Navigating the Crossroads: Should I Transition to Full-Time startup Work?

Making career choices can be daunting, especially when those decisions involve weighing the benefits and risks of embarking on a startup journey. Recently, I’ve found myself grappling with such a pivotal choice—whether to leave my current full-time role in management consulting to dedicate myself entirely to the startup I’ve been contributing to part-time for the past eight to nine months.

My Current Situation

At the moment, I hold a 10% equity stake in the company, with the rest divided between its two co-founders. Together, we’ve built a promising team, albeit not without challenges. Recently, both co-founders have opted to transition to full-time work—one is on paid garden leave for two years, while the other is planning to shift from paid leave to uncompensated work shortly. Despite my commitment of over 30 to 35 hours a week towards the startup on top of my full-time job, I feel a growing pressure to make a decisive move.

This dual commitment totals around 80 to 90 hours of work a week—a grueling schedule, especially amid a discouraging job market for consulting and tech roles. The thought of relying solely on the startup’s success is intimidating, particularly given the trajectory of our growth: while we recently celebrated hitting 380,000 monthly users—a staggering 10x increase from the previous month—we’ve also seen our revenue stagnate due to rising server costs and slow monetization efforts. Current ad implementations are yielding modest income, hovering around $2,000 to $3,000 per month.

Weighing the Risks and Rewards

The discussions about me going full-time have intensified, yet the leap feels risky especially when you consider that a significant portion of my financial stability hinges on my current position. The startup, being fully bootstrapped, raises concerns about the sustainability of my income, particularly in a city where the cost of living is high. Complicating matters further, there are conversations around reducing my equity stake if I maintain my consulting role or requiring more financial input from me to solidify my future ownership.

This leaves me in a conundrum. I am more than willing to invest the time and effort needed to excel, but stepping into a full-time role at the startup without an equivalent equity stake or sufficient financial runway seems precarious.

A Journey of Risk

As a new graduate with a year of experience under my belt, I recognize that my