Ask HN: How do you know when to quit the startup you founded?

[whistle_worker]

My business partner and I started a B2B SaaS business about 8 years ago. I'm an engineer with an aptitude for development. Initially, we hired a dev shop to build a MVP, but after 2 years, I stepped in as the sole developer, while my partner worked on the sales / support side.

We've seen... moderate success. By moderate I mean we've always been cash-flow positive and our gross revenue grows by a modest percentage each year. I hear that 90% of SaaS businesses fail, so I guess our "not-failing" could be seen as success.

But it's not the "success" I'd hoped for. I'm in my late 30s now, but in a way, I'm still kind of subsidising the business, because my pay is probably 50% of the market rate for a developer with my experience. Obviously, we still can't afford to hire more developers, so it's just been me, coding away on my own, for years.

We have loyal customers, some who've been with us since the beginning. But our product is getting stale. To stay alive, we've added features to lure in new customers, and to keep them, we've made promises (I know, I know... two things you never do: allow feature-creep and promise features in the future). But don't judge - we did what we had to do to live another day!

Lately, the slog is just too much for me. My productivity is plummeting. I'm becoming irritable in and out of work. I'm probably a bit burned out.

I'm trying to decide which of three paths to take:

1) Stick it out, don't be a quitter, work harder, turn the business into what I want it to be.

2) Leave the business, find work as a developer for a larger company, grow, learn, etc. I like being a developer, but my business isn't going anywhere, so.. fail fast(er) and move on, right?

3) Leverage my entrepreneurial experience into a CTO role. I love the entrepreneurial aspect of my work, because businesses are systems, and making systems better is my jam. Maybe I should get an MBA and leave the coding behind me?

Advice welcome!

[PhilWright]

Sit down with your business partner and tell them what you are feeling. Indicate you are burnt out/bored with the current situation and scale of revenue. You need significant change to occur in the future to remain engaged in the work. Give them time to think about this, they might come up with a plan for making a big change that you can both then can implement. If not, then at least they had some heads up that you were ready to move on and will not feel they were blindsided with your leaving.

An MBA will not suddenly give you more ideas on strategy. It will help fill in gaps in your knowledge about other areas of business. But they rarely actually teach you how to come up with a better/superior strategy.

[WheelsAtLarge]

If you still like what you are doing and can cover all your expenses including savings then I would say continue.

But if it's a drag and you don't see it changing then it's time to try something else. Keep in mind that once you get a job you'll have to do what others want you to do. That can be hard for someone that has been his own boss for 8 years.

[RocketSyntax]

The values and strategy of company don't reflect you and you are't growing.

Can you guys take another round of funding to go in a new and exciting direction? Can you split out a new venture/ business unit semi-autonymously without that funding?

An MBA could help you identify new/ exciting opportunities, but they are a dime a dozen plus you have founder experience.

[qasimzafar]

I second this