTO is a very, very well connected industry veteran though), and they are all very unfocused and out of touch with certain realities (for example, they filed a patent for a silly tech idea right after incorporation and keep trying to implement that technology in products although it doesn't really solve anything).

During meetings, I always feel like a killjoy by attempting to be realistic and focused and reserved about the brand new idea they come up with every other week and that I need to get started on right when the meeting ends.

I don't feel like it'll get better, and although it was a great opportunity I think it's time for me to move on to brighter horizons.

The main problem is that I've grown to really like the founders on a personal level, they are really well connected so I wouldn't want them to tarnish my reputation as a young engineer completely new to the valley/startup world, and if I leave, the company will probably die off as I'm the only one writing code and making products exist (they'd probably end up paying contractors/freelancers as they can't afford to be competitive on salary or benefits).

I think these last few points might be the result of my inexperience with startups and that I dug myself into that hole— but any insight or advice would be very, very much appreciated.<p>Thanks!