
Ask HN: Founders, do you ever feel like packing it in when things are going ok? - p0d
Do other founders sometimes feel like packing in their startup and getting a job, even when things are going ok, or is it just me?
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codegeek
Yes a lot of time. I run a bootstrapped SAAS of about 15 of us and I think
about quitting almost every 2-3 days lol. It is the nature of the beast. This
shit is hard. It grinds you down. Oh is it 7 PM ? Guess what, your customer
doesn't care. Bam, 6 new support tickets in queue while you wanted to get up
and go play with your kids. Ok we can leave them for my support team but wait,
1 is critical and needs attention. oops, I gotta do something. All "employees"
are gone for the day. While doing this, I get an angry email from another
customer about some crap and why they only want to talk to me, the founder
about it. All this when I have 15 people. I can only imagine the plight of
solo team founders :).

But then I close my eyes and imagine myself NOT doing this. Oh well, a shitty
corporate job where I feel soul less. And right then, I am back to the grind.
This is my own shit. I get to decide. I can scale back if I want to. Some
days, I can tell the clients to wait 3 hours. Some days, I am just not in the
mood and that wouldn't make my boss upset (I have none. Customers can again
wait). Just made a new sale. What a feeling. I am back on the high horse.
Woohoooo. Rinse and repeat.

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askafriend
You need to put in place processes that scale. Your current support system
doesn't seem like it's scaling well (based on what little context you provided
us).

Do the ROI calculations and figure out if you need to hire more. If you can't
hire more then you can experiment with a distributed rotational responsibility
for that task (Increase pay of your team if needed).

You can put guard rails around the unpredictable.

~~~
codegeek
Yea its definitely a process issue around support. Trying to solve that issue
with a lot of trial and error.

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throwawayfound
It's not just you. I founded a bootstrapped side project/startup that has gone
viral during COVID. It's been a wild success, people love the product, but
going from solo to now a team of 5 in a period of 2 months and handling a huge
amount of users has been stressful. Business-wise, I shouldn't be anything but
super happy, and advisors say we've won a lottery, but honestly I miss having
less responsibility (e.g. keeping people employed, duty to thousands of
customers 24/7) and pressure (don't screw this up!). Don't get me wrong, the
ride can be exhilarating and I'm sure I will look back on it one day with
pride, but at times I yearn for the days of "just" being a freelance dev who
had relatively low stress and tons of time for my wife and kids.

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rboyd
so was staying solo not an option at all? just curious

~~~
throwawayfound
No, I tried probably for too long and the stress and workload was too much, I
still have a bit of PTSD from it to be honest. B2C space with 7 day per week
customer support, over 100k DAU. Only way to stay solo would have been to turn
away sign ups or something like that.

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muzani
Yeah, it's a lot of responsibility and commitment. Sometimes it would be nice
to just be able to spend your month's income on anything, instead of saving
every cent for a rainy day. Or just sit on the weekend playing games.

I feel like it's just the next step to growing up, sort of like getting
married and having kids. There's plenty of perks to being in another phase,
but it's important to remember that plenty of people have sacrificed to get
you where you are. Your investors, your staff, your family, customers,
government, mentors, and of course, yourself.

It's similar to college - it's tempting to just want to take a blue collar job
when you're pulling all nighters and have to deal with student loans.

I guess a good reminder is to talk in an anonymous group with others who
wouldn't believe you, lol. Maybe a Fortnite discord group or so, lol.

~~~
p0d
I resonate with what you are saying. One of my biggest motivations at the
moment is my family and my wife's support in me leaving a well paid job.

Thankfully HN let's me have a little whine about the toughness of a startup
which is better than whining to my wife and causing her undue stress.

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ainasurfs
Yess, especially when again and again my friends are doing something cool like
having a party or a weekend out of town and I have to stay working.

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pryelluw
It is certainly a grind. Delegate, automate, and take vacations. Also hire
someone to replace you ASAP. But not before making sure the business can be
run by a dummy.

