[rlucas]

A meta-comment here: Beware the advice you might glean here. Often, surveying HN for the consensus provides a signal; more often, skimming the cream of the commentary provides a better signal. Here, a lot will be misleading, particularly to the kind of founder who would otherwise be inclined to seek some direction from HN commentary.

Here's my best try as an antidote:

Remember that as a technical founder, unlike almost any other kind of knowledge-worker, you have a non-zero chance of generating $1 B in equity value for yourself in every new company you start. But for a company to do so, it will require getting enormously lucky and getting you strapped in for years of extremely intense work along with your team (and likely, investors & board). You should never bail because of mere problems with product-market fit or current sales traction, because those things can change dramatically and swiftly. You should always bail if your faith in, and interest in working with, the people around you goes to zero. When you do bail, go graciously and negotiate some kind of spiff on the way out, but don't belabor it. Your mental energy is far, far better spent preparing for the next big thing, and you are getting the better end of the bargain, for you have now denuded yourself of the albatross of a team you won't succeed with.