if you retired early from your primary career to start your own business, curious to hear your experience

[Anonymous]

PP here. Only you know your appetite for financial risk. Before quitting, write down what type of milestones you need to see and by when.

For example, when I quit a had some financial cushion (a couple of months of savings, plus some low stress part time consulting work to help with living expenses) which included being able to pay health insurance (thanks Obamacare!) I was also fairly certain I’d be able to get right back into my previous field if I needed. I was also in decent shape financially- no credit card debt, minimal student loan debt…

With all of those factored in , I committed to 1 year of trying this out, as well as not letting myself get below a certain threshold in my emergency savings. I also wrote down the traction I hoped to have with my idea - working prototype, first customer in, substantial progress on a seed capital round.

Then I had an accountability partner who would call me out on any BS if I shifted the goal posts (and why) during that year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Only you know your appetite for financial risk. Before quitting, write down what type of milestones you need to see and by when.

For example, when I quit a had some financial cushion (a couple of months of savings, plus some low stress part time consulting work to help with living expenses) which included being able to pay health insurance (thanks Obamacare!) I was also fairly certain I’d be able to get right back into my previous field if I needed. I was also in decent shape financially- no credit card debt, minimal student loan debt…

With all of those factored in , I committed to 1 year of trying this out, as well as not letting myself get below a certain threshold in my emergency savings. I also wrote down the traction I hoped to have with my idea - working prototype, first customer in, substantial progress on a seed capital round.

Then I had an accountability partner who would call me out on any BS if I shifted the goal posts (and why) during that year.

OP here. Thanks for these ideas. At what age did you put your plan in motion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 57 and have about $6M saved. No debts. One child, just starting high school. My spouse doesn't work.

I'm considering leaving my job to pursue an idea I've had for the last several years. This would involve the development of a web app that I have partially constructed, but which I have been unable to complete due to time constraints. With more time, I think I could finish development inside of 6 to 12 months and then begin to market it.

I'm aware that the odds are against me given that many new businesses fail -- so the prudent course of action is to stick with my current job.

If others have found themselves in a similar position and have decided to plunge into the unknown, I'm curious to hear a bit about your experience.

Try Anthropic's claude code. The AI should speed up your coding tremendously. It only costs $200/month. You can probably get your web site up in less than a month.

[Anonymous]

OP you should do it! Your app will almost certainly fail. Whatever the rate of small business failure is, 10x it for your app. We can all make and ship really good apps now in weeks. It's over.

But you should still do it, because you don't know where that failure will lead you until you go for it. Maybe nowhere!

Don't quit your dayjob to launch this app. Use Claude Code and redbull and get it out the door while you're working. Quit if it gets legs. Or quit on the 5th idea after this one, which might be the one that takes off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you should do it! Your app will almost certainly fail. Whatever the rate of small business failure is, 10x it for your app. We can all make and ship really good apps now in weeks. It's over.

But you should still do it, because you don't know where that failure will lead you until you go for it. Maybe nowhere!

Don't quit your dayjob to launch this app. Use Claude Code and redbull and get it out the door while you're working. Quit if it gets legs. Or quit on the 5th idea after this one, which might be the one that takes off.

Agreed. We are big believers in “if you take a big leap, you can only fail up”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you should do it! Your app will almost certainly fail. Whatever the rate of small business failure is, 10x it for your app. We can all make and ship really good apps now in weeks. It's over.

But you should still do it, because you don't know where that failure will lead you until you go for it. Maybe nowhere!

Don't quit your dayjob to launch this app. Use Claude Code and redbull and get it out the door while you're working. Quit if it gets legs. Or quit on the 5th idea after this one, which might be the one that takes off.

Agreed. We are big believers in “if you take a big leap, you can only fail up”

And that's worked out for you? How?