I have been working on the side with my partner on an app since more than a year ago. I work a day job to pay off my student loans and lately, have been losing hope on the startup. At this point, I’m only in it because 1) of my co-founder and 2) I have already given it a year of my life. Everyday is a struggle to work on it. I joined my co-founder because I believed in the idea and thought it could be a hit.
Several iterations and several “pivots” later, we have still not launched the app. Pivoting too often and too much was a mistake. Even the current set of features of the app aren’t really good enough.
My personal life has taken a hit, I’m not able to give my 100% to my day job. My personal relationships have suffered tremendously, and there’s also a lot of “tech-debt” that has accumulated because of subpar quality of code by the freelancers. I’m just constantly fixing one bug after another and I have lost the energy because it hasnt been rewarding at all for me. I can’t even sell my positions and exit.
I’m trying to gain different perspectives here and trying to find out what people have done when they found themselves in a situation similar to mine
Does the current idea have any validation from potential customers?
The time you’ve spent is a sunk cost. Only keep at it if you see real upside. Good luck.
Seems like a in a sunken cost fallacy. If you don’t have any customers a year in walk away. That’s not how startups are supposed to work. Just learn from the lessons and move on.
When you start feeling not good about the work you doing, you should stop doing it. It’s the same with a startup. It’s hard as you are emotionally attached to things you are building, but anyhow, start looking big picture and use learned lessons as opportunities to be better on your next big thing.
At any time. Really, you’d want to go into a startup with multiple preplanned points where, after evaluation of your circumstances, you could bail with minimal costs/problems if you needed to, and be rapidly back at the point where you could start again.
We took 4 years part time before finding PMF. During that time the laughs with cofounders were the only thing keeping us going. If you’re enjoying it and making progress press on, if not might be time find something else.
> When is it okay to just quit?
If it’s a bootstrapped start up, whenver you want.
You’re not beholden to anyone but you and your cofounder, and if it’s not working out you have every right to quit.
Do you think the startup is going to succeed? If not pack it in or try something else.
Is it taking up more time/headspace than you are willing to spend on it? If so take a break or pack it in.
Do you think you will be disappointed in 5 years if you stop now?
Sometimes the lesser of two evils could be quitting if it’s taking too much away from personal life
You have pivoted several times and you haven’t launched yet? I’m a bit confused. Usually you pivot because of the market response, but it sounds like you havent even tested the waters. If that’s the case, I would at least launch and see the response before giving up. But then again, it the startup lifestyle is not for you then that’s okay to call it quit.
Launch your app. Now.
Honestly, if you haven’t launched then you can’t quit as you haven’t started yet. Get it in front of people and let them use it or not, and then tell you why it’s shit. Fix that and see if more people like it than before.
Don’t feel bad about it though, I’m exactly the same in that I take too long to launch and want it to be perfect. I know the right thing to do but I find it really hard to get past the perfectionism.
Anytime is an ok time to walk away.
But equally, some of the most ambitious, successful and inspiring founders I know thrive of constantly being knocked down and getting back up again.
The number one key characteristic of a successful founder is resilience. I’ll fight anyone who says different.
So I would frame it like this:
If you quit now, how would you feel about that in 10 years time?
Vs
If you kept going, tried your absolute hardest and then failed, how would you feel about that in 10 years time?
Keep the vision long term.
If you ever want to talk this through, HMU. Helping founders through hard times and time of doubt is part of what I do.
When youre done
My opinion, you should quit when you no longer believe the start up can succeed. It sounds like you may not believe the startup will succeed and because you feel like it’s not the best use of your time / your life is taking a hit … I would go where your heart tells you.
If sounds like you guys are still in the ideation phase, figuring out if three’s a “there there”.
I wouldn’t say this is a business failure per se if you move on, since you haven’t actually launched anything. Idk if that changes how you feel about it.
The sunk cost fallacy is real. Don’t let yourself feel trapped by it.
I would personally say table it for a little, get your personal life in order and let your brain process the startup process, then re-evaluate in a couple months. You sound like you’re spread too thin.