
Founder At Startup: Can I Quit? - throwawaypixie
I&#x27;m a founder of a startup, and I really want to quit.<p>But the consensus seems to be that if you quit your startup you&#x27;ll &quot;never work in this town again&quot;, you&#x27;ll burn all bridges, etc. So, I thought I&#x27;d get HN&#x27;s specific advice.<p>EU-based, working remotely with an international team. I&#x27;m effectively the COO. I keep the trains running on time, manage staff, etc. I&#x27;m working for almost nothing on the startup. I do other consulting work to actually keep food on the table.<p>I nominally own 33% of the company and am one of the founders, but the other 2 founders (who are also the investors) always vote together, so I have no real decision-making power. So far that&#x27;s led to us abandoning an MVP model in favour of an all-bells-and-whistles release, hiring useless “consultants”, and losing our sole developer over a price argument. Now we&#x27;re hiring for a new developer, they want to hire someone who only has half the old developer&#x27;s skillset (no complex 3D &#x2F; topology maths), because “all of that bit is already done”.<p>We were 2 months from launch when the developer quit. Dropping a new developer into the project: my best guess is an additional 2 months. [Thoughts?].  One co-founder also wants to add more features before launch.<p>Also, the investors have decided to change price model (block vote) which it seems will pretty clearly make a lot less money (but has less risk attached). This turns my projected share from $12k pm to maybe $3k pm if all goes well. Sadly, I agree that the market has changed.<p>The product isn&#x27;t a &quot;change the world&quot; thing, but a specifically targeted product aimed at a small B2B market. I&#x27;m not doing this for the dream, but for income<p>I&#x27;m involved in other projects with the investors and other people too, and those are going better. I don&#x27;t want to blow up my relationship with them.<p>Suggestions?
======
romland
You have my sympathies and I wish I could give any solid advice.

As far as I am concerned, the whole "you'll never work in this town again" I
would just see as "the company is in trouble if you leave". If you don't have
any customers there are probably very few that actually care if you leave the
startup. There are likely more people in your surroundings that would rather
see you happy :)

The real dilemma you have to face is that you'd like to stay on your two co-
founders' good side and keep working with them on other projects. Going with
what you say it looks like you are on opposite sides here. They obviously
don't want you to leave, while you want to leave. The only thing you can do
here is talk to them, find a middle ground somehow. Maybe you can do
consultancy work for them? Is there a chance that they might be better off if
you are happy?

I like being happy. :)

~~~
throwawaypixie
Thanks. I'll figure it out somehow. I agree, I like being happy too.

------
alain94040
Just quit properly and ethically. Tell the other founders/investors that you
want out, and need to discuss a transition plan. Focus on the fact that you'll
be out soon, and you want to minimize the disruption. That's the only ethical
thing to do. Your resignation will be very disruptive, that's for sure. But
there is some upside: the founders will get a lot of your shares back, so they
can offer them to the next developer they need, and find a new "co-founder".

------
influx
Dumb question, but 3 founders and 1 developer? What other staff is there?

~~~
notduncansmith
I was wondering the exact same thing. They have 3 founders, only one or two of
whom is actually necessary, and they're hiring consultants (the quotes led me
to believe of a non-technical variety). On top of that they're not willing to
pay to retain a (sounds like) good developer, and don't seem to understand how
to manage a technical team at all (thinking a developer won't need a skillset
because something is "done"). It sounds to me like these guys have absolutely
no clue what they're doing.

You said you're doing consulting in your free time and you were only in this
project for the money? If this project doesn't have a 200k+ upside in less
than a year, you're better off consulting if you want the money. Do your own
startup, even. There's plenty of ways to create passive income without working
with these clowns. You're definitely better off leaving.

Find a way to make a clean break as early as possible, sell your shares back
to the company (at a price that makes up for the money you lost by wasting
your time with these guys), and let bygones be bygones. If anyone asks
questions, you value happiness and income over misery and poverty. Most people
will recognize that as a reasonable decision and respect you more for it than
if you had stayed.

------
Zigurd
Keep it simple.

If it is as simple as "I can't afford to continue to invest my time." then
there is no reason to make it more complicated. Write all the other stuff down
and stick it in a drawer.

------
zxcvvcxz
I did. And I should have done it sooner. My situation was that of a technical
founder who later recruited a few cofounders. After about a year working on
the project, I lost interest in the problem being solved, and realized I
couldn't stand the people I had brought on. But there were more of them than
me, they were on the board as well, and we were part of an incubator-type
program.

Not quitting sooner made me feel trapped with my team, which increased
resentment amongst all members, which ultimately led to burning bridges. The
real concern came when I realized that they actively worked to ruin my
reputation within our network. Kind of shitty. But what's done is done, at
this point I'm just wrapping up formal paperwork to cancel my shares, leave,
and find whatever's next in life. Silver lining: I'm glad this experience
happened earlier in life than closer to the peak of my career.

My biggest regret was not being forthright with my intentions to leave
earlier. As a result, responsibility was placed on me, I failed to deliver,
and it lead to these bad falling-outs.

Advice? Exit gracefully and professionally, wrap up lose ends, and try to keep
people as happy/understanding as possible, even if you dislike them. Oh and
get paperwork in order. Best of luck.

------
imsofuture
You'd probably be better off trying to fix these issues by addressing them
directly -- for the sake of your relationships with the other parties. That
said, you won't be blackballed for leaving a floundering startup your heart is
no longer in, regardless of your role.

Make an earnest effort to fix all the things that are bothering you and then
re-evaluate your situation.

~~~
throwawaypixie
I have had conversations with them about most of these issues, but I agree,
there are a couple that still need to be discussed. I'll certainly try that
before quitting - thanks.

------
MalcolmDiggs
IMHO it sounds like you're already gone. I mean, emotionally/mentally you seem
to have left the building. So that decision is already done; you can cross
that off.

As far as the paperwork is concerned, that's just a strategy play. Try to take
any feelings out of it. Objectively what's the best move to keep these
relationships strong and get what you want out of the situation? Whatever that
is, do that. Personally, I wouldn't recommend leaving a vacuum; find a
replacement for yourself and set up a transition plan. If the other founders
choose to reject your replacement, then the burden is on them to find someone
else, but you can at least _try_ to make the exit easy on everybody involved.

They're going to be mad, and hurt, and sad. There's very little you can do
about that; just try to be the calm one in the room if the situation gets
heated.

------
hynahmwxsbyb
I'm a founder, and I get the sense that you're supposed to go down with the
ship. Which likely means going into debt and declaring bankruptcy. If you're
not the CEO it's probably easier to leave quietly, but make sure you give up
most--if not all of your shares. If you're the lynchpin and you leave then it
may haunt you. Future VCs are going to want to see that you can deal with
adversity. Fail fast is only an option if you haven't taken external capital.
If you have, the expectation is to swim until you hit land or drown.

~~~
tptacek
No. That expectation does not exist.

------
compare
If you do end up finding a way to make a break up with non-technical founders
go smoothly, without them running your name through the mud or threatening to
blackmail you, then please do let us know. Not sure it's possible.

------
tptacek
Uh, what? Founders quit startups all the time. You need to talk to more of
them.

------
thanesh
what is your idea?

